THE INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE
                  A. M. E. CHURCH.

  Although  human  rights was  the direct cause of the
Revolutionary War, yet when the smoke of battle had cleared
away, the black man and his descendants were not included
in the political regeneration; yet deep down beneath the
ever changing tide of the colored population was Negro man-
hood, and the desire to strengthen and broaden it. There
was a strong demand for social leveling based on manhood
rights and religious liberty.  The advocates of education
placed the stability and salvation of the young republic upon
her school houses; for through them they claimed would
come the equality of opportunity.
  The old order of things was fast passing and new condi-
tions brought many changes. It was at this time our first
school was born; mighty forces were at work, indeed it was
a sacred time in the life of a young, aspiring denomination.
Like the lion of his native land, the Negro, who came into
the new world a captive, took upon himself a tremendous
task fraught with great responsibilities and far-reaching re-
sults.
  With the birth of the A. M. E. Church came the birth of
her schools. Her glorious achievements in the States and
territories and in foreign countries, her magnificent church
buildings and splendidly equipped schools and colleges, are
largely due to the development and extension of the first
feeble effort to educate, and the spirit to advance and to
succeed. Thus our fathers with matchless wisdom, in the
gray dawn of African Methodism, laid the foundation of
education for her children and left it for succeeding genera-
tions to rear the superstructure and complete the building
                       (465)




			

OHS/National Afro-American Museum & Cultural Center Serial Collection

African Methodist Episcopal Church Review, Vol. 28, Num. 1

Volume:  28
Issue Number:  01
Date:  07/1911