The A. M. E. Review



           REMINISCENCES OF THE PROCLAMATION OF
                      EMANCIPATION

          By Bishop H. M. Turner, D. D., D.C. L.

             WE ARE now upon the verge of the fiftieth anni-
             vereary, since  the Immortal  Abraham  Lincoln,
             then President of the United States, by the grace
             of God hurled against the institution of Ameri-
             can  slavery  the  thunderbolt  which  had  been
             smelted in the furnace of fair play, justice and
             eternal equity.
             Well do I remember the circumstances and
incidents connected with my surroundings and experience on that
occasion. I had, but a few years before the great Civil War began,
left South Carolina, the state of my nativity, with a young and
beautiful wife, and had gone to Baltimore to enter the Itinerant
Ministry of the A. M. E. Church, which Church I knew nothing about
till by chance I visited New Orleans in the fall of 1857, and was told
of its existence by that great man, Rev. Dr. Willis R. Revels, the
then pastor of the St. James A. M. E. Church, which providentially,
had found its way into that city. He was not through explaining
the condition, prospects, and the intention of this ecclesiastical body,
that I had never heard of before, till I arose from my seat and
offered him my hand and said, "I wish to join your Church." As
he extended his right hand I said, "This is only the commencement,
and you can put me through whatever crucible your church law
demands, as I was free born, and think I can stand the test." I drew
from my pocket my license as a Local Preacher in the M. E. Church
South, which he carefully read and said, "I will receive you again
before my whole congregation Sunday, day after tomorrow, which
he did in due form. The St. James Quarterly Conference recom-
mended me to the next session of the Annual Conference, which was
to meet in St. Louis, Mo., in August, 1858.
    When Conference met in St. Louis I was present, and was
admitted on probation after standing what I regarded a rigid exami-
                              211




			

African Methodist Episcopal Church Review, Vol. 29, Num. 3

Reminiscences of the Proclamation of Emancipation

M.

Volume:  29
Issue Number:  03
Page Number:  211
Date:  01/1913