Black prophets of justice : activist clergy before the Civil War /

An excellent model of historical scholarship concerning the activities and contributions of six black clergymen who served in the earliest black Presbyterian and Congregational churches: Samuel Cornish, Theodore Wright, Charles Ray, Henry Highland Garnet, Amos Beman, and James Pennington. Swift's comprehensive study fills a major gap in the literature on black religion, which has tended to focus largely on the contributions of the clergy and churches in the historical black denominations. Swift shows how each of the ministers combined their religious piety and ethics with a wide range of social protest, political organizing, and abolitionist activities. They founded early black newspapers such as Freedom's Journal and the Colored American, assisted fugitive slaves, organized black state conventions in New York and Connecticut, and made numerous stirring speeches of resistance to slavery and racial discrimination in churches and civil society. As black clergy in white denominations, they enjoyed some benefits of status and access to material resources but also suffered from racial practices and paternalism. Swift deals sensitively with the "rituals of degradation" that black clergy had to endure when they attended presbytery meetings, such as sleeping in the pews and going hungry for several days because they were not invited to lodge or dine in the homes of white church members. The study contains an extensive bibliography and several pages of photographs of the main figures. Highly readable, well written and researched; recommended for advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and specialists in the field. -L. H. Mamiya, Vassar College