BLACK PREACHERS CREATED BY THE PEOPLE

"The black preacher, moreover, is the creation of the people. Even in a state of servile ignorance the people craved and sought for the spiritual leadership of their own kinsmen, and thus it came that the field-preacher was the fruit of the plantation religion of the slave era. "Since emancipation this demand has everywhere increased. When freedom came, the emancipated class, by one common impulse, rushed from the chapels of their masters,--deserted in multitudes the ministry of white preachers,--in search of a ministry of their own race. "In South Carolina, for instance, there were, previous to emancipation, not less than thirty colored chapels under white lay-readers and ministers. "When compulsory attendance fell to the ground, these chapels were left vacant, and now black attendants by hundreds may be found in Baptist and Methodist chapels, administered by black preachers." P.156, "Church Work Among Colored People." CIVILIZATION AND BLACK PROGRESS: THE SELECTED WRITINGS OF ALEXANDER CRUMMELL (1995)