In recognition of Black History Month, I’ve extracted this material from The Place Accorded of Old, my book on women in ministry. Some of our nation’s best known African Americans are preachers and pastors—Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rev. Al Sharpton, Rev. T. D. Jakes, and others. This woman was never allowed that lofty title, but her ministry was powerful.
Amanda Berry Smith (1837-1915) was an effective African American evangelist during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Indeed, after ministering on four continents, she would surely be considered an effective evangelist whether black or white, male or female.
Amanda was born as a slave in Maryland, but her father was able to buy the family’s freedom while Amanda was still a child. Amanda’s mother and grandmother were ardent believers and, despite their status as slaves, they boldly witnessed to their master’s children, especially his young daughter. Amanda recalled how her mother told about encouraging the “young mistress” to give attention to her soul. Their appeals were so effective the girl announced she wished to go to “the colored people’s church.” Her parents, of course, refused and even insisted she have no more contact with the two servants, but the young woman conspired to secretly meet with the older women for prayer.
Despite living with her own “Lois and Eunice,” Amanda was not converted until she was almost twenty. It was March 1856; she was now married and working as a washwoman. Apparently, she had been in spiritual distress for some time, seeking peace only to have it elude her. She tells the story in her autobiography.
I was sitting in the kitchen by my ironing table, thinking it all over. The Devil seemed to say to me (I know now it was he), ‘You have prayed to be converted.’
I said, ‘Yes.’
“You have been sincere.”
“Yes.”
“You have been in earnest.”
“Yes.”
“You have read your Bible, and you have fasted, and you really want to be converted.” [Despite having little formal education Amanda could read.]
“Yes, Lord. Thou knowest it; Thou knowest my heart, I really want to be converted.”
The Satan said, “Well, if God were going to convert you He would have done it long ago; He does his work quick, and with all your sincerity God had not converted you.”
“Yes that is so.”
“You might as well give it up, then” he said, “it is no use, He won’t hear you.”
Amanda reluctantly agrees and supposes she will be “damned.” But she seemed to hear a voice whispering, “Pray once more.” She decided to pray one more time despite seeming to hear another voice saying, “Don’t you do it.” She responded defiantly, “Yes, I will.”
And when I said, “Yes, I will,” it seemed to me the emphasis was on the will,” and I felt it from the crown of my head clear through me, “I WILL,” and I got on my feet and said, “I will pray once more, and it there is any such thing as salvation, I am determined to have it this afternoon or die.”
She put bread and butter on the table; knowing the young daughter of the house could finish dinner if she were still praying or they had found her dead. She went to the cellar to pray. She began to pray earnestly, continuing to seek salvation. Finally,
…somehow I seemed to get to the end of everything. I did not know what else to say or do. Then in my desperation I looked up and said, “O, Lord, if Thou wilt help me I will believe Thee,” and in that act of telling God that I would, I did. O, the peace and joy that flooded my soul! The burden rolled away; I felt it when it left me, and a flood of light and joy swept through my soul such as I had never known before.
Thus, began a pilgrimage that would involve her ministering on four continents as an evangelist. Her story recalls how in eighteenth-century America men and women never expected conversion to either quick or easy. Most believed the transformation only came after a struggle.
Amanda had married Calvin Devine in 1854. Devine was only a nominal Christian, claiming faith only “for his mother’s sake.” In Amanda’s words, “He could talk on the subject of religion very sensibly at times; but when strong drink would get the better of him, which I am very sorry to say was quite often, then be was very profane and unreasonable.” She had not known he was a heavy drinker; if she had, she might not have married him. This experience may have fired her interest in the temperance cause along with the holiness message in her ministry. Eventually, the couple separated. Devine was killed in the Civil War fighting for the Union side. Amanda moved to Philadelphia where she married James Smith, a deacon at the Bethel African Methodist Church. Sometime after marrying Smith, the couple moved to New York City. There, Amanda began attending Phoebe Palmer’s Tuesday Meetings.
According to Bettye Collier-Thomas, James Smith, despite being a deacon, was an abusive husband. Amanda sought counsel from a woman who advised her to seek God for “enduring grace,” apparently a God-given capacity to graciously accept her situation. This grace, Amanda concluded, would be the product of sanctification.
The experience came in September 1868 when she visited the predominately white Green Street Methodist Episcopal Church and heard John Inskip preach on the possibility of “instantaneous sanctification.” She received the experience and began to pray for James Smith to receive it as well; nothing suggests he ever did.
James Smith died in November 1869; a short while after Amanda’s only remaining child at home had died. The next year she began an itinerant ministry as an evangelist and holiness teacher. At first, she spoke primarily to black congregations, and then in the early 1870s she began to speak to crowds of both blacks and whites.
A brief chronology will summarize her busy career.
1870—Preaching at camp meetings. Some of her most vocal opponents were African American ministers who opposed “women preachers.” Support from some prominent ministers helped curtail these criticisms. During these years her reputation grew and she made several influential friends among the Methodists.
1878—She traveled to England to preach. She was well received and would eventually preach in Scotland and Ireland.
1879—She felt called to go to India to serve as a missionary. She worked in Calcutta with Methodist missionaries there, though she considered herself an independent or “faith” missionary.
1881—She returned to England to preach.
1882—She went from England to work with missionaries in Liberia.
1890—Amanda returned to the United States where she continued her evangelistic ministry before settling near Chicago. She established The Amanda Smith Orphanage and Industrial Home for Abandoned and Destitute Colored Children; the home was closed in 1917 following a tragic fire. She occasionally appeared with noted “feminists” of the period in support of women’s rights.
1912—She retired to Florida where she lived in a home bought by her admirers.
1915—Amanda Smith passed away.
Bishop James Thoburn (1836-1922), a proponent of women in ministry, wrote the introduction to Amanda’s Autobiography, published in 1893. In it, Thoburn tells a story illustrating how Smith could inspire respect from even the most unlikely persons. He received a letter from “a well known theatrical manager, much given to popular buffoonery.” He asked the bishop to arrange for Amanda to speak at his theatre on a Sunday night. Thoburn was immediately suspicious, as were others when they heard.
"Do not go, Sister Amanda," said several, "the man merely wishes to have a good opportunity of seeing you, so that he can take you off in his theatre. He has no good purpose in view. Do not trust yourself to him under any circumstances."
After a moment's hesitation Mrs. Smith replied in language which I shall never forget:
"I am forbidden," she said, "to judge any man. You would not wish me to judge you, and would think it wrong if any of us should judge a brother or sister in the church. What right have I to judge this man? I have no more right to judge him than if he were a Christian."
She said she would pray over it and give her decision.
Smith decided to accept the invitation and when the evening came, the theatre was packed.
She spoke simply and pointedly, alluding to the kindness of the manager who had opened the doors of his theatre to her, in very courteous terms, and evidently made a deep and favorable impression upon the audience. There was no laughing, and no attempt was ever made subsequently to ridicule her. As she was walking off the stage the manager said to me; "If you want the theatre for her again do not fail to let me know. I would do anything for that inspired woman."
Bishop William Taylor (1821-1902), Methodist bishop for Africa, sent a letter of introduction to James Payne, the former president of Liberia. (Liberia, a nation of the west coast of Africa, was created as a home for former slaves. Between 1820, nearly 20,000 freed slaves from the US and the Caribbean settled there. Since English was the official language, Smith could easily communicate when she spoke to assemblies and when she ministered to individuals.) In his letter, Taylor praised Smith’s ministry
MY DEAR BROTHER: This will introduce to your acquaintance our beloved sister, Mrs. Amanda Smith. As you may know, Sister Amanda is one of the most remarkable evangelists of these eventful days in which we live. She is a member of our church, and well accredited, and everywhere owned of God in America, England and India, as a marvelous, soul-saving worker for the Lord Jesus.
I heard you pleading for Liberia at our recent general Conference. Your prayer will be answered in a great revival of God's work in Liberia, through the agency of Sister Amanda, with the working concurrence of your churches.
I am sure you will do all you can to open her way. God bless you all. Amen.
Your brother in Jesus,
WILLIAM TAYLOR.
Thoburn and Taylor were gifted and perceptive men who could recognize a gifted and perceptive woman.
Smith’s ministry in Liberia lasted several years and she became an astute observer (and, sometimes, critic) of the new nation. She hoped the nation would be a place of opportunity where black leaders could develop; yet she almost immediately recognized there was, among the former slaves, a caste system that divided rich and poor, contrary to what the American Colonization Society seemed to believe. She implies the Society did not properly prepare those planning to move to Liberia and that it did not adequately fund the nation’s schools. She worried that there was no hospital. She may have been guilty of bias in assessing the missionary situation. She wrote, “There is one thing that the Methodist Church in America is ahead on, and that is, there is more of a spirit of real consecration for missionary work among the Christian women in America than I found in England.” Still she acknowledged the warm welcome she received from most in the country, though she admitted there were likely some who resented her presence—a dual reality most missionaries of every age have experienced.
Smith never sought ordination from her denomination; such human recognition did not matter to her. She wrote that God “… knew that the thought of ordination had never once entered my mind, for I had received my ordination from Him.” Soon after she had begun itinerating, Smith attended the AME conference in Nashville knowing some of the male pastors suspected she would attempt to be ordained. She heard some declare their intention to “fight” the ordination of women. She comforted herself with the knowledge God had chosen her and had promised to make her ministry fruitful.
Decades later, after seeing that promise fulfilled in nations she likely never imagined visiting, she remained satisfied with her ordination at God’s hand but noticed that the attitude of male ministers was changing.
But how they have advanced since then [the Nashville meeting]. Most of them believe in the ordination of women, and I believe some [women] have been ordained. But I am satisfied with the ordination that the Lord has given me. Praise His name!
In reading how, at the end of her career, Amanda Smith remained satisfied with this “unofficial” ordination, some male opponents of women in ministry might ask, “Why aren’t women satisfied with that today?” Certainly, the proper response is, “Would you be?”
Note: Documentation may be found in The Place Accorded of Old.
