J[abez] P[itt] Campbell to Frederick Douglass, August 27, 1856

POSITION OF THE AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH UPON THE SUBJECT OF SLAVERY.

PHILADELPHIA, August 27, 1856.

MR. EDITOR:—In the 35th number of your true and faithful journal, upon the subject of Human Rights, published August 15th, 1856, we have seen an article over the signature of "Henry Williams, Jr.," entitled "African Methodist Episcopal Church." The writer of the article in question makes the following inquiry: "Stands the M. E. Church, or the A. M. E. Church, to-day, touching Slavery, where John Wesley, their illustrious founder and predecessor, stood?" As we have been called upon by the writer so to do, we answer most cheerfully for the African Methodist Episcopal Church, that she does, to-day, stand just where John Wesley stood upon the subject of Sla-very. This we speak relative to all of its moral and religious aspects. Like all other churches, with all the varied organizations of men in civil society, the position of the A. M. E. Church, upon any subject of inquiry in Christian ethics, or doctrine, must be learned from her own sayings and doings, found in her authorized books and other publications, and the interpretations given to these by the preaching and practice of the major part of her ministers and members. Following this rule we proceed to state the true position of the African Methodist Episcopal Church upon Slavery.

In 1816, the year of the organization of the Church, she assumed the following position in in her Book of Discipline, viz,: Among the conditions previously required of those who desired admission into this Church was this one—"Doing no harm, avoiding evil of every kind, especially that which is the most generally practised, such as the buying of men, women and children, with an intention to enslave them."

Again, "We will not receive any person into our Society, as a member, who is a slaveholder, and any that are now members that have slaves and refuse to emancipate them, after due notice being given by the preacher in charge, he shall be excluded."

Thus spake the Discipline of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1816, forty years ago; and several years before the commencement of the modern Anti-Slavery movement, to which this very Church gave birth. This

position, as a church, she continued to hold with improvements until 1856. In this year light having been increased upon the dark subject of Slavery, since the days of Wesley, and the immortal Richard Allen, the father and founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, she ascended, if possible, a step higher upon the scale of mental and moral elevation. The condition of membership relative to Slavery now is: "They shall do no harm by the buying and selling of men, women, and children, except with an intention to free them immediately, and if he or they do not immediately emancipate them, he or they shall be immediately expelled." Again—"We will not receive any person into our Society as a member who is a slaveholder, and any that are now members, that have slaves and refuse to emancipate them shall be excluded."

In those two sentences we have the position of the A. M. E. Church, set forth in her Book of Discipline, by order of the General Conference, in 1856.

The above stated sentiments and rules of conduct have governed the preaching and practice of the members of this Church for the full period of forty years.

The A. M. E. Church is an Anti-Slavery Church, both in precept and practice. We deny the charge that there are voluntary slaveholders in the Church. It may be that there might be found a few females that are members of the church, whose husbands are actual slaveholders; over whose property the wife has no control whatever—he being in some, if not in all cases her own white master, who is no member of our Church, and who never can become a member while he is a slaveholder. We say that such a case as this, although we are not personally aware of the fact, might possibly be found. Now, suppose we had a case like the one described. Suppose Mrs. A. is a member of the A. M. E. Church. She is the wife of B., who is not a member of the A. M. E. Church. The husband of Mrs. A. is an actual slaveholder, and has slaves, over which she has no kind of legal control whatever, and no persuasion of Mrs. A. will induce Mr. B. to make free his slaves. Let us ask our friend, the author of the article upon the A. M. E. Church, what ought this Church to do with Mrs. A.? Ought she to be excluded from the Church, or to be prevented from joining it because her unconverted husband is a wicked slaveholder, and will not emancipate his slaves? Ought your

daughter to be kept out of Church, because her husband is a horse thief, and a gambler, or a robber? We are not aware that such a case, as we have described, exists in the Church. But we have asked for the judgment of your correspondent, that we may be prepared to act consistent with the laws of God and humanity, when a case occurs, if that should ever take place. The Christian Herald, an organ of the Church for a period of four years, was an Anti-Slavery paper, The Christian Recorder has been in existence four years, and claims until this hour, to be an Anti-Slavery paper.

As a Church, we have no sympathy with slaveholders. Slavery was the occasion of the formation of our Body. What but the oppression arising from Slavery, and a design to better the condition of the slave, gave existence, birth and subsequent growth to the idea of the formation of the A. M. E. Church? Nothing else under heaven!!!

The sons of the Church are aware of the fact, and are now, as ever, acting, in their several ways, under the influence of that first idea.—We will never abandon the idea of a separate Church organization until Slavery is abolished.

We have long since ascertained that in some of the wicked slaveholding States of this Union, Slavery may exist in law while it does not, in fact, with some who sustain the relation of master and slave. A man might be a free man and marry a slave woman, by whom he be-comes a father of children. If he purchases the wife and children they become slaves in law, while they may not be slaves in fact; for in some of the States it is unlawful for a man to manumit his slaves, and if he does, they are liable to be taken and sold into perpetual bondage. This we have frequently heard from our youth up. Ties of affection have induced men both to purchase them and remain in the State after such purchase, holding their family, and often their friends, slaves in law, but not in fact. But weak and lowly as is this kind of Slavery in law but not in fact, as a church and people we are afraid to admit it into meeting under any circumstances whatever. There is no compromise between the A. M. E. Church and Slavery. No, not even the semblance of a compromise. She has no proviso by which the hateful monster can receive or maintain its existence within her border.

Perhaps, it has been thought and said, that because we have an organic existence in some

of the slaveholding States, that, therefore, we must be silent upon the subject of Slavery.—No such thing! Before we will, as a people, submit to the slave power, so far as to let them come in and have a quiet resting place among us as members of the Church, we will withdraw from that field of labor; but while ever it remains, that we can go there and do good with-out doing evil, and without admitting slaveholders into our communion, we will occupy the field, as did Jesus and the Apostles, relative to the same subject in their day. We unqualifiedly deny the charge of having slaveholding members in the Church, who are known to the Church as being the owners themselves of slaves, over which they have and exercise legal control. We can never admit this to be true until the facts are produced. And we claim that those who make the assertion ought in justice to the cause of God and humanity to produce the facts in the case. If the A. M. E. Church has actual slaveholders in her communion, they are there contrary to our law, faith and practice, and they who are in possession of the certain knowledge of such violation of her laws would do the Church and the world a favor by letting it to be known to her ministers and members, and to the community. Of all the Churches in the United States of America, the African Methodist Episcopal Church ought to be the most free from the evils of Slavery, and this is the claim that she sets up before the world.

There are different views among her ministers and members, as to what is the best mode of carrying out into practice our Anti-Slavery sentiments; but there is no discoverable difference among them, as to the wickedness of the theory and practice of Slavery, and its exceeding un-worthiness and unfitness to be baptised under any of its varied faces with the name of Christian.

And now we call upon the writer of that article to give to us, and to the whole Christian and civilized world, the facts by which he sustains the following statements, viz.: 1st, That the main body of the men who composed the General Conference of the A. M. E. Church, held at Cincinnati, in last May, were pro-slavery men to the core. 2d, That the A. M. E. Church is a pro-slavery Church in composition, in practice, and in discipline. 3rd, That she is composed of slaveholding with non-slaveholding members. 4th, That she fellowships men and women, that buy, whip, and sell the express

image of God. 5th, That she has colored slaveholders, who are so in both law and fact, with her knowledge of the fact. 6th, That Slaveholders are admitted as members freely, and more freely than non-slaveholders, into the Church as members. And 7th, That the said A. M. E. Church receives within its coffers the known avails of Slavery, to assist in Christianizing and evangelizing.

The above stated propositions are a summary of the principle part of the statements made by the writer against the A. M. E. Church. Each and every one of which taken individually or collectively we deny; and call upon the writer to prove them if he has any regard for truth, justice, God and humanity, and if he has any good character at all to maintain. Some men are wholly destitute of good character, and have no regard for truth and justice, but they pretend to be the friends of the slave and of humanity. We are willing to hope that your correspondent is not one of that number; and shall await a reply, until which time, we claim for the A. M. E. Church, that she is a purely Anti-Slavery Body, in all her parts and composition.

J. P. CAMPBELL.