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I... ......4 ......4....4 .274... 4 :4._¢.....r..7....7.. .71.; 7 ... .4... :_7.......44 .......,..... 5........41,.. .44......Iv. 7.7.42.4 4 . .4....4. 4 4 47 4....4...7. .... 444.... . 77.4.1.4...4. .4 . ...7. ,4... ..44..__.....:4.4_. 3...... ..7.... 4.47.41.17.4va4u..- ... 41.4,.4... 4.. 7.....ur... ..7....7.7.,4..4, $.37. 47.... 4 ....4..7..4 777.774 l 7.7 444. mm LIBRARY Michigan State University This is to certify that the thesis entitled THE CHRISTIAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, WITH EMPHASIS ON NEGROES IN TEXAS, 1870 to 1970: A STUDY IN HISTORICAL—CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY presented by Charles Edward Tatum has been accepted towards fulfillment of the requirements for Ph.D. degeeinGeography Major professor Date May 28I 1971 0-7639 lW S” ABSTRACT THE CHRISTIAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, WITH EMPHASIS ON NEGROES IN TEXAS, 1870 TO 1970: A STUDY IN HISTORICAL-CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY BY Charles Edward Tatum This investigation and analysis of the events and circumstances which precipitated the organization and the spread of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church in America from 1870 to 1970 is a study in the geography of religion. A brief review of the complex history of the church was necessary to set the stage for the role of the church as a religious and social institution in American society and the place of such a study in cultural geography. The church has played a significant role in the evolution of the culture of the Afro—American. This study of the CME Church reveals information about the culture, mobility and impact of the Negro in various parts of the United States. Circuit riders, the itinerancy system, CME col- leges, and publications were used in the diffusion of the church and are continually serving to expand the church. The objective of the study was to describe and ex— plain the origin and the diffusion of the CME Church as a cultural entity in America with emphasis on the Texas case. Therefore the problem was threefold: (l) the historical development, (2) the theoretical process, and (3) the general processes by which the movement became Charles Edward Tatum institutionalized. It is hypothesized that there is a close correlation between the spread of the Negro in America and the diffusion of the CME Church. The following statements guided the evaluation of this hypothesis: (1) the American black man's culture and his mobile history are related to the evolution of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church; (2) as the black population of a region increases, the CME Church population will increase; (3) CME parishioners will increase as the socio-economic status of an area decreases, and (4) a relationship exists between the migration of blacks from rural to urban centers and within urban centers and the distribution of CME Church membership in Texas. The research revealed the following conclusions: (1) That the Methodist Church from its beginning expressed an interest in the slaves and its growth was in part related to the spread of slavery; (2) the enslavement of the Negro was the most significant factor in his historical and cul- tural existence in America; (3) an interrelationship of the physical and cultural factors revealed a basis for the evolvement of the CME Church; (4) decisions by the CME Church strongly influenced the local organizational struc— ture of church congregations; (5) the strategies used by the leaders of the CME Church revealed the character of the institution as an ethnicized, Southern church, whose parishioners were predominantly poor, rural, and uneducated and were largely associated with the cotton culture; Charles Edward Tatum (6) a mixture of African and Anglo-Saxon cultures has brought adaptations that were rooted in the Negro's indigeneous culture and his introduction to Western Christianity; (7) the black man's culture and his mobility continued to aid in the sustenance and the diffusion of this religious social system; (8) the socio-economic conditions of Afro- Texans indicated that "Colored Methodism" has continued to appeal to those in the lowest socio-economic level (how— ever the CME Church is becoming increasingly middle class in composition and outlook); (9) efforts are being made by CME congregations for answering the needs of the ghetto through day care centers, low rent housing projects, and special education programs for minority children and thus fosters continuation of CME churches in poor areas of cities; (10) migrations from rural to urban centers were the primary focus for the spatial distribution of the church as indicated by Houston and Dallas; (11) after 100 years on the American landscape, the church remains primarily rural and Southern, and (12) it was for the best interest of the Negro that he was separated from the Methodist Episcopal Church, South after emancipation. The CME Church has been diffused from its "culture home" in Tennessee to the Mississippi delta, Georgia and Alabama and to the urban complexes of the Middle West and the Eastern seaboard. From the Louisiana swamplands, the East Texas piney woods and the Red River Valley, it spread to the urban centers of the Western seaboard. It has also Charles Edward Tatum diffused from the Eastern seaboard to the coast of West Africa. The church has become institutionalized as an ec- clesiastical organization on the American landscape and seems to contain all the elements of permanence and broader development. The analysis of the spatial impact of the CME Church is an example of the value of the geography of religion as a field study. THE CHRISTIAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, WITH EMPHASIS ON NEGROES IN TEXAS, 1870 TO 1970: A STUDY IN HISTORICAL-CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY BY Charles Edward Tatum A THESIS Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Geography 1971 67/937 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS An interest was directed toward this study after attending many Annual Conferences of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church; thus the author realized a need for an understanding of the cultural roots from whence this organization originated, and its impact on the cultural landscape of America's rural and urban areas. This study represents the efforts of many people other than the author. Much appreciation is happily exten- ded to Dr. Lawrence M. Sommers of Michigan State University, the principal advisor of this study, for his time and patience in guiding these efforts. He has guided this study from its inception, spending many hours in conference with me, criticizing and making suggestions that were sincerely needed. To Dr. Sommers, the writer owes a profound debt of gratitude. To Dr. Stanley Brunn, Dr. Daniel Jacobson and Dr. James 0. Wheeler, for their encouragement, assistance and valuable suggestions, the writer is deeply grateful. All of these men gave freely of their valuable time and were very generous in adjusting their busy schedules on numerous occasions. I also wish to express thanks to Mrs. Phyllis Groenewoud for her patience in typing and Mr. Sherman Hollander for the cartographic preparations. ii The investigation of the materials upon which the study is based necessitated extensive travel in Texas and other parts of the South. Many thanks are expressed to the Commission on Geography and Afro-America and the As- sociation of American Geographers for their financial assistance in this endeavor. Numerous interviews were conducted with Dr. John M. Exum, Dr. M. C. Pettigrew, Dr. 0. T. Peeples, Mrs. Sadie Edwards, Dr. C. D. Coleman and others at the CME Publishing House in Memphis, Tennessee. Letters, encouragement notes, and articles were shared by Bishops Norris S. Curry and H. C. Bunton, Mrs. Lula Dones Jackson, and others. The writer extends expressions of personal gratitude to the scores of church members who extended to him hospitality, courtesy and hours of time. They were as eager to tell the writer about their church as he was to learn. This study is affectionately dedicated to my wife, Velma, and my baby son, Yoshida Charles, who have patiently understood; to my mother, Mrs. Christine McClelland and dad, Mr. Henry E. Tatum who continually gave encouragement; to my aunt, Mrs. Annie B. Hearne and finally my former teachers Mrs. Donnie L. Boothe Hawkins and Miss Mody Nobles who continued to send monthly notes of encouragement in this endeavor. It is impossible to list by name all of those who have in one way or another contributed to this work, whether by assisting in the preparation of the manuscript, or by deepening his knowledge and understanding of the cultural geography of the CME Church. To all, he remains enormously indebted. Charles Edward Tatum Michigan State University May, 1971 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . LIST OF LIST OF Chapter I. II. III. TABLES O O O O O O O O O O O O C O O O O O O O FIGURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Theoretical Base . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Related Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . Significance of the Study . . . . . . . . . . THE EVOLUTION OF THE CHRISTIAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN AMERICA . . . . . . . . . The Methodist Church in England . . . . . . . The Methodist Church in America . . . . . . . Schism Over Slavery . . . . . . . . . The Beginnings of the AME and AMEZ Churches . Evolution of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . THE DIFFUSION OF THE CHRISTIAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN AMERICA . . . . . . . . . The Physical and Cultural Setting of the South The Beginnings of the CME Church: Jackson, Tennessee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Spatial Organization of the New Church . . The Diffusion of the Church . . . . . . . . . Diffusion Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . Periods of Diffusion . . . . . . . . . . . . The Present Status of the Jurisdictional Districts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ii vii ix |—J 4.2.00qu l7 19 20 27 29 38 4O 42 46 52 60 75 Chapter IV. VI. THE CHRISTIAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN RURAL TEXAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Physical and Cultural Setting . . . . . . Migration and Settlement . . . . . . . . . The Diffusion of the CME Church in Texas-—With Emphasis on Rural and Small Town Churches . Diffusion Periods . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Five Annual Conferences . . . . . . . . . The Rural Church . . . . . . . . . . . Universe--A Rural CME Community . . . . . . The Small Town Church—-Center, Texas . . . . . THE CHRISTIAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN URBAN TEXAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Afro—Americans and Urbanization in Texas . . . The Church in Urban Texas . . . . . . Dallas— Ft. Worth——An Urban Conference . . . Houston~—The Special Example . . . . . . . . Texas College . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS . . . . . . . . . . . BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 84 92 100 106 113 116 118 121 129 129 131 137 142 152 160 166 Table 1. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. LIST OF TABLES Page Missions to the Slaves, Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 1829—1860 . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Unofficial Establishment of CME Churches Prior to 1870 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Increase in CME Membership in the South, 1895- 1920 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Negro Population by Decades, 1870—1900 . . . . 69 CME Church Membership Increases by States: 1920- -l945 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 CME Church Membership Increases by States: 1945—1970 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Negro Migration: 1950-1960 . . . . . . . . . . 74 Number of CME Churches in Kentucky and Ohio . . 77 Number of Churches in the Seventh District . . 77 Cotton Production and the Slave Population in East Texas: 1850-1860 . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 Texas Slave Population, 1834-1860 . . . . . . . 98 Annual Conferences of the Eighth Episcopal Dis- trict of Texas, Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, 1970 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Occupational Distribution of Employed Nonwhites in Texas, 1960 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 A Classification of City Churches . . . . . . . 135 Number and Per Cent of Negro Population in Texas, 1850—1960, and Projections for 1970 . . . . . . 139 Growth of the Dallas Negro Population, 1900— l967 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 Table 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. Christian Methodist Episcopal Churches in Dallas and Fort Worth, 1970 . . . . . . . . . . Growth of the Houston Negro Population, 1900- 1954 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Culture Area Origin of the BeBee Tabernacle CME Church Membership, 1970 . . . . . . . . . . BeBee Tabernacle CME Church Membership Origi- nating in Another State, 1970 . . . . . . . . . Occupational Status of BeBee Tabernacle CME Church Communicants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Religious Preferences of Texas College Students viii Page 143 148 148 149 154 Figure 1. 12. 13. 14. LIST OF FIGURES (a) Adoption Period Model for the CME Innovation; (b) Administrative Hierarchy of the CME Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nine Jurisdictional Districts of the CME Church in America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (a) CME Church Supported Institutions of Higher Learning; (b) Charter Conferences of the Proposed CME Church, 1866-1870 . . . . . CME Churches and Members in the United States (a) 1870-1895; (b) 1895-1920; (c) 1920-1945; (d) 1945—1970 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . United States Black Population, (a) 1890; (b) 1920; (c) 1940; (d) 1970 . . . . . . . . Diffusion of the CME Church to Africa, 1970 . The Developmental and Diffusion Model of the CME Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Culture Areas of Texas, 1960 . . . . . . . . Texas Location Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . East Texas Conference, 1870 . . . . . . . . . Texas CME Communicants, (a) 1870-1895; (b) 1895—1920; (c) 1920-1945; (d) 1945—1970 Mt. Zion CME Church, (a) 1959 and (b) 1970-- Center, Texas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Influence of Center, Texas CME Church Members Poverty Areas in Houston and Location of CME Churches in Houston . . . . . . . . . . . ix Page 39 47 57 63 64 79 83 87 96 102 108 125 126 144 Figure 1. 12. 13. 14. LIST OF FIGURES (a) Adoption Period Model for the CME Innovation; (b) Administrative Hierarchy of the CME Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nine Jurisdictional Districts of the CME Church in America . . . . . . . . . . . . . (a) CME Church Supported Institutions of Higher Learning; (b) Charter Conferences of the Proposed CME Church, 1866-1870 . . . . CME Churches and Members in the United States (a) 1870-1895; (b) 1895-1920; (c) 1920-1945; (d) 1945—1970 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . United States Black Population, (a) 1890; (b) 1920; (c) 1940; (d) 1970 . . . . . . . . Diffusion of the CME Church to Africa, 1970 . The Developmental and Diffusion Model of the CME Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Culture Areas of Texas, 1960 . . . . . . . . Texas Location Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . East Texas Conference, 1870 . . . . . . . . . Texas CME Communicants, (a) 1870—1895; (b) 1895-1920; (c) 1920—1945; (d) 1945-1970 Mt. Zion CME Church, (a) 1959 and (b) 1970-- Center, Texas .'. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Influence of Center, Texas CME Church Members Poverty Areas in Houston and Location of CME Churches in Houston . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix Page 39 47 57 63 64 79 83 87 96 102 108 125 144 Figure Page 15. Place of Residence of In-State Students, Texas College, 1970 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 16. Out-of-State Students, Texas College, 1970 . . 156 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION THEORETICAL BASE Religious phenomena play important although spatially varying roles in the make—up of the earth's surface. The geography of religion, a portion of cultural geography, is concerned with investigating and analyzing the relation between religion and the earth space in which it occurs. There is a mutual relationship between religion and man's environment. The environment, both the people and the landscape, shapes a religious form; the religious form in turn affects the people and the landscape.1 The fundamental tasks of the geography of religion are to investigate the causality of a religious form and its relationships with the people and the landscape of given areas. Cultural history, comparative religion and cultural geography have shaped the contemporary geography of religion. This study involves the part played by a 1Paul Fickeler, "Fundamental Questions in the Geography of Religions," in Readings in Cultural Geography, ed. by Philip L. Wagner and Marvin W. Mikesell (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962), p. 94. specific religion in the development of a cultural land- scape. Within the broad subject of the geography of religion in the United States, the focus will be on a black2 protestant church. The significance of the black church in American culture cannot be overestimated. The church was the means by which thousands of slaves and ex- slaves found meaning in life, developed character, began economic enterprises, embraced basic educational tenets, fostered institutions of learning, developed indigeneous leadership, and practiced basic forms of self-government.3 In his monumental study of Negroes in America, Gunnar Myrdal envisions the black church as: "A giver of hope, as an emotional cathartic, as a center of community acti- vity, as a source of leadership, and as a provider of "4 respectability. In post-slavery years the church repre- sented for many black Americans the only organized social 5 existence outside the family. Even today it is an 2The terms "Negro," "black," "Afro-American," "Colored," "Afro—Texan," and "non—white" are used inter— changeably in this study. 3Othal Hawthorne Lakey," The Rise of 'Colored Methodism‘: A Study of the Background and the Beginnings of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church through 1874," M.S.T. Thesis, Southern Methodist University, 1969, p. l. 4Gunnar Myrdal, An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy (New York: Harper and Row, Publishers, 1944), p. 867. 5E. Franklin Frazier, The Negro Church in America (New York: Schoken Books, 1963), p. 44. expression of the Negro community itself. Therefore, a meaningful understanding of this community requires know- ledge and appreciation of the extreme importance of the black church.6 The existence of the black church means the crea- tion of and persistence of a racially definable religious institution. Its existence is a geographical phenomenon and represents the institutionalization of the religion which had been transmitted to African slaves in the ante- bellum era but was given structure and form amid the reli— gious, political, social and economic milieu of the Reconstruction period. When the slaves became free, they found it both desirable and necessary to take on domination, direction, and absolute control of their religion from white slave masters, circuit riders and ecclesiastical leaders.7 Consequently, the institutionalization of Negro religion resulted in the establishment of several distinct black denominations, most of which were totally independent. To understand the persistence of black ecclesiastical en— tities, it is necessary to understand how and why they came into being. One must consider the roots and the conditions which gave them shape. This study will concentrate on one such denomination: the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. 6Lakey, op. cit., p. 3. 7Ibid. The Christian Methodist Episcopal Church8 is a predominantly black church which originated in the context of slavery, the ravages of the Civil War, and the problems of Reconstruction. It was organized in December, 1870 as the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in America (the name was changed to Christian Methodist Episcopal Church in May, 1954). At its inception, the CME Church consisted of freed men who had been members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and who had remained in that church following the Emancipation Proclamation.9 The early history of the CME Church reflects intra- racial conflicts with other independent black religious social systems. It conflicted with the diffusive forces of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, as well as the Methodist Episcopal Church, North. Today the CME Church is concentrated in eastern Texas, northern Louisiana, eastern Arkansas, western 8The following abbreviations will be used through- out this study: CME Church--Christian Methodist Episcopal Church; AME Church--African Methodist Episcopal Church; AMEZ Church--African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church; ME Church, South—-Methodist Episcopal Church, South; and ME Church, North——Methodist Episcopal Church, North. It should be noted that ME Church, North is used for clarity rather than its regular name Methodist Episcopal Church. This helps to differentiate between the ME Church, South and the Northern branch of the Methodist Episcopal Church. At the present time the Northern and Southern branches have united to form the United Methodist Church. 9Lakey, op. cit., p. 4. Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, northern Florida, Georgia, western Kentucky, the large urban centers of the Middle West, and the Eastern seaboard. There are increasing con- centrations in the urban centers of the western United States. Because of the significance of the black church, and particularly the role of the CME Church in the cultural geography of Afro—Americans, this writer will research the problem of the spatial impact of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church in America from 1870 to 1970——with empha- sis on the Texas example. THE PROBLEM The major purpose of this study is to provide a documented interpretive approach, within a cultural geography framework, of the events and circumstances which precipi- tated the organization and spread of the CME Church in America from December 1870 to the present. Emphasis will be placed on the impact of the diffusion of the church from its "culture home" in Jackson, Tennessee to various regions on the American landscape, including Texas which will be used as a case study. The complex history of this church from 1870 to the present will be briefly reviewed in order to establish the broader historical and cultural tradi- tions which governed its evolution. This perspective will aid in setting the stage for investigating the significance of the CME Church on the cultural landscape. Thus the problem is to describe and explain the origin and the diffusion of the CME Church as a cultural entity in America, with specific emphasis on Texas. The strategies used in the diffusion of the CME Church will be examined; in addition, the structure and the spatial organization from the stratified total struc— ture to the small established church will be analyzed. The CME innovation will be analyzed as a new idea in its peculiar environment, in its association and its promise. The cultural history of this church is a chronicle of hopes, fears, difficulties, dangers and triumphs, and will shed light on how these basic problems affected its diffusion. Emphasis will be placed on the specific spatial elements that have influenced the spread of the church. Church population in the nine regional jurisdic- tions will be presented cartographically and analyzed. Rural—urban migration and settlement patterns will be examined in relation to the diffusion of the CME Church in Texas. Careful attention will be given to the spatial implications of the transition from the white "mother" church to the black "daughter" church, with an examination of the process, the attitudes and motivations of both whites and blacks. Consideration will be given to the problems encountered and progress made in the socio- economic developments and the peopling of a new church from 1870 to the present time. The Texas case will be discussed with reference to CME communicant characteristics and their interactions with other activities in a particular spatial setting. The CME Church region will be defined in relation to the AME and AMEZ Church regions. Detailed studies will be made of the CME congregations in rural East Texas and in the Houston urban complex. METHODOLOGY In solving the problem, a framework for the insti- tutional development of the CME Church must be established. In this setting the problem is threefold: (1) the his— torical development, (2) the theoretical process and (3) the general process by which the movement became institutionalized. The church has played a significant role in the evolution of the culture of the American Negro. Thus a study of a particular church such as the CME Church will reveal a great deal about the culture, movement and impact of the Negro in various parts of the United States. It is hypothesized that there is a close correlation between the spread of the Negro in America and the diffusion of the CME Church. The following statements will be used to evaluate this hypothesis: (1) the American black man's culture and his mobile history are directly related to the evolution of the CME Church; (2) as the black population of a region increases, the CME Church population will in- crease; (3) the number of CME parishioners will decrease as the socio—economic status of an area increases; (4) that a positive relationship exists between the migra— tion of blacks from rural to urban centers and the dif— fusion of CME Church members. For this study intensive research was done at the Michigan State University Library, the State of Michigan Library, Detroit Public Library, the Texas Collection-- Houston Public Library, Southern Methodist University Library, the East Texas Room of the Library of Stephen F. Austin State University, the Methodist Historical Society and the CME Church Publishing House and Library. Careful study of relevant material in both the methodolo- gical and substantive writings of scholars in other fields such as religion, theology, demography, sociology, social psychology, political science, history and communications (diffusion) aided in the research. RELATED LITERATURE A review of the relevant literature of the geo- graphy of religion reveals that contributions have been made by Greek, German, French and American geographers. Comprehensive studied have classified the effects of religion on the landscape. Their content ranges from the influence of religion on shapes of church buildings, materials and colors used on altars in sanctuaries, settle- ments and territories, to its influence on the organization of economies, its effect on vegetation and wildlife, and its impact upon the distribution of cultivated crops and domesticated animals. Since time immemorial, men have shaped and used the land often according to their religious geographic concepts; therefore religion is an important cultural variable. Anaximander, who was perhaps the first geographer of religion, looked at the structure of the world as the manifestation of a religious principle. To him life was essentially a transgression of the spatially allotted territories of the elements and these transgressions had to be atoned for. This View also reflected a basic con- cept of Homeric and earlier Greek religion in the sanctity of the spatial order.10 Much later, in the Greco—Roman period, Eratosthenes described the terrestrial whole, which was built from an hierarchy of clearly circumscribed spatial units known as the geographein. He felt that the purpose of the geographer was to discover the spatial order of the world. According to Eratosthenes and other Greek scholars, the origin of geography began in religious geography.ll Biblical geography was an early form of historical geography developed by the Greeks; it should be included in loErich Isaac, "Religion, Landscape and Space," Landscape, Vol. 14 (1965), p. 31. llIbid. 10 the geography of religion. The spatial advance of the Christian church in the world in terms of its own institu- tions and political territories was mapped by ecclesiasti- cal geographers. Ecclesiastical geography appeared as a scholarly pursuit toward the close of the Middle Ages and has continued in various forms such as mission geography, religious demography and cartography.12 More recently German geographers in the 1800's were concerned about nature. Alexander von Humboldt's Kosmos was nature philosophy; it could almost be called theosophy, which is concerned with knowledge about things Divine. He wrote about the influence of the physical on the moral and the mysterious interrelationship of the material and 13 the immaterial as related to nature. H. Hahn, in Konfession and Sozialstrukutur (1955), and P. Fickler, in Grundfragen der Religionsgeographie (1947), also made methodological contributions to the geography of religion. Hahn stressed sociological cate- gories of doubtful value in vast areas of the world. Fickler's essay was a catalogue of cultural phenomena prepared for religious reasons. French geographers went much further than the Germans and in fact became leaders in the field. According lzggigL, p. 34. 13Ibid., p. 31. 11 to Deffontaines, geographers should not ignore the fact that many societies have given priority to the spiritual element in the construction of their dwellings. He exa- mined the manner in which the religious function of dwellings had modified their form. His comprehensive work dealt with pre—industrial society and suggested how tradi- tional dwelling types were influenced by religious practi- ces which would continue to influence the nature of domestic architecture. However, not all French geographers agreed with Deffontaines. According to Brunhes, many of the most important phases of society lie beyond the reach of geography. He points out that the forms of the family, political and social organization, the character of religion, laws and literature exhibit little or no relation to geographic phenomena.l4 According to John Kirtland Wright, "American geography for many years has been as theologically dry as towels are likely to be acqueiously dry at high noon in .15 Death Valley.’ Although many American geographers have tended to disregard the role that religion in general and 14Rupert B. Vance, Human Geography of the South (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1932), p. 11. 15John Kirtland Wright, Human Nature in Geography, Fourteen Papers, 1925—1965 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1966), pp. 251-85. 12 piety in particular have played in the geographic process, some have recognized its importance. Huntington, for example, felt that the moral and spiritual aspects of religion as well as religious imagery were intimately related to the physical environment. He examined the world's great religions and suggested that there was a relationship between the geographic environment to which these religions conform. He arranged eight great religions according to the temperature of the region where their adherents were most numerous.16 Hotchkiss has subjected the field of religion to spatial analysis. His primary concern was the patterns and functions of religious institutions as indicated in Chicago and Cincinnati. He discovered that the cities' religious institutions were as much a part of their uniqueness as their industries and transportation networks. His studies emphasized the functional interrelationship of the religious institutions with other patterns whose total character differentiated these urban complexes.l7 David Sopher developed a framework in which l6Ellsworth Huntington, Mainsprings of Civilization (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1945), pp. 281-84. l7Wesley Akin Hotchkiss, "Areal Pattern of Reli- gious Institutions in Cincinnati," Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago, Research Paper No. 13, September, 1950; "Geography of Chicago Churches," Unpublished Mas— ter's Thesis, University of Chicago, 1948. l3 observation, description and analysis of the distribution of religious activities could be placed.18 Many of his ideas and definitions have been helpful to this study. Erich Isaac presented three obvious facts regarding the geography of religion: (1) that religion has a geographic dimension, (2) different religions have had greater or lesser impact upon the landscape, and (3) that areas dominated by one religion show significant differ- ences in the religious mark on the land. He recommended that studies in the geography of religion should separate the specifically religious from the social, economic and ethnic matrix in which much of it is embedded and determine the relative importance of religion in relation to other forces in transforming the landscape. The geography of religion must develop a methodology which will enable it to fulfill these tasks, and the key lies in the study of 19 h20 religion itself. Paul Englis considers the part played by religion in the organization and utilization of space along with Erich Isaac and others. 18David E. Sopher, Geography of Religion (Engle— wood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1967), p. l. 19Erich Isaac, "The Act and the Covenant: The Impact of Religion on the Landscape," Landscape, Vol. 11 (1961—62), pp. 12-17. 20Paul English, "Nationalism, Secularism, and the Zoroastrians of Kirman: The Impact of Modern Forces on an Ancient Middle Eastern Minority," in Cultural Geography: Selected Readings, ed. by Fred E. Dohrs and Lawrence M. Sommers (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1967), p. 272. 14 In Wilbur Zelinsky's study an analysis was made of the areal patterns of religious characteristics and their interactions with other human activities and cultural traits . He delineated the "religious" regions in the United States and explained the meaning of areal varia- tions in American religious characteristics.21 He presen- ted a methodological approach that was applicable to the cultural geography of the CME Church in America. Geographers have made contributions to the geography of religion, but there are many avenues of research still uninvestigated in the field. One of these is the study of the spatial distribution and diffusion of the religion of minority groups which is the objective of this research. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY The significance of this research is fourfold. First, an understanding of the black church will enhance the understanding of the dynamics of the black community. If the black community is to be dealt with in any mean- ingful fashion, one must come to grips with the important aspects of the relevant institdions, history, and culture. Knowledge of how and why the CME Church came into being and how and why it spread will provide some insight into 21Wilbur Zelinsky, "An Approach to the Religious Geography of the United States: Patterns of Church Member— ship in 1952," Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 51, No. 2 (June 1961), p. 139. 15 the present nature and complexities of the black community. Secondly, one of the missing links in the cultural geography of American Methodism in general is a geographic approach to the study of this religious social system. The student of Methodism and of the geography of religion in the South misses a great deal when he is ignorant of the treatment of the black sons of Wesley by the white sons of Wesley, the response of the black sons to that treatment, and of the resultant institutional develop— ments.22 Thirdly, the cultural geography of "Colored Methodism"23 is rooted in the very heart of the cultural and historical geography of America. As a part of the radical Reconstruction era it witnessed the crystallization of North-South sectional enmity and black-white antagonisms.24 Finally, the rise of "Colored Methodism" introduces one to the role of the black church and its impact upon the cultural landscape. No geographers have as yet covered the dynamic role of black religious bodies, their ever-changing effect on the American scene, and the 22Lakey, op. cit., p. 10. 23"Colored Methodism" is an expression that is used by members of the CME Church, even after changing the name of the church from Colored Methodist Episcopal Church to Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. 24Lakey, op. cit., p. 11. l6 significance of the black community in molding the cul- tural geography of America. To gain an understanding of the evolution and impact of the CME Church on the American landscape, it is necessary to consider its historical background. The following chapter will be devoted to this analysis. CHAPTER II THE EVOLUTION OF THE CHRISTIAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN AMERICA Five factors are basic to the evolution of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church in America: (1) the institutionalization of Methodism in England; (2) the diffusion of that innovation to America and the organiza- tion of an independent ecclesiastical body called American Methodism; (3) the schism over slavery creating the Methodist Episcopal Church, South and the Methodist Episcopal Church, North; (4) two secessions from the Methodist Church creating an African Methodist Episcopal Church and an African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church; and finally, (5) an "agreeable secession" from the divided Methodist Church to give birth to the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church in America. THE METHODIST CHURCH IN ENGLAND The idea of Methodism originated from a movement begun at Oxford University in England by John and Charles Wesley in 1729. Their own account of its origin is given in these words: In 1729, two young men in England, reading the Bible, saw that they could not be saved without 17 18 holiness, followed after it, and incited others to do so. In 1737, they saw likewise that men are justified before they are sanctified, but still holiness was their object. God then thrust them out to raise a holy people.1 These men were ordained ministers of the Church of England but were soon excluded from many of the pulpits of the established church because they were looked upon as preachers of a "new doctrine." John Wesley, Charles Wesley and George Whitefield held meetings in private homes, halls, barns, and fields; they were scornfully referred to by several names: "Holy Club," "Bible bigots," "Methodists," and many others. The term "Methodist" was intended to describe their methodical habits, and their type of religion was soon widely known as the Methodist movement. Between 1729 and 1744 these three men organized a religious institution that remains viable to this day. In 1744 the first conference2 was held, one of the distinc- tive institutions of Methodism. In this conference the lHerbert Welch, Selections from the Writings of the Rev. John Wesley (New York: The Methodist Book Concern, 1918), pp. 200—203. 2The term "conference" has two meanings in this study: (1) it is a title given to four judicatories in most Methodist bodies: the General Conference, meeting quadrennially; the Annual Conference; the Quarterly Con- ference, District Conference and the local church confer— ence. (2) "Conference" also refers to the geographical area covered by the General Conference (Nine Episcopal Districts of the CME Church); the District Conference (areas comprising an Annual Conference), and the local churches of designated areas comprising the District Conference. The boundaries of these conferences are fixed by physical and cultural features on the earth's surface. l9 . . 3 . . Circuit and itinerancy4 systems were born; these have survived from 1744 to the present day. The new church soon spread from its home in England to the colonies. THE METHODIST CHURCH IN AMERICA In 1735 Governor Oglethorpe of Georgia invited John and Charles Wesley to America to become spiritual advisors to his colony. Both accepted the invitation. Later, after their return to England, itinerant preachers were sent to America; among them were Thomas Rankin and Francis Asbury. Francis Asbury was the only one to remain during the Revolutionary War, having been elected bishop. In 1784, at the "Christmas Conference," the Methodists of America detached themselves from the Wesleyan Church in England, and in the General Conference of 1792 Francis Asbury became the inspiring genius of American Methodism. American Methodism was, from the very start, in— tensely missionary in its zeal and in its practical pro- gram. Methodist preachers as missionaries were sent out of the large cities to find the people who were settling in the backwoods of America. Francis Asbury and his 3"Circuit"---so named because the preacher visits in regular succession a number of churches in different spatial settings; Matthew Simpson, Cyclopedia of Methodism (Phila- delphia: Everts and Stewart, 1878), p. 219. 4"Itinerancy"—-a system by which ministerial ex- changes are made at stated periods among Methodists; Simpson, op. cit., p. 487. 20 followers believed that Methodism should reach to the extreme limits of civilization.5 Asbury himself crossed the Alleghenies sixty-two times; the sum total of his forty—five years of traveling totaled nearly 300,000 miles, most of it on horseback and under dangerous conditions. He retained the Wesleyan spirit of Methodism by giving the slaves and Indians the Christian culture.6 SCHISM OVER SLAVERY Wesleyan Methodism was always concerned about the slave issue. In England, John Wesley had commented on the evils of men making huge sums of money by snatching Africans from their homes and shipping them to work in the colonies across the Atlantic. Wesley expressed the belief that prosperity purchased at such a price was an offense against God. Bristol was a central stronghold of slave traders and in 1788 Wesley selected that city to preach on the evils of the sale of human flesh. In his last letter, the famous one to William Wilberforce, he wrote: "Go on, in the name of God and in the power of His might, till even American slavery (the vilest that ever saw the sun) shall vanish away before it."7 5Welch, op. cit., p. 31. 6Richard M. Cameron, Methodists and Society in His- torical Perspective (New York: Abingdon Press, 1961), pp. 150—51. 7Ibid., p. 41. 21 It appears, however, that Wesley's anthropological Views were not consistent with his religious views. He condemned Africans as well as other primitive peoples as being degenerate and corrupt. The inhabitants of Africa were depicted as lower than the brutes, and the cattle culture of the Hottentots, including the use of viscera for food and ornament, was described as most repulsive. But in his attack upon the slave trade it became desirable for Wesley to convince his hearers and readers that the institution of slavery was inconsistent with mercy and jus- tice. The Africans were then presented on a higher plane than other primitive peoples.8 Africa's transplanted people did not lose their religious heritage when they came to America, even though they were introduced to the American form of Christianity. They adapted parts of American religion to meet their own emotional needs; they took what they thought to be the best of the slave master's religion and restructured it. From the very beginning of American slavery, slaves experienced Christianity through the conscious help of their masters. In Louisiana and several other states, the slave masters were required by legislation to look after the religious education of their slaves.9 81bid., p. 63. 9G. R. Wilson, "The Religion of the American Negro Slave: His Attitude Toward Life and Death," The Journal of Negro History (1923), p. 41. 22 Negroes in America have traditionally been closely associated with Methodism. The first converted black Methodist was baptized by John Wesley. Thomas Coke, Bishop of the American Society in 1784, was accompanied on most of his travels throughout the country by Harry Hoosier, a black minister who was at the same time the bishop's ser- vant and an evangelist of the church. Harry Hoosier was the first American Negro preacher to be a part of the Methodist Church in the United States. Freeborn Garretson, a bishop in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was said to have freed his slaves by divine guidance. The following words of Bishop Garretson presented the spirit of Bishops Coke and Asbury, and their associates: I often set apart times to preach to the slaves, . . . and precious moments have I had, while many of their sable faces were bedewed with tears, their withered hands of faith stretched out, and their 10 precious souls made white in the blood of the Lamb. The Methodists of South Carolina were the origi- nators of missions to the slaves. In 1816 the South Carolina Conference spatially embraced portions of North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, as well as South Carolina. This conference had 22,983 whites and 16,789 colored mem— bers; by 1839 there were more colored members than whites. 10Joseph C. Hartzell, "Methodism and the Negro in the United States," The Journal of Negro History, Vol. 8 (1918), p. 301. 23 In 1829 this conference launched a missionary program under the leadership of William Capers to diffuse the gospel to the destitute slaves concentrated on large isolated plan— tations within the conference (Table l). The earnest determination of the conference in regard to its Negro missions is indicated by the following declaration: Of all the districts, open to us, in the United States, for carrying the Gospel to the slaves, none are more accessible--none riper, or larger, or more pressing in their call, even not excepting-—the fields of Carolina, than are those upon our own river coast and fertile bayous. It is not extravagant to say, that these Missions could be doubled, in number, in onilyear, if the men were forthcoming to supply them. By 1837, missions to the slaves had been organized on plantations in Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky and Arkansas (Table 1). From 1839 to 1860 the missions were diffused from South Carolina to all areas of the plantation South. During this period of mission diffusion, slaves in the regular circuits and stations were not neglected. There was not a circuit of any size that did not have its colored 12 charge, or its colored membership. At the General Con— ference of 1844, William Capers, in championing the Southern cause, said: 11James Carlisle Stokes, "The Methodist Episcopal Church, South and the American Negro from 1844 to the Set- ting Up of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church," Unpub- lished dissertation, Boston University, May, 1938, p. 130. lZIbid., p. 132. 24 TABLE 1 MISSIONS TO THE SLAVES (1829—1860) SOUTHERN CONFERENCES OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH* Year Southern Conferences Number of missions to the slaves** 1829 South Carolina (Initiator of Missions) 2 1830 South Carolina 3 1832 The Tennessee Conference (Third Confer— ence to initiate Missions) 2 1834 Mississippi (First Special Mission) 1 1836 None reported 1837 South Carolina 10 Georgia 6 Mississippi 4 Alabama 2 Tennessee 2 Kentucky 1 Arkansas 1 1841 Virginia 1 1844 South Carolina 16 Alabama 8 Florida (Year Conference Organized) 3 Virginia 2 1846 South Carolina (First Mission Becomes a Circuit in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South 15 Alabama 18 Mississippi 15 Louisiana (Year Conference Organized) 8 Memphis Conference 10 Tennessee Conference 16 East Texas Conference 1 1847 Tennessee Conference 21 Virginia Conference 1 1850 South Carolina 18 Mississippi 19 Memphis Conference 8 Texas Conference 1 East Texas Conference 2 North Carolina 1 1851 Memphis Conference 6 1852 South Carolina 22 1853 South Carolina 20 1854 South Carolina 21 1855 South Carolina 24 Louisiana Conference 8 East Texas Conference 13 25 Table 1 (Continued) Year Southern Conferences Number of missions to the slaves 1856 South Carolina 24 Alabama 33 Mississippi 23 1857 South Carolina 20 Memphis Conference 20 1858 South Carolina 19 1859 South Carolina 19 Tennessee Conference 5 1860 South Carolina 28 Louisiana Conference 6 Memphis Conference 25 Tennessee Conference 9 *The Methodist Episcopal Church was divided in 1844 into the Methodist Episcopal Church, North and the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. **The number of missions is not cumulative. Source: The information for this table was taken from James Carlisle Stokes, "The Methodist Episcopal Church, South and the American Negro from 1844 to the Setting Up of the Colored Methodist Epis- copal Church," unpublished dissertation, Boston University, May, 1938, pp. 128-49. 26 As sure as you live, brethren, there are tens of thou- sands, nay, hundreds of thousands, whose destiny may be periled by your decision on this case [that of Bishop Andrew]. When we tell you that we preach to a hundred thousand slaves on our missionary fields, we only announce the beginning of our work,--the begin- ning openings of the door of access to the most numerous masses of slaves in the south. When we add that there are two hundred thousand now within our reach who have no gospel unless we give it to them, it is still but the same announcement of the beginnings of the opening of that wide and effectual door, which so long closed, and so lately has begun to be opened, for the preaching of the gospel, by our ministryé to a numerous and des- titute portion of the people. In 1832 the Board of Missions in South Carolina had stated the policy of the church concerning the associa- tion of the races in worship: As a general rule for our circuits and stations,14 we deem it best to include the colored people in the same pastoral charge with the whites, and to preach to both classes in one congregation, as our practice has been. The gospel is the same to all men, and pg enjoy its privileges in common promotes goodwill. This was the policy in most of the churches where slaves attended. Although there was much positive concern for the Negro in American Methodism, the discussion above does not give the whole picture of the treatment of the Negro in the Methodist Church. The slavery issue showed that, des- pite official policy and the establishment of many missions 139939 , pp. 75—76. 14"Station"——term used by Methodists referring to a church with enough members to support a full-time minis- ter; Simpson, op. cit., p. 219. 15Hartzell, op. cit., p. 302. 27 for the slaves, Negroes were not always treated well in the Methodist Church. The slavery issue had always concer- ned American Methodists; the nation had a civil war and so did the Methodist Church. The slavery question caused a division in American Methodism in 1844, resulting in a Methodist Episcopal Church, North and a Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The Northern Methodists were overtly anti- slavery, but they segregated Negroes in their sanctuaries. The Southerners were pro-slave, feeling that slavery was a civil institution. Many Southerners felt that slavery was a "divine institution,‘ approved by God, thus a Chris- tian could buy and sell slaves without sin. In the South there are even accounts of ministers leading their congre— gations in hunting down blacks like wild animals, of blacks being lynched in Methodist Church yards, and of Methodist ladies selling grisly pictures of mutilated lynch victims in order to raise church funds.l6 THE BEGINNINGS OF THE AME AND AMEZ CHURCHES Many Negroes realized the importance of the Metho- dist doctrine and decided to remain Methodist despite their difficulties in the church. One such man was Richard Allen, who was bitterly against the unrighteous treatment of Negroes in the Methodist Church. He was a militant who l6Hartzell, op. cit., p. 317. 28 envisioned a better day for Negroes as Methodists in America.17 Richard Allen was tired of the proscription and segregation in Old St. George Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. Some blacks had been violently dealt with as they knelt at prayer in some parts of the church that they mistakenly supposed themselves privileged to occupy. One day Allen and his followers left Old St. George and decided to establish their own church. He stated, "we all went out of the church in a body and they were no more plagued by us."18 His act was startling for his day, but he firmly believed that color discrimination was unthink- able in the Christian church.19 Bishop Asbury, who had ordained him, had requested Richard Allen to travel with him, but he told Allen that in their travels in the slave states he must not mingle with the slaves, and that on many occasions he would have to sleep in the carriage. Allen's destiny was to be a bishop himself and not a bishop's servant—-to mingle with whomever he wished, to sleep in his own home, not in some- one's carriage. In 1816 Richard Allen and forty~two members founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church and named l7Cameron, op. cit., p. 152. l8lBEH~ 191bid., p. 9. 29 it Bethel. Allen was thus one of the first to adapt Christianity to the immediate needs of the Negro. Four years later a group of Afro—Americans seceded from the John Street Methodist Church in New York City, because "caste prejudice forbade their taking the sacrament until the white members were all served." Thus the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church was born in New York City in 1820. Both the African Methodist Episcopal and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Churches were begun in the North. After the Civil War each denomination was per— mitted to proselytize among Southern Negroes. The two major secessions of the AME and AMEZ Churches from the Methodist Episcopal Church form the background for a discussion of another form of American Methodism, the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, which separated from the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. EVOLUTION OF THE CHRISTIAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH In 1844 when the Methodists of the South separated from those of the North, many of the slaves continued to worship with their masters for some years after Emanci— pation. Many of these slaves later became followers of this third black Methodist movement: the Christian Metho- dist Episcopal Church. CME Church members do not like to refer to the origins of their church as a secession, but it can perhaps be called an "agreeable secession." 30 The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, prior to the Civil War, had a Negro membership exceeding 200,000. After the war the number decreased drastically. Large numbers of Negroes joined the African Methodist Episcopal and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Churches which were spreading throughout the South. In addition, the Methodist Episcopal Church, North spread southward to proselytize among Southern Negroes.20 Although many blacks joined one of these three churches, a considerable number remained with the Methodist Episcopal Church, South under the existing circumstances. These were very humble people—~the poor and the illiterate ex-slaves. The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in its General Conference in New Orleans in 1866, declared that if its colored members so desired the bishops were em- powered to organize them into separate congregations, organize district and annual conferences, to ordain suit— able preachers, and to appoint presiding elders to direct their affairs. By 1870, when the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South met in Memphis, Tennessee, Negro pioneers had organized five annual conferences and strongly expressed their desire for a separate organiza- tion. Three annual conferences were added by 20Mason Crum, The Negro in the Methodist Church (New York: The Board of Missions and Church Extension, 1951), p. 189. 31 December 15, 1870.21 The General Conference at Memphis agreed to form a separate body and to ordain for the Negroes the men whom they selected as their bishops. On December 15, 1870, Negro leaders assembled in Jackson, Tennessee, to discuss their plans. Delegates were sent from the five confer— ences which had been formed. The Methodist Episcopal Church, South sent two of its bishops along with other delegates. W. H. Miles and R. H. Vanderhorst were elected the first bishops of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church; the bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South conse- crated them and they took over the leadership of their church government. Several misinterpretations have been placed upon the establishment of the CME Church. One writer has stated: "The disruption of the former social relations between the Negroes and their late masters was deemed a suf- ficient cause to organize the colored membership as a separate ecclesiastical body."22 Another colorful mis— interpretation stated: First of all the results of the war was the complete expulsion of Negroes from white churches. Little has been said of this, but perhaps it was in itself the most singular and tremendous result of slavery. The Methodist Church, South simply set its Negro members 211bid., pp. 56-57. 22A. A. Taylor, The Negro in South Carolina during the Reconstruction (Washington, D.C.: The Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, 1924), p. 115. 32 bodily out of doors. They did it with some consider— ation for their feelings, with as much kindliness as crass unkindliness can show, but they virtually said to all their black members—-to the black mammies whom they have almost fulsomely praised and whom they re- member in such astonishing numbers today, to the polite and deferential old servant, to whose character they build monuments—-they said to them: "You cannot worship God with us." There grew up3 therefore the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church. Thus the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church was born. In theology the CME Church is strictly Arminian24 and its doctrinal tenets are specifically set forth in the Articles of Religion of the New Testament.25 Never- theless, it is a church that is essentially identical in policy and practice with the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, that is, with the exception of a few Negro adapta— tions. Behind the formulation of this religious social system was a strong and growing body of folk religion and a significant condition of vitality in the culture of the 26 Negro. Two significant changes are noted in CME wor— ship: (1) old-time preaching, and (2) Negro music. 23Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. DuBois, Thg Negro in the South: His Economic Progress in Relation to his Moral and Religious Development--Being the William Levi Bull Lectures for the Year 1907 (Philadelphia: George W. Jacobs and Company, 1907), pp. 172-73. 24The term "Arminian" refers to the doctrinal teach- ing of Jacobus Arminius that Christ died for all men and not only for the elect; Simpson, op. cit., p. 51. 25Crum, op. cit., pp. 56-57. 26J. E. Spencer and William L. Thomas, Cultural Geography (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1969), p. 300. 33 A combination of the Negroes' African and Ameri- can heritage forms the basis for the old-time preaching.27 There are two basic explanations for the continued impor- tance of old—time preaching: (1) today, as during the days of slavery, Negroes possess an emotional superstitious nature which traces its origin back to Africa, and this emotional nature must have an outward expression; (2) the church has been the Negro's home of free expression. The Negro was dominated in Africa by tribal custom; in America by slavery; and in the "Black Belt" by the plantation system. In Africa and in America the Negro has needed a means of emotional escape from an "impossible world"; old-time religion has been the way out.28 Music that was peculiarly characteristic of the slave became a part of his new religious fervor in America. First the Negro's music was African; secondly it was Afro—American. Thus music in the CME Church has elements of both African and American influence. The songs sung 27In making this statement the writer is aware of Frazier's insistence that "African traditions and practices did not take root and survive in the United States." E. Franklin Frazier, The Negro Family in the United States (Chicago, 1939), pp. 7~8. The weight of authority, however, seems to rest with men who admit the importance of the African influences on the American Negro: Carter G. Woodson, The African Background Outlined (Washington, D.C., 1936), pp. 168-75; Melvin J. Herskovits, "The Negro in the New World," American Anthropologist, Vol. 32 (1930), pp. 149-50, and others who disagree with Mr. Frazier. 28William Harrison Pipes, "Old—Time Negro Preach- ing: An Interpretative Study," The Quarterly Journal of Speech (February 1948), p. 33. 34 by CME communicants are very old; the music is far more ancient than the words. Many of the Wesley hymns are set to the tune of Negro melodies. The following quote is an example of the cultural transmission of African music: My grandfather's grandmother was seized by an evil Dutch trader two centuries ago; and coming to the valleys of the Hudson and Housatonic, black, little, and lithe, she shivered and shrank in the harsh north winds, looked longingly at the hills, and often crooned a heathen melody to the child between her knees. The child sang it to his children and they to their children's children, and so two hundred years it has travelled down to us and we sing it to our children, knowing as little as our fathers what its words may mean, but knowing well the meaning of its music. On May 12, 1954, during the General Conference of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church which met in Memphis Tennessee, the following resolution was adopted by a three—fourths vote of the conference: We believe that the true Church of Jesus Christ is a fellowship of all believers who own Him as Lord and Master and worship Him in Spirit and in truth and that no exclusion of any follower from participation in the organized work of the Kingdom on the account of race, color or national origin is justifiable. We therefore rejoice in the ever increasing number of Christian denominations that are adopting the prin- ciple and practice of inclusiveness in memberships and membership participation without racial or color dis- crimination. We are aware of the inconsistency of having a racial designation in the name of our Church. Therefore without implying any lack of loyalty to or respect for the founding fathers, we recommend that in harmony with Christian principles, in keeping with the times, and in accordance with the recommendation in the message of the Bishops to this General Conference, 29W. E. B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk (Greenwich, Conn.: Fawcett Publications, Inc., 1953), pp. 183—85. 35 proper steps be taken to change the name of our Church from Colored Methodist Episcopal Church to Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, or some other suitable name that retains the same initials. After action was taken on the resolution by the General Conference, it was sent to the various annual conferences for ratification. In the General Conference at Detroit, Michigan, May 8, 1958, Bishop Luther Stewart, Secretary of the College of Bishops, announced that all of the annual conferences had voted to change the name of the church from "Colored" to Christian Methodist Episcopal Church.31 Today the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church has been developed as one of the major bodies of Methodism in America. It has had phenomenal growth in the South through a rigorous membership campaign and has spread to foreign countries as well, notably to Ghana and Nigeria in Africa. Negro Methodist churches have not moved without internal strife, however. The Independent African Methodist Episcopal Church (IME) was organized by elders of Jacksonville, Florida, following disputes with their pre- siding elders. The Union American Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in 1850 after a division of the original Union Church of Africans which was founded in 1813. 30Eula Wallace Harris, Christian Methodist Episcopal Church Through the Years (Jackson, Tennessee: The Methodist Publishing House, 1965), p. 15. 31Frazier, op. cit., p. 226. 36 After the establishment of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church other black churches began a bitter and relentless war on the infant organization. It was be- lieved in some quarters that the bishops of the new church were ex-slaves, unlettered and untrained in the business of leadership. (The AME and the AMEZ Churches had been established in the North almost fifty years earlier by more able and experienced preachers and bishops.) Some AME and AMEZ leaders came to the South telling the recently freed Negroes that President Lincoln wanted them to join the AME and AMEZ Churches. They were also told that the CME Church was organized as part of a deeply laid scheme intended to lead them back into slavery. It was believed that the magic of President Lincoln's name did influence many of these ex—slaves to join these two church groups. The leaders of the other Negro Methodist bodies bitterly taunted the CME Church leaders. They were stigmatized as " "Bootlicks," and "white folks' niggers."32 "Democrats, Although for many years there were strained rela— tions between the three major black church bodies, today each exists as a moving religious body on the American landscape. The African Methodist Episcopal Church, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, and the Christian 32R. A. Carter, Morning Meditations and Other Selections (Atlanta: Foote Davies Company, 1917), p. 45. 37 Methodist Episcopal Church are somewhat different in their worship orders, but their similarities are so much greater than their differences that the devout Negro Methodist would find contentment in any one of them. Each of the churches has culturally adapted the thoughts of John and Charles Wesley to the black man's mode of religious expres— sion with enduring pride. The Christian Methodist Episcopal Church has been diffused from its "culture home" in Tennessee to the Mississippi Delta, Georgia and Alabama, to the urban com- plexes of the Middle West and the Eastern seaboard. From the Louisiana swamplands, the East Texas "piney woods" and the Red River Valley it has diffused to the urban centers of the Western seaboard. It has also diffused from the Eastern seaboard to the coast of West Africa. This national and international diffusion of the church is discussed in the following chapter. CHAPTER III THE DIFFUSION OF THE CHRISTIAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN AMERICA In 1866, as previously indicated, the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South met in New Orleans, Louisiana. Slave masters put the question before the conference: "What shall be done with the colored members of our church?" This General Conference of 1866 was the point in time at which the ME Church, South became aware of the need for Negro members to have a separate church. As stated above, after the four year trial stage, the Memphis General Conference of May 1870 voted in favor of a separate body for Negroes (Figure 1). On December 15, 1870 this idea was officially adopted at Jackson, Tennessee where bishops of the ME Church, South ordained two former slaves as the first bishops of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in America. Since the members of this new church were located in the rural South, an examination of some of the pertinent physical and cultural characteristics of this area is neces— sary for an appreciation of the environment in which this new religious social system became institutionalized. 38 ...-............ ............o. Administrative Hierorch THE CHRISTIAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CH CH SENIOR BISHOP e e . . e . ~ . . e . e e e e u u . (D Z O (I) [Ll K (L PRESIDING PRESIDING BISHOP (4) PRESIDING BISHOP(6) PRESIDING GIsHOP (7) PRESIDING BISHOP (e) PRESIDING BISHOP (9) 033 " 2v '3. ”a o :1 —o a: 3 0:9 ‘2 mm m PRESIDING BISHOP (I) BISHOP(5) ...... . .... ence-eve.- - leeeeeeeeeeeec .- can.- . eee ...... e cell-ence lee-teen . .....A-ee.-u-g. .... ee-ee .. . e . ee PRESIDING ELDERS SUBDISTRICTS 0F EPISCOPAL DIST. e u............... ............... e u ee .- u e- o ......o.-..-... n...¢-.oo..uo-...-...u- ..... ... -- e ... . e PRESIDING LD ER 0 F SUBDIS TRICT ......n-. 3 ..n-s... e . MINISTER OF LOCAL CHURCH Source : . , , - General Conference MInuIes o...-...-....... n.....u....... ......... g.. . .. . o Awareness Stage Trial Stage NEW ORLEANS GEN~ 5“ EARLY ADOPTERS ERAL CONFERENCE . TRY THE PLAN Adoption Period l870 l866 ; I866-I870 Y-Ieleetnn ..... ADOPTERS PROCEED WITH P LA N .........o ......n....o.... leseeeee-r e e o e ......u e AAAAAA‘III. FIGURE 1 a and b 40 THE PHYSICAL AND CULTURAL SETTING OF THE SOUTH The South consists of thirteen states stretching from Virginia and Kentucky to the Gulf, across the Mississippi River to Texas and Oklahoma, and covers an area of 863,250 square miles. Many feel that the South is almost a dif— ferent country when compared to the rest of the United States: Its ways are different, its conditions are different, its point of view is different. It has a character and personality all its own. The thoughts that we think are not the South's thoughts, and the mental habits that are natural to us must be dropped and stowed away for a while when we consider the South. Conditions that to our mind would indicate one type of development will not do so at all in a country that has a different racial condition, a different tradi- tion, and the measure of value. The South started from its own premise; it moved under peculiar conditions; it has arrived at totally different conclusions. The South is made up of many physiographic areas and human use regions. It possesses almost all of the characteristic physical areas of the United States: mountains, forest, undrained land, prairies and plains. The South has five of America's physiographic regions: the Coastal Plain, the Piedmont, the Appalachian Highlands, the Mississippi Flood Plain, and the Ozark-Ouachita High- lands. Each of these areas is associated with certain types of plants and animals, different industries, modes of lLewis F. Carr, America Challenged (New York: Mac- millan, 1929), p- 165, quoted in Rupert B. Vance, Human Geographyfiof the South (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1932), p. 21. 41 living and certain psycho-social characteristics.2 The South does not have a sharply defined climate. It is located in the southeast continental margin of the United States and is classified as humid subtrOpical.3 It has long, hot summers and short, mild winters.4 The South, as a distinctive region, is a major cultural division of the United States according to both Carl Sauer and Rupert B. Vance. Common traditions, a similar ancestry, common economic interests, and similar climate help to account for its unity.5 The distinctive culture traits of the South were inherited from the plantation system. This system really developed a Southern cultural super-structure. Planter6 societies were spatially organized on such frontier lands as the "deltas," "basins," "river bottoms," "black belts," and "blue grass regions." Tobacco plantations with indentured servants ap— peared in America before cotton or slavery, but cotton 2Vance, op. cit., pp. 22-23. 31bid., p. 355. 4Otis P. Starkey and J. Lewis Robinson, The'Anglo- American Realm (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1969), p. 225. 5 . Vance, op. c1t., p. 20. 6"Planter"--the title "planter" belonged to fami- lies who had enough black capital to justify the expense of a white overseer, usually considered to be 20 or more Negroes; T. R. Fehrenback, Lone Star: A'Histogy'of Texas and the Texans (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1968), p. 310. 42 soon became the chief crop of the South. The South made the transition from a tobacco-indigo-rice culture first to a cotton-slave and then to a cotton-tenant culture. Spreading cotton fields on creek and river bottoms, tenant shacks, Negro croppers, supply stores and commissaries, all supervised by the supply merchant and the planter, made up the cultural landscape of the plantation.7 THEJBEGINNINGS OF THE CME CHURCH: JACKSON, TENNESSEE All human activity takes place at particular loca- tions or within particular geographic contexts. Localiza- tion is a basic aspect of human society and provides the essential link between man and the earth and establishes the framework for human spatial interaction.8 The Chris- tian Methodist Episc0pal Church grew out of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South and in turn inherited the culture of the rural South. It originated in Jackson, Tennessee, in the upper South. Why was the setting at Jackson, Tennessee? Jackson is the county seat of Madison County in West Tennessee. Following the American Revolution large 7Vance, op. cit., p. 61. 8Edward W. Soja, The Political Organization of Space, Commission on College Geography Resource Paper No. 8 (Washington, D. C.: Association of American Geographers, 1971), p. 43. 43 segments of the populace of Virginia, Georgia, North and South Carolina, and middle and eastern Tennessee moved to west Tennessee. These people were often led by Methodist circuit riders. The newcomers found west Tennessee to be thickly forested, providing abundant materials for home building. The many creeks and rivers furnished mill sites, as well as the principal means of transportation for the newcomers.9 As the land was suitable for cotton growth it soon became the principal crop. Jackson's prosperity depended upon its ability to market surplus cotton and corn via the Forked Deer and the Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans. By 1837 the town had grown so much that it was described by a traveler as follows: a handsome and improving town, . . . Jackson is therefore a depot for the cotton of the surrounding region; the bustle of the streets afford518vidence that 1t 18 a place of cons1derable trade. The people of Jackson followed occupations which were clo- sely related to the necessities of everyday life. Their estates consisted of land, Negroes, cotton and corn, toge- ther with a few horses, hogs and sheep. Negro slaves were necessary to the planter's exis— tence. In the early years of Jackson's settlement the 9Emma I. Williams, Historic Madison——The Story of Jackson and Madison County Tennessee (Jackson, Tenn.: Madison County Historical Society, 1946), p. 21. 10Ibid., p. 1. 44 average slave brought from three to four hundred dollars, but when the value of cotton increased, the price of slaves 11 Madison quickly rose to five and six hundred dollars. County had more slaves than any other county in western Tennessee between 1830 and 1840. The county had 4,167 slaves in 1830, 6,073 in 1840 and 8,552 in 1850, while the entire white population in 1850 was only 12,857. "Men thought of the Negroes as 'personal property' and the most valuable portion of all property besides the land, consis— ted of slaves."12 Jackson had its own code of laws regulating the conduct of the slaves. Slave gatherings were not allowed except for public worship. In some parts of Madison County they were taught to read and write. "Margaret Givens left Negroes to each of her children with the instruction that they 'be taught to read, write and know the scriptures.”13 White settlers from the East had brought Methodism as a religious social system to western Tennessee and it soon became the dominant Protestant faith in the Mississippi valley from west Tennessee to New Orleans. As early as 1782, on the headwaters of the Yadkin and Holston Rivers which join to form the Tennessee River, Methodist circuits llIbid., p. 93. 12Ibid. l31bid., p. 102. 45 were spatially organized.l4 In 1788, Bishop Asbury had made his first trip to the area and had preached his first sermon in what is now the state of Tennessee. Between his first trip and his last in 1814, he visited the state in seventeen different years. What the Catholic priest was to Mexico, the Methodist circuit rider (such as Asbury) was to Tennessee. In 1822 a circuit rider in western Tennessee stated: "Our beloved Methodism soon spread over the land and in an eminent sense became the religion of this country."15 The following reasons support Jackson as the "culture home" of the CME Church: (1) early settlers of Jackson were led by Methodist circuit riders who provided significant leadership; (2) the influential visits of Bishop Francis Asbury, America's most noted circuit rider, increased the influence of Methodism in the area; (3) Metho- dism became the dominant Protestant faith in the Mississippi Valley; (4) Jackson's physical environment was conducive to the growth of cotton which encouraged plantation agricul- ture; (5) cotton inevitably meant the coming of small planters with large numbers of Negro slaves; (6) Methodist missions were soon established for the slaves; and ultimately (7) Jackson was settled by a Methodist population of slave 1431131. , p. 33. l5Cullen T. Carter, History of the Tennessee Con- ference (Nashville: The Abingdon Press, 1948); p. 191. 46 masters and their slaves. THE SPATIAL ORGANIZATION OF THE NEW CHURCH The surface of the earth is enmeshed in a labyrinth of boundaries created and maintained by man. A myriad of local religious units carve up space in a variety of pat- terns to fulfill a wide range of functions. Religious units compartmentalize the earth's surface along with political and other administrative units. They are dynamic geographical units which outline the spheres of religious human interaction in space.16 Historically, the organization of the CME Church is similar to the formulation of an organized political system. The concept of connectionalism is a chief charac- teristic of Methodism, and has historically dominated its existence. Connectionalism is a system connecting all con- gregations at the annual conference level and all annual 17 The system conferences at the general conference level. is hierarchically structured like most human spatial organi- zations (Figure l). The CME Church has organized its reli- gious space into nine episcopal districts and thirty-five annual conferences (Figure 2). Furthermore, 2,342 l6Soja, op. cit., p. l. 17R. F. Curl, Southwest Texas Methodism (The Inter- board Council, The Southwest Texas Conference, the Methodist Church, 1951), p. 49. 47 N mmeHm .3 29 .3352 85.380 .928 ”.1238 2.2 mud! own ments proceed Church, Jackson elected 'Migration of Following cotton over ‘ Diffusion of rural blacks -—9 the rural South ———9 CME idea through- out rural South J, i i Black migration Cheap labor needed in Diffusion of CME rural South to l _9 the industrial Mid- ———9 | Church to urban l urban Mid-West West Mid-West Black migration For cotton production I Diffusion of’CME | to urban West —9 and industries —~—9 idea to urban I western USA .—+ General black . migration To all urban complexes CME Church rapidly on a national scale becoming urban \ / \ / Urban churches locate l ’Churches locate where in ghettos E a black people reside \ / The national and international CME Church rural and urban distribution FIGURE 7 CHAPTER IV THE CHRISTIAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN RURAL TEXAS The Christian Methodist Episcopal Church is a sig- nificant phenomenon on the Texas landscape. The same cultu— ral geographic themes relate to the impact of the church in Texas as indicated previously for the entire country: (1) the relationship to the environmental setting; (2) the church's occupance and ways of organizing earth space; and (3) the church's spatial distribution and diffusion and its interaction with other religious social systems.1 To appreciate the place and impact of the CME Church on this landscape, it is necessary to consider some of the broader historical conditions and trends governing its evolution in Texas. It is also essential to consider socio—economic factors and their relationship to the dis- tribution of the church. THE PHYSICAL AND CULTURAL SETTING Texas is a combination of physical and cultural factors which have produced its uniqueness. A variety of l . Sopher, op. c1t., p. 2. 84 85 physical phenomena extend into the state from the interior of the North American continent. Physiographically the Texas Eastern Plains are a continuation of the Atlantic Coastal Plain. The North Central Prairies and WOOdlands are a part of the vast interior lowlands of the Midwest, whereas the High Plains are a part of the Great Plains. The Rocky Mountains, as well as the deserts of the South- west, extend into western Texas. Texas has a variety of the continent's major vege- tation patterns. East Texas has lush pine forests, while north Texas is in the hardwood timber belt. The northwest has short grasslands and the southwest has true desert vegetation. The climate of Texas is similar to that found in the southern part of the North American continent. It has the humid sub—tropical climate of the Southeast, the humid continental climate of the North, and the arid climate of the West.2 Within this physical framework there are many cul- tures which have reacted with each other and with the en- vironment over time to produce the geographical patterns of Texas. The regional variations have been further in- tensified by a clustering of subcultures. The landscapes of Texas reflect the varied ethnic character of the state; 2D. W. Meinig, Imperial Texas, An Interpretive Essay in Cultural Geography (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1969), pp. 17-18. 86 communities of Germans, Czechs, Scandinavians, and Poles are islands in a sea of Anglo-Americans.3 Texas exhibits various cultural patterns, as well as physical features. Meinig delineated the culture areas as: the Panhandle, west Texas, Northeast Texas, East Texas, Central Texas, the Gulf Coast, South Texas, Southwest Texas, and the German Hill Country4 (Figure 8). These areas are gross generalizations, but nonetheless are essential to any characterization of Texas culture. East Texas, the Gulf Coast, Northeast Texas, Central Texas, West Texas and the Panhandle are significant regions for this study because of the diffusion of the CME Church into these culture areas. Although each area's physical and cultural characteristics will be briefly discussed, East Texas, of greatest signifi— cance to this study, will be discussed in greatest detail. The Eastern Timbers country, and the rolling red hills east of the Trinity River have been regarded as a distinct region called East Texas. The proximity of the Gulf Coast, the wooded banks of its rivers, relatively ef— fective drainage, rich soils, heavily timbered bottoms and the humid sub-tropical climate were significant in the development of East Texas. The East Texas Immigration Society described the climate as follows: 3Terry G. Jordan, German Seed in Texas Soil (Austin: The University of Texas Press, 1966), p. 143. 4Meinig, op. cit., p. 92. 87 Culture Areas OF TEXAS I960 PA N HA N 0 LE Amarillo //" ~\ ’ / Lubbock l ' INORTH- F0" I EAST // WEST Wort’h. .Dollas/l Longview . [I'm-‘— ° I Big ° Abilene I I Tyler El Paso Ix Spring ,’ \\ EAST \\\‘ San Angelo /-—\\\ I, CENTRAL \\ O \\ ,/’—l \ I \ “" \GERMAN\ I \ t. SOUTHWEST \\ HILL \/ Brenham \ Begumont \QOUNTR’Y Houston}! Pt Arthur \ I — ——— —— :>o/\Son Antonio // a} 30%;" Del Rio \\\fictoria [/00V 8 exasnity ' razospo SOUTH \\/z o ’3’ Crystal City I, (g / L Corpus Christi . Laredo Rio Grande . City The Valley Brownsville 0 MILES 200 Source: Meinig, D.W., Imperial Texas,an interpretive essay in Cultural Geography. Austin: The University of Texas Press, l969, p.93. /h FIGURE 8 88 Our summers are long and somewhat enervating. Yet we have no cases of total prostration from heat. They are tempered by breezes from the Gulf that rise about nine in the morning and continue until about four in the afternoon. Our winters are always mild. The ice in our ponds is never sufficient to bear up the weight of an ordinary man, and in our running water, ice never forms. There is no time in the winter when a man may not labor out doors, except from rain and sleet, which fall more or less in December, January and February. We never house our cattle, Eheep or goats, nor our horses except such as work. The settlement and the types of individuals who settled in East Texas had a vital bearing on the character of the region. Anglo- and Afro-Americans formed a society without the usual mixture of continental Europeans, His— panos, or newcomers from the North. East Texas was historically the most disputed area in the state because of social cleavages, political rivalry, economic problems and the institution of slavery. Prob- lems, such as destitution, tenancy, illiteracy, crime and illegitimacy have assumed distinct sectional aspects in East Texas, where the majority of the Negroes have resided 6 since the days of slavery. Prior to 1861, the cleavage between East and West Texas caused Flanagan to propose that East Texas be made a new state within the present territorial limits of Texas. His proposal was as follows: 5Texas Almanac (Dallas: Dallas Morning News, 1873), p. 98. 6 . . Western Joseph McConnell, Soc1al Cleavages in Texas (New York: Longman, Green and Company, 1925), p. 43. 89 Preparatory to the establishment of a new State within the present territorial limits of Texas. Section I. Be it ordained by the good people of the state of Texas in convention assembled, That it shall be and may be lawful for a new state to be organized within the present territorial limits of the state of Texas, which state shall include the following counties to writ: Jefferson, Orange, Chambers, Liberty, Hardin, Jasper, Newton, Tyler, Polk, Trinity, Angelina, Nacogdoches, San Augustine, Sabine, Shelby, Panola, Rusk, Cherokee, Houston, Andarson, Henderson, Smith, Van Zandt, Kauf- man, Wood, Upshur, Harrison, Marion, Paris, Bowie, Titus, Hopkins, Red River, Lamar, Fannin, Hunt, Collins and Grayson, which shall be called East Texas Figure 9). Most slave owners settled in East Texas, while most of West Texas had been settled by German immigrants who were hostile to the institution of slavery.8 Slavery in East Texas developed with the introduction of cotton growing. Between 1850 and 1860 cotton production kept a remarkably similar pace with the increase in slaves (Table 10).' At the close of the Civil War there were ap— proximately 200,000 Negroes in Texas, predominantly set- tled on cotton plantations in East Texas.9 Today much of East Texas has retained its conser- vative traditions, although some areas have felt the impact of an industrial society which has brought on a consciousness of cultural change. An interview with a peasant farmer in East Texas is indicative. Sitting on his porch swing while 7Ibid. 8Ibid., p. 158. 9Holland Thompson, The Book of Texas (Dallas: The Grolier Society, 1929), p. 326. 90 his wife chopped weeds from hollyhock beds, he revealed that a concern about pollution had reached this back- country. He complained: Us folk out here use [sic] to have good fishing holes, before the towns growed, sawmills was built, paper— mills and oil companies——fur [sic] they all put their junk in the creeks, sloughs and rivers. East Texas folk feel closely related to the woods and streams that have nourished them for generations. This backcountry has splendid forests; it is "dogwood" country where festivals related to the forest are often held. TABLE 10 COTTON PRODUCTION AND THE SLAVE POPULATION IN EAST TEXAS: 1850-1860 East Texas East Texas Year Slave Population Cotton Production 1850 58,558 Slaves 58,072 Bales 1855 105,974 Slaves 105,111 Bales 1860 182,560 Slaves 182,627 Bales Source: Holland Thompson, The Book of Texas (Dallas: The Grolier Society, 1929), p. 326. The Gulf Coast culture area extends from Sabine Pass to Corpus Christi; the flat wet prairies and shallow 10Interview with Mr. X in the CME community of Possum Trot (Coonville) in the Sabine Valley, East Texas, November, 1970. 91 sheltered bays and lagoons help to make this Coastal Plain a distinctive physical region (Figure 8). Before oil was discovered the area was sparsely populated, but the rapid development of the oil and chemical industries have created economic and social patterns that characterize the area as a distinctive human region.11 The Northeast Texas culture area is comprised of prosperous farms of cotton, grains, and livestock (Figure 8). It is a link between West Texas and East Texas. It is largely an Anglo area, with less variety than areas to the south, fewer Negroes than East Texas but more than West Texas. The Northeast Texas culture area merges into Central Texas where the proportion of non-Anglos assumes greater significance. The Central Texas culture area has persisted as the area of greatest cultural diversity (Figure 8). Anglos of every background, Negroes, Hispanos, and all of the European groups have migrated here. Occupations associated with agriculture, small industries, and oil provide jobs for the inhabitants.12 The West Texas culture area has remained as one of the most strongly native areas of the state, created and sustained by migrations out of North, Central and East Texas (Figure 8). Negroes have been a very minor part of llMeinig, op. cit., pp. 95—97. lzlbig., p. 108. 92 these migrations. The Negro population is five to ten per cent in about half of the counties; it forms a distribution which very largely reflects cotton production.13 The West Texas culture area merges into the Panhandle. The Panhandle is beyond the historic and ecological limits of cotton; thus it has lain beyond the spread of any significant number of Negroes (Figure 8). It is the only area of Texas that does not have Southern antecedents. Middle Westerners migrated to this area in larger numbers than other Texans and have given the dominant imprint to the landscape. The physical and cultural aspects that have been affected by the diffusion of the CME Church provide a framework for a discussion of (1) their influence on migration to and settlement of these areas and, ultimately, (2) the impact of the CME Church in these regions. MIGRATION AND SETTLEMENT The migration of people may be viewed as an ef- ficient response to their desires and opportunities. Des- pite many restraints, migrations have been of immense significance: (1) migration accompanies the spread of settlement and the colonization of new areas; (2) rural-to- urban flows accompany rapid industrialization and urbaniza- tion; (3) transfers of slaves and contract labor for l3Ibid., p. 106. 93 agriculture and mining have brought about new mixtures of people, thus having great social and economic impact; (4) migration provides the manpower needed to develop new resources; (5) migration constitutes a mechanism for alleviating inequities in national and regional development; and (6) migration is a principal mechanism for spreading technology, language, customs and most other social behavior.14 The U. S. Bureau of the Census distinguishes be- tween "local movers" and “migrants." A "local mover" is defined as one who changes his residence but remains within the same county. A "migrant" is defined as one whose change of residence involves crossing a county line or state boundary. Local movers usually maintain their same pattern of living, with no necessary change of work place; many of their social contacts remain the same. Migrants usually adapt themselves to new surroundings both in terms of work and social acquaintances. Within a century Texas has experienced two major forms of population movement: immigration to rural settle- ments and rural to urban. As a relatively uninhabited territory Texas was largely settled by farmers from the 14Richard L. Morrill, The Spatial Organization of Society (Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth Publishing Company, Inc., 1970), pp. 140—41. 15Harley L. Browning and Harry H. Long, Population Mobility: Focus on Texas (Austin: The University of Texas, Bureau of Business Research, 1968), P. 2. 94 Old South and their migration was largely rural-to-rural in character. This settlement pattern discouraged the growth of cities; therefore Texas remained agrarian long after many states had become urbanized. For the past several decades the state has been transformed by the exodus of rural folk to its urban centers.16 The present Texas landscape is not a product of the work of contemporary communities; it reflects a multitude of influences brought on by migration and diffusion. Ever since statehood, Texas has been predominantly peopled by Caucasians. Therefore one could not possibly discuss the black population without first discussing the white popu- lation, for it was their settlement that influenced Negro movements to Texas.17 Jordan describes the Texas population as one which 18 primarily came from the Lower and Upper South. After 16ibid., p. 6. 17Karl E. Ashburn, "Slavery and Cotton Production in Texas," The Southwestern Social Science Quarterly, Vol. 14, No. 3 (June 1933), p. 260. 18Within the ante-bellum South were two distinct economic regions (1) the Lower South, composed of states fronting on the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, an area dominated by the slave-cotton system, and (2) the Upper South, repre- sented by inland states like Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, and Missouri, where slaveless yeoman farmers were dominant and cotton was scarce. Terry C. Jordan, "The Imprint of the Upper and Lower South in Mid-Nineteenth Century Texas," Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 57, No. 4 (December, 1967), pp. 667-73. 95 Texas became independent all restrictions on slavery were removed causing an influx of Lower Southerners from the Gulf Plains of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and Louisiana. They brought the culture of the Lower South with them: (1) Negro slaves, (2) cotton culture, (3) sugar cane cul- ture, (4) the use of mules as draft animals, and (5) plan- tation agriculture. Backwoodsmen of the transmontane Upper South were led to Texas by Tennesseans like Sam Houston and David Crockett. The migrants from the Upper South were mainly slaveless yeoman farmers from Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas and Missouri. The 1850 census reported that Tennessee constituted the largest single nativity group in Texas. Significantly, Lower Southerners were dominant in eastern and southeastern Texas while Upper Southerners dominated the interior of north central Texas.19 Another migratory wave included those who entered Texas via the port at Galveston (Figure 9). New Orleans also drew migrants bound for Texas; many of them came from the Gulf states while others were European migrants. An analysis of types of Negroes in Texas reveals four classes: (1) the freed Negroes prior to 1845,21 (2) the African slaves entering through Galveston, (3) slaves brought in by their masters from the Old South, and 1912;9- 20Meinig, op. cit., p. 45. 21Texas was admitted to the Union in 1845. 96 h tug I El IPoso NU ova. TEXAS LOCATION MAP on: .... .. .I/"fiff mull I unnu- mo'm-ll'fll unto-e ,_ I. _ ._ _ _I _. I . unutv l I000“ I (f I mute I «an-«u ____ 3‘ . ~ +~—— « w —— IPompo'— I OI” .0":- um. an: “(Ill- -—- AmorIIIo- ITITI... ...:H I .1 Pecos River ""“n “IT-OJ unm- —. Th— _ I I lum ‘ unu nu CDC nu- MU I ___._I Unfit} CUM!“ I "(II LIV I IUIUOCI i ___ If"? LlIbbock—— IV!” >~_T Dl-IOR lun- . Inc-AID ' Inc-In "mo I “OH“ I unwilj; Mu 133.1 ' _I _ I Cohll WV ‘ I F' that? w). an! ‘gmmn Mus-It ' ..F fi—I i ._ —; _—. i Vfl I I lunch. I gain. I noun ,0." I L. , 7 7 ”0“ L“ C. ~. mature“ ’ $..__ "°' 3‘ FEW” a - \ I D/ .1 -_ .‘ .Wells DallasBl-F-‘I” ‘0' ‘ | “Jr-(u \ Breckenridge t" 4f IMN [AIVLAI-o ’ ‘7 WI shift: "I ...... 1'” Miami“ 1 L Ft. Worth" \ at”! M'- ...- at: I . count-«I " 00‘0" \ ......»- ° ”Universe One-ow R. _ Genie;i . a ‘% . MILES urn: m- uou I "°°" IVA-l 200 tow-MI" III- nu- ‘ lrrm‘ IllDuhn lau‘scocn II". ...” n .. . ...... “.2; WWI ‘* I 4L IL SOIL . ' ““"‘°' ‘ San Augustine ~ - ..... . r— “ , Angelo "nu / ' Wm" | "‘5‘“ ,I to:- our- co‘w‘. + comm “gu- x_ ‘ . , ‘ I °' - I ' I 0: / —— J— _~_.. _ 9‘ I A " nnrnl / _If V1, / 'M- 5 m an a.” "can I acne-cu" ullu no HIT -. I \\ ’9" I run I .‘l' S _ '—~— *— '—*.— * usu- mum-.0" H,” ’3” m J .. m“ g I canon u-Iu —— ‘4 ' "~\ “I.“ II.“ (I) run“ — _ T i 4‘ I II- iI a nun ““CO "Mk—V I ABQOW8f‘w? nun-o I I I [ll— — A / "‘n -’ “I .o'xI \ I‘m—1:",‘w orange "m"- ‘“ "'°' ‘°'"°’ I ..." ' 6"“ .... , 4...... A ...... ‘ Houston 1 if. i' -_'I‘ :hf): ‘ '7 ‘1 I‘ GUIDIIU'I " ’ I. ’L/ Port ’9 I..." v “n a.“ l “3“ ‘ amt-LII“, unfl Ea” Galvfitoin’ /, Arthur 6 I son IL”. ’t 1 ‘ \ ' nun-n Trinl'r ._ _ _._~ _ _ . _L. N ’ or um y ArItomo,‘ .. ... '.......... River nun-(II nnu pm ""30“ ‘ ~ '"'" . "no” ' / BIOZQS - _ . /\ River I ...... I ‘ .. . I J.:“ ~ ...... f~ Co/orado L n ' Luvl on “pl", I /III R] ver 6’1 _ I. — I “I. “"fo 2’ O ‘ 5' oo. “I. I I ‘ noun & am I. (I _ ILlItIO ‘/ _ y A . / --- Boundary between proposed states of East Texas and West Texas FIGURE 9 97 (4) the freed Negroes who drifted to Texas following the Civil War. Prior to the arrival of Stephen F. Austin in 1821, there were Negroes in Texas who had been freed by the Mexican government. Colonel Jared Ellison Groce, the first cotton planter, brought 100 slaves to Texas in 1821.22 Several importations of slaves were made at Galveston prior to the Texas War for Independence. James Bowie, a slave trader, conveyed many slaves from Galveston through the wilds of East Texas. Some of them escaped and formed settlements or intermingled with Comanche Indians; many settlements in the Brazos, Colorado, and Trinity River bottoms were established by these slaves (Figure 9). As late as 1857 people were continuously urged to emigrate to Texas from the Old South with the slaves in order to grow cotton and other crops.23 Many of the ex—slaves who were roaming the South after the Civil War drifted into East Texas from neighboring Louisiana and Arkansas. After the annexation of Texas, the slave population 24 as is shown in Table 11. Texas's increased considerably greatest net in-migration of Negroes occurred after the Civil War and increased in every decade except one 22Ashburn, op. cit., p. 260. 231bid., p. 266. 241bid., pp. 258-63. 98 (1900-1910) between 1870 and 1960. In 1861 the majority of the slaves in Texas had settled along the river bottom lands of the Colorado, Brazos, Trinity and Sabine Rivers25 (Figure 9) where they remained until World War II. TABLE 11 TEXAS SLAVE POPULATION 1834-1860 Year Number of Slaves 1834 2,000 1836 5,000 1841 10,000 1850 58,151 1860 182,566 Source: Eugene C. Barker, "The Influence of Slavery in the Colonization of Texas," The Southwestern Social Science Quarterly, Vol. 28 (July 1924), p. 6. After World War II population shifts occurred re- sulting in two Afro-Texas migration waves. The first con- cerns the movement from rural East Texas to the urban centers of West Texas for employment. Although Negroes had been a part of early West Texas settlement as cotton planters had brought slaves with them when West Texas was first settled as did cattlemen from the tidewater region. Negroes followed the cotton culture west early in the 1900's but no significant number of Negroes migrated to 251bid., p. 266. 99 West Texas until after World War II. As new technology enabled the irrigation of much of the arid lands of West Texas, the area became a chief producer of cotton and, as cotton production increased, so did the Negro population. Rural West Texas was not organized into plantations like East Texas, so Negro migrants had to live in the cities and be trucked to the cotton fields. The majority of West Texas blacks today reside in the urban complexes of Lubbock, Amarillo, Midland, Odessa, San Angelo and El Paso (Figure 9). The total migration of Negroes from the timbered east to the west was not significant and the black population thus remained small in West Texas. The majority of Afro-Texans still reside on the soil of their birth in the East Texas hills. A second and larger migration wave involves a shift from the rural back country and towns of East Texas to the urban complexes of Houston and Dallas-Ft. Worth. These rural migrants felt that life would be more economically desirable in these urban areas, despite the ghetto condi— tions under which they were forced to live. As the Texas Negro population shifted, the people carried their culture with them, including their religion. The CME Church was part of the movement and it became a significant factor in shaping the rural Texas environment. 100 THE DIFFUSION OF THE CME CHURCH IN TEXAS-~WITH EMPHASIS ON RURAL AND SMALL TOWN CHURCHES Methodism had its beginnings in Texas in 1833, when the first church was organized in the little town of San Augustine in the East Texas backwoods. From its beginning, Methodism made a special appeal to poor people. Its mes- sage was tailored to the lowly and the neglected classes. Thus in Texas, as well as other parts of the South, Metho- dism evoked an enthusiastic response from the Afro- Americans. The first CME Church was established in Marshall, county seat of Harrison County, which had a dense Afro- American population (Figure 9). The settlement of Marshall developed as a part of the westward movement in America as early as 1821. After 1830 Harrison County received more than its share of settlers and by 1860 most of the desirable land was occupied. Cotton was important to the economy of the area, and by 1860 Harrison County with its large plantations had more slaves than any other county in Texas. Marshall was said to be the wealthiest city in Texas at the beginning of the Civil War. In 1848 Bishop James 0. Andrew, a prominent prelate of the ME Church, South visited Marshall and influenced the expansion of Methodism in that area. After 1850 the settlers of Marshall boasted of the strength of religion in their area, and by 1860 there were seven Methodist churches in the city. Many Methodist camp meetings were held for religious 101 . 26 and soc1a1 purposes. Marshall also became an area of Negro Methodist conflict. The first conflict involved missionaries from the ME Church, North who established a church as well as Wiley College for Negroes. The second involved missionaries of the AME Church who sought to gain converts from the ranks of CME communicants. These two forces were hindrances to the diffusion of the CME Church. Marshall was just one of the places that suffered from these two forces as indicated by the following words of Bishop Miles in January 1873: I have traveled over a large portion of our work, and have seen a great deal of the world. I find our work is doing well. Men and means are what is wanted to do a great work for Christ. We still have the politi- cal influence of the Methodist Episcopal Church and the African Methodist Episcopal Church to contend with. I wonder if they will never get tired of telling falsehoods on our Church. Through it all, we have a right to the great Head of the Church that notwith— standing all they say and do, we are yet on the gaining ground.2 The East Texas Conference was one of the original conferences to be recognized when the CME innovation became a reality in 1870 at Jackson, Tennessee (Figure 10). W. H. Miles, first bishop of the church, held the first East Texas Annual Conference at Marshall in the ME Church, South on November 6, 1872. Bishop Miles, writing at that session, said: 26Charlie Behn, "The First Settlers in Harrison County," Marshall News-Messenger (September 29, 1929), p. 4. 27Pettigrew, op. cit., p. 33. 102 W Grayson _ Lamar Fanmn Hunt DAL”? W°°d Marion Kaufman Van . Zandt Harrison Smith Henderson Panola 3‘6 2 w. 0.— Anderson Cherokee Shelby 7?“ a; Nacogdoches m 0 'n a .E 2 513 “1‘6 3 . Houston Angelina m g. Sabine <1 Trinity Jasper Newto Tyler "'-..Pa|k The East Texas Hardin Annual Conference Liberty Orange '870 Jefferson .HOUSTON Chambers / 9 W59: 59 Source: Annual Conference Minutes, /870 /l-\ FIGURE 10 Rev. Daniels, presiding elder of the district, had made an arrangement with the officers of the Methodist Episcopal Church to hold the Conference sessions in their church. After religious services, several women came in, claiming to be members of that Church, and ordered us out. One very old lady, bending over a long staff said: "My God, brethren; I am a radical all over! Go away from here, you conservatives!" I felt sorry for the old lady, to think that politics had so deranged an old woman who was nearly in the grave. I withdrew the Conference from their church in good order. I told the brethren not to say anything; and we then marched up to the Public Square, and halted in front of the courthouse, where the Cumberland Presbyterians offered us the use of their church. We did well after that, and had a good time. We bought a lot on which to build a church. The East Texas Con- ference is doing well. They had an increase of l 620 members, and ten preachers we admitted on trial.2é Daniels was accused of organizing a democratic church and was driven out. But the conference was allowed to continue and meetings were held in the white Presbyterian church. The diffusion of "Colored Methodism" in Texas was greatly aided by the circuit riders; M. F. Jamison from Alabama was the most noted of these. He decided to go to Texas in 1872, for he had heard that "wages were very good-- two dollars and a half in greenback and two dollars in gold per day." Jamison and other friends from Alabama divided the area around Marshall into CME circuits known as Black Jack Circuit, Hilliard Circuit, Center Circuit and Antioch Circuit. These men "rode the circuits,‘ exhorting and preaching the gospel as interpreted by the Book of the 28C. H. Phillips, The History of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in America (Jackson, Tenn.: TheOME Publishing House, 1923), p. 55. 104 Discipline of the CME Church. Jamison preached three and four times a week in the "Alabama style,"29 going from plantation to plantation with a gospel that appealed to the common folk. He reported that there were thousands of colored people in that area to whom "religion was all the go." Jamison felt that East Texas was Methodist territory. He said "I am a Methodist from 'away back,‘ and I am ready to defend its doctrines as a game chicken is to fight."30 Jamison was officially admitted to the East Texas Confer— ence under Bishop Isaac Lane in 1873. The spread of the CME Church from East Texas is associated with the westward population movement in general. A citizen of Marshall commented on the westward movement in 1900: For the last two weeks emigrants have been passing through our town to an extent never before witnessed. We suppose they have averaged from ten to fifteen families a day, and "still they come." It is reason- able to suppose that Old Harrison catches her share. With the emigrants there have passed at least 2000 Negroes. In 1874 the western territory of the CME Church was overrun by ministers of the ME Church, North and the 29"Alabama style" preaching is historically noted among CME communicants as a special kind of jubilant old- time preaching that appeals to the poor. 30M. F. Jamison, Autobiography and Work of Bishop M. F. Jamison (Nashville: Publishing House of the ME Church, South, 1912), p. 74. 31Eleanor Atterbury, "The Bloody Neutral Ground in Harrison County, Texas," Texas History Teachers Magazine, Vol. 14 (1902): P. 23. 105 AME Church. (At that time Dallas and Fort Worth were the centers of the western expansion of the church.) CME ministers who were sent to hold these city charges32 could not understand the AME and ME Church ministers. Jamison made the following statement about them: "Our men were old, homespun men; the AME men were manufactured and imported men, finely dressed, who demanded respect from the intelligent people, while our men were domestic men."33 In February, 1875 Jamison was appointed to the Dallas church. He found that the AME and ME Church, North had made tremendous strides in that city. He stated: Our Church in Dallas had to contend with heavy op- position; but it had courage equal to it all, not- withstanding that she was unfortunate in losing some of her best material to the AME and the ME Church, North.34 Under Jamison's pastorate the first CME church was erected in 1875. In the following year Dallas had its first Annual Conference under Bishop BeBee. At this conference Jamison was promoted to the presiding eldership. He later estab- lished CME churches throughout North Texas. The East Texas Annual Conference convened at Long- view in November, 1877 under Bishop BeBee. The success of expansion and diffusion of the CME Church brought 32"Charges"--refers to churches administered by an ordained minister in the CME Church. 33Jamison, op. cit., p. 84. 34Ibid. 106 encouragement to the ministers. This conference was concerned about the cultural development of Negroes; it stressed the necessity of establishing a church supported institution of higher learning and a circulating media. A monthly publication called The East Texas Index was initi- ated by this conference and was first published in Dallas in April, 1878. However, the school was not started since the new bishop assigned to the East Texas Conference in 1878 did not favor it. Although generally church expansion was encouraging, the spread of the church did not always happen as rapidly as its leaders hoped. Other Negro Methodist Churches gathered thousands of those who would have been CME members if the CME Church had spread to more areas earlier. Another problem was stated by Jamison: "Our people, like other Colored folks, were poor and wasteful; besides they were not educated nor trained along missionary lines."35 This brief summary of the establishment of the CME Church in Texas allows one to discuss the spread of the church across the state. The time periods developed in chapter three, i.e., four periods of 25 years each, to cover the span 1870—1970, will again be used. Diffusion Periods This section explores the extent to which the CME 35Ibid., p. 189. 107 Church has organized its religious space in Texas. The culture areas as described by Meinig will be used as a guide in discussing the diffusion of the CME Church in the state (Figure 8). Period 1: 1870-1895. During the first period of "Colored Methodism" (1870—1895), the following culture areas had CME representation: East Texas, ninety-five per cent of the counties; Northeast Texas, ninety—five per cent of the counties; Central Texas, two per cent of the coun- ties; the Gulf Coast, three per cent of the counties; and West Texas, five per cent of the counties (Figure 11a). In the East Texas culture area, the East Texas Conference had four counties with 800-1400 members (Fig- ure 8). Harrison County, the "cradle of 'Colored Methodism,'" along with Panola, Nacogdoches, Gregg and Camp Counties all had significant numbers of CME members. All East Texas counties had CME representation except Marion, Titus, Franklin, Rains and Sabine Counties (Figure 8). In 1894, Tyler in Smith County had the greatest concentration of CME communicants in East Texas, therefore Tyler was selected as the site of the first CME supported school in the state. The impact of this institution will be examined in a discus— sion of the urban church in Texas. By 1873 the church had diffused to the Gulf Coast culture area, reaching as far west as Waller County (Figure 11a). The oldest CME church in the Gulf Coast 108 I. Southeast Tera Conference ZEut Tune Conference 3.0mm Texas Conference 4 Dallas-Fort Worth Conference 5. Int Tue: Conference Membemmp offlw CME. Church in Texas Number of Members am-o—ss - loo—499 I|am-%9 ..meflfifl - 2,000—5,000 Q MIES 200 Source: Annual Conference Minutes FIGURE 11, a, b, c, and d 109 region is at Sunnyside in Waller County. The rice— cultivating people of Sunnyside in the Brazos River valley maintained their CME identity in the midst of strong AME, AMEZ and ME Church, North rivalries.36 Several areas of the Gulf Coast region did not have CME representation during this time, however. One of these was the Beaumont-Port Arthur-Orange triangle where the Catholic influence from nearby Louisiana was strong. The Big Thicket37 counties of Polk, Tyler, San Jacinto and Liberty also had no CME representation (Figure 9). For many years the Big Thicket blocked the westward movement of both Anglo-Saxon and Negro pioneers, causing denser settlements to the north and south38 (Figure 9 ). Sabine County was also without CME representation. This was an ME, North enclave tucked away in the piney woods where custom was important. The ME Church, North was so influ- ential that even today neither CME's, AME's nor AMEZ's are able to survive in this backwoods county. The church had diffused to the Northeast Texas 36Annual Conference Minutes, 1932, The CME Church (Jackson, Tenn.: The CME Publishing House, 1932), p. 12. 37The "Big Thicket" is a famous but ill-defined section of about a thousand square miles in parts of Polk, Hardin and Tyler Counties. It has a particularly dense, jungle-like and varied plant growth in addition to many kinds of wild animals. Elton M. Scott, Texas Geography (Oklahoma City: Harlow Publishing Corporation, 1952), pp. 106-107. 38Thompson, op. cit., p. 41. 110 culture area including Dallas—Ft. Worth. From the North— east Texas area the church spread south to the Central Texas culture region. This was a penetration into an area of great cultural diversity and one dominated by the AME Church, producing hostile feelings between the two churches as they competed for members. The church diffused to ten counties in the West Texas culture area during this period, but there were 49 or less members in each county (Figure 11a). The East Texas Ipdpx, published during this period, was an influential source for transporting the CME innovation to the few West Texas communicants. This magazine, which was very important to the early diffusion of the church in Texas, soon collapsed and was replaced by The Christian Index, published at the general church publishing house in Jackson, Tennes see . 39 Period 2: 1895-1920. During the period 1895—1920 the church diffused into two counties in the Panhandle culture area (Figure 11b). The first church was established at Amarillo in Potter County. The church then expanded to additional counties in West Texas, two in Central Texas, and six in the Gulf Coast culture area (Figure 11b). This was a period in which evangelism was stressed 39East Texas Annual Conference Minutes, 1912, The CME Church (Jackson, Tenn.: The CME Publishing House, 1912), p. 20. 111 by the general church connection. This organization, like most Protestant groups, believed that its adherents should carry the belief to non-believers, that is, every communi- cant should be a missionary. At this time the itineracy system, the circuit system, Texas College and The Christian Ipdgx were also important church expansion measures. During this period the East Texas CME belt continued to hold its own. Tyler had a CME populace of 2,000-3,000 members, and the founding of Texas College was very influ- ential. Afro-Texans began to move to the Southeast along the tidewater and the church followed (Figure 11b). The westward movement of the church reflected the directional shift in cotton production. Churches were established in Mineral Wells and Wichita Falls in the West Texas culture area. Three additional churches were organized in Dallas and one was established at Plano in the Northeast Texas area. Two additional churches were added to the Houston scene and others were established at Galveston, Port Arthur and Baytown in the Gulf Coast culture area. The church took on a slightly urban character during this period.40 Period 3: 1920-1945. The period 1920-1945 can be classified as one of urban diffusion. Dallas, Harris and Gregg became leading CME counties in the Northeast Texas, Gulf Coast and East Texas culture areas 40Annual Conference Minutes, 1931, The CME Church (Jackson, Tenn.: The CME Publishing House, 1931), p. 6. 112 respectively (Figure 11c). The East Texas counties of Nacogdoches, Jefferson, Rusk, Smith and Cherokee had large representations. A pattern of church diffusion continued southeast and westward. At the end of the period (1945), the church embraced the following culture areas: the Panhandle (one additional county), West Texas (13 addi- tional counties), Central Texas (three additional counties), the Gulf Coast (with tremendous increases in Harris and Jefferson Counties), and the German Hill Country (one additional county) (Figure 11c). Ft. Bend County, which is adjacent to Harris County, has no CME church (Figure 9 ). The AME and the ME Church, North served as barriers to the diffusion of the CME Church in this border county. The counties of Walker, San Jacinto, Montgomery, Liberty and Polk formed an AME enclave penetrating into CME territory in the East Texas and Gulf Coast culture areas. Period 4: 1945-1970. During the last period (1945-1970) the church continued diffusing to West Texas where growth in Reeves County was comparatively phenomenal (Figure 11d). The greatest concentration of CME's ap- peared in Dallas. During this period churches were estab- lished in Lubbock, Breckenridge, Pampa and Floydada in the West Texas culture area (Figures 9 and 11d). This is a reflection of Afro—Texans following cotton to the West Texas plains. 113 The Five Annual Conferences Prior to 1960 it would have been impossible to ac- curately discuss the diffusion of the church via the five annual conferences which presently embrace the Eighth Episcopal District (Figure 11d). The status of the five annual conferences is presented in Table 12. The complex history of these annual conferences will not be presented; only those necessary facts that are related to the continued diffusion of the CME Church in Texas will be given. TABLE 12 ANNUAL CONFERENCES OF THE EIGHTH EPISCOPAL DISTRICT OF TEXAS, CHRISTIAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 1970 Annual District Member- Conferences Conferences* ship Churches Northwest Texas Abilene 1,749 29 Wichita- Amarillo Dallas-Ft. Worth Dallas 7,366 50 Fort Worth Southeast Texas Houston 6,661 72 Beaumont Central Texas North Tyler 4,875 55 Tyler East Texas Longview~ 6,534 75 Marshall Greenville Total 27,185 291 *Two or more district conferences comprise the geographical area of an annual conference. Source: Annual Conference Minutes, 1970, The CME Church (Memphis: The CME Publishing House, 1970). 114 The East Texas Conference was the first "Colored Methodist" conference in Texas; the conference boundary originally included the territory in Texas from the Louisiana border to Dallas (Figure 10). This conference has since been divided into the East Texas Conference, the Dallas-Ft. Worth Conference, the Central Texas Conference and the Southeast Texas Conference. The present East Texas Conference was organized from the territory of the original East Texas Conference which included all of the counties of Texas south of the Red River, north of the Gulf of Mexico and east of the Trinity River (Figure 10). The Northwest Texas Conference was officially organized in 1934, which coincided with the diffusion and the establishment of the CME churches in the West in the third period of "Colored Methodism." This conference includes parts of both the West Texas and Panhandle culture areas. The Central Texas Conference was organized in 1915 from the territory of the old East Texas Conference. This occurred during the second period of "Colored Methodism." The influence of Texas College, a CME supported institution in this conference, encouraged growth and expansion of the CME Church. The Southeast Texas Conference was organized in the fourth period of "Colored Methodism." This conference includes parts of the East Texas, Gulf Coast, Central Texas and the German Hill Country culture areas. The CME mission 115 in Austin, one church in San Antonio,and the pr0perty in Kerr County are parts of the Southeast Texas Conference. The Dallas—Ft. Worth Conference, organized from the territory of the original East Texas Conference, is the only urban conference in the Eighth Episcopal District. This particular conference will be examined regarding the impact of the CME Church on the urban Texas landscape in the following chapter. No mention has been made of the church diffusing to the Southwest Texas culture area. Only the city of El Paso, with one CME congregation, belongs to the Ninth Episcopal District, which geographically separates it from the rest of Texas, the Eighth Episcopal District. This examination of the cultural diffusion of a religious social system and its impact on the Texas land- scape reveals that the church is deeply integrated into the regional culture of East Texas. The church has spread across the state of Texas, and in the third and fourth periods of "Colored Methodism" has turned toward the urban centers where it is following the migrating communicants. However, the church, from its inception in 1870 to the present time, remains predominantly rural and is predominantly located in the East Texas piney woods where the majority of Afro-Texans continue to reside. The character of a rural CME community and a small town CME church are examined in detail. 116 THE RURAL CHURCH A rural church is considered a fellowship of believers located either in the open countryside or in small towns and villages.41 Rural churches are kinship churches and in East Texas communities were often named after the churches. A Negro in Alabama was asked to identify the people in an adjoining rural community and his reply was "The nationality in there is Methodist." For the Negro masses, in their social and moral isolation in American society, the church community has been a nation within a nation.42 Rural parishes located in areas of population stag- nation and decline are often unable to respond to pOpulation shifts and other changes. The following statement gives evidence of this: We've got to impress rural church people that this world is changing. And too many of us are not even aware that changes are taking place. A rural church that isn't changing to suit the times is like a car that is out of date. It will soon wind up in the junk heap. We've got junk heap churches all over the state.43 41The U. S. Census Bureau has divided the American population into rural and urban people on the basis of where they reside rather than on the basis of their occupations, personal values or other characteristics. Persons who live in the country or in towns of less than 2,500 people are said to be rural. All others are urban. For a discussion of rural society see: Everett M. Rogers, Social Change in Rural Society (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc., 1960). 42 Ibid., p. 213. 43Ibid., p. 206. 117 Rural CME Church communicants are notably reluctant to adjust to changing conditions. They suffer from a lack of financial support, untrained and untutored ministers, and inadequate programs to serve the present age. Rural CME churches in East Texas are dominated by an agricultural people whose customs may appear strange to urban dwellers. "44 is common and associated For example, "agricultural magic with planting crops, castrating or dehorning livestock, or cutting weeds by the sign of the moon. Throughout the nation there is a trend to consoli— date several small rural churches into one larger church. As a result the number of churches is generally declining in America. In Texas there are dozens of circuits and mis- sions that need to be consolidated and re—consolidated so as to better serve the present age. The church is sometimes regarded as a hindrance to change in the rural community, in that it tends to retain old values and methods. The cemetery where great-grandfather was buried, for instance, holds a great sentimental value to many folk, and often serves as a barrier to church mergers. Many rural CME churches in East Texas own and operate such burial grounds. CME communicants who have migrated from their birthplace often return their dead kindred to a particular CME cemetery near where they were 44"Agricultural magic"——those farming beliefs and practices which lack any scientific explanation. 118 born. Many believe that they should be returned to the soil of their birth. In this way cemeteries can deter church consolidation.45 In recent years, rural East Texas cotton fields have become somewhat deserted while the cities teem with relocated throngs of Negroes living in the ghetto areas. In such a situation rural churches are described as "sending stations,‘ and urban churches become "receiving stations." In 1950 the U. S. Census showed Texas to be predominantly a state of city dwellers. The population of the east-central portion of Texas, where the bulk of rural people have always lived, generally declined, while the heaviest gains were in parts of West Texas, along the Gulf Coast, and in the heavily urbanized counties. Universe-~A Rural CME Community Universe has been selected because of its proxi- mity to Tyler, the home of Texas College, and because of an acquaintance with CME parishioners who were cooperative in supplying information about this community. Universe is a rural CME community located approximately five miles from the urban complex of Tyler in Smith County, Texas (Figure 9). It was a slave community and in pre—Civil War times the colored folk worshipped with their masters at the Baskom Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Ben Goss, 45Rogers, op. cit., p. 209. 119 a slave, was a leader for the colored members of that church46 and later, in 1869, he asked the presiding elder to let the blacks worship by themselves. Permission was granted and Ben Goss held services for the slaves at his home. Goss and the presiding elder named the church the Universe Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Goss donated land, and each land owner donated timber to be cut into lumber for the building of the present Universe church and school. The organization of the church at first was un- official because the general conference of the ME Church, South had not permitted the organization of any Colored Methodist Episcopal Church. However, in 1870 the ME Church, South officially recognized the Universe CME Church. When the announcement came the parishioners were well on their way to becoming a part of the official church. M. F. Jamison, the most important circuit rider in Texas, held his first quarterly conference in Universe in 1878 as presiding elder of the Tyler District. George Hughes became the first local preacher of the Universe church. The Universe church was responsible for the con- tinued diffusion of "Colored Methodism" into the surrounding 46This section is primarily the result of an inter- view with four sisters of the Goss family in the Universe com- munity. The Goss sisters were most willing to give the in- formation and all of them spoke with the highest regard for their father. They stated that their father had traveled on the underground railroad and that he belonged to the Brown race and that his Mistress taught him how to read. Goss later became one of the largest Negro landowners in East Texas. 120 country. From the Universe church the idea spread to in- clude other CME churches such as the Starville, Chapel Hill and Hopewell CME Churches. These organizations developed along with the dispersal of Negroes over the farmlands of Smith County. The Universe church was originally a circuit church and has remained that way for decades. The parishioners were agricultural and cotton was their main crop. The discovery of oil in the East Texas oil field, located about four miles from Universe, caused a shift in the occupation of the people and most of the parishioners moved to the larger cities of Tyler, Henderson and Kilgore. Tyler's Miles Chapel Church has twelve members who were former members of the Universe church. The impact of this small church is noted by the following expression: I was married in a Baptist family for 10 years--they claimed they washed the Methodist off of me, but joining them didn't change me, for I came back to the Methodist family, my home. The Universe CME Church is an example of a rural CME church that needs to be consolidated, but the affinity for this church and its cemetery keeps it on the landscape. The church once had 150 members, but has dwindled to 23 participating members today. This little church seems to 47Interview with a gentleman in the Universe com- munity who wished to remain anonymous. 121 have a permanent home in the wildwoods of East Texas, and its 23 members shudder at the thought of closing their church home. THE SMALL TOWN CHURCH--CENTER, TEXAS Center, the county seat of Shelby County, is located in the timbered hill country in the Sabine River Valley watershed on the western edge of the Sabine National Forest. Center has a population of 7,500 and is part of the East Texas culture area (Figure 9). Center has been selected for this study because of its concentration of CME communicants and their known influence in the general church. Shelby County was settled by Anglo-Americans between 1824 and 1836. J. E. Latham, the first Anglo-Saxon in Shelby County, settled at East Hamilton in 1818 (Figure 9). He was followed by settlers from Tennessee and Kentucky. The area, originally a district of the municipality of Nacogdoches, in 1835 became the municipality of Tenahaw with Nashville as the seat of government. Nashville had been settled by people from Tennessee but the name was changed to Shelbyville in honor of Isaac Shelby, a gallant officer in the Continental army. On March 17, 1836 Shelby County was created as one of the 31 original counties of Texas. In 1866 the county seat was moved to the center of the county and the town was appropriately named Center, Texas. 122 The cotton culture of the Old South became dominant in Shelby County. For many years this county was one of the leading cotton producing areas in East Texas. The planters shipped their cotton down the Sabine River to New Orleans from the small port settlement of East Hamilton (Figure 9). Religion was not neglected in this East Texas "piney woods" country. James English was a Methodist circuit rider in this area in 1825. The first Methodist church, built in Shelbyville in 1845, was destroyed by a storm and rebuilt in 1897. The current church is an impres- sive stately structure bringing a New England flavor to the East Texas hills. Many of the white settlers who brought Methodist ideas with them from Kentucky and Tennessee also brought Negroes. The Methodist church at Shelbyville, which later became the Methodist Episc0pal Church, South, lost a number of its members to the organization of the ME Church, South in Center. The church at Center, like all other Methodist Episcopal churches in the Southern conferences, was con- cerned with the religious life of the slaves. Slaves worshipped with the whites in their churches and were a part of the East Texas Conference of the ME Church, South. Missions giving religious instruction to the slaves were also founded in Shelby County which was a part of the East Texas Conference. After the Civil War, due to the emancipation of 123 Negroes, and the upheaval of social conditions throughout the South, there had to be change at Center.48 An interview was held with several pioneer Negroes concerning the separation of Negroes from the ME Church, South. When there was a need for the establishment of a church for the colored folk to be called the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in America, my father donated the land for the building of our church. We now have 3 church and a small cemetery on that spot of‘ground.4 Another mentioned: Our church, Mt. Zion Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, was organized in 1877 with twenty organizing members and Rev. Napoleon Bonaparte was our first preacher. The AME's came here but they were not successful with our folk. Some of the old-line Negro families were organizers and members of-the original church, such as the Jennings, Hicks, Boothes, Osbys, Cooks, McCollisters, Nelms, Greers, Nobles, Browns, Rushings, Chandlers, Beckets, Fountains, Akers and the Hearnes. Most of these families were slaves or their descendants who were brought to Shelby County from the Old South with their masters. The Center circuit was visited by M. F. Jamison, the most noted circuit rider in Texas, who influenced the spread of "Colored Methodism" in Shelby County. Center remained a circuit in the Nacogdoches District within the Texas Conference for many years. The idea of "Colored Methodism" was easily diffused in this environment because 48"History of Shelby County," (Center, Texas: Shelby County Historical Society, 1969). Mimeographed paper. 49Interview with Mrs. Lola Liscomb who is a member of Mt. Zion CME Church, Center, Texas, November, 1970. 50Interviews with Mrs. Agatha Osby who was 94 years old in December 1970, and Mrs. Blanche Pilot McClelland whose father H. B. Pilot served as church secretary for 29 years. 124 it was similar to the Methodist territory in the Old South from whence many of these settlers came. The Mt. Zion CME Church in Center is built on a hill and many of the members refer to it as "our Zion." (This reference "our Zion" is used throughout "Colored Methodism" in referring to the general church.) The physical site as well as the reference to Zion resulted in the naming of the church Mt. Zion (Figures 12a and 12b). The cultural geography of the area around Mt. Zion Church is associated with a group of poor, rural, common laboring people who nevertheless support their institution. The impact of the church is noted in the number of its communicants who have migrated to the cities of the North and South, but have remained loyal to the CME Church upon changing their physical and cultural environments51 (Figure 13). The impact of this small church is apparent from the contributions to the church by its members who have migrated to other environments. Former members of the Mt. Zion Church at Center are now a part of the First, Second, Fourth and Ninth Episcopal Districts of the CME Church (Figure 2). In the decade 1950-1960 this small group of com- municants saw the need for a new church building. These 51This information was received via interviews in November, 1970 with Christine McClelland, Willard McClelland, Norman Fountain, Myrtle Adams, Thelma Ayers, Doris Bell and O. K. Jennings. All are members or former members of Mt. Zion Church. 125 Mt. Zion CME Church, Center, Texas. This small town church was built when its mem— bers traveled to church via horses, wagons and buggies. Contributed by Mrs. Mattie Bolton. FIGURE 12a The new Mt. Zion CME Church, built in 1963. This is an evidence of change in the small town church on the East Texas landscape. Photo by author. FIGURE 12b 126 MH MMDGHM r\ quzz own w .IL. A 28sz Co 52:32 7 1 m e 3:50 20.530: 1 o. 5llTlTT¥TlTllv H FITT\|\ r/_ _ _ , _anmazm 233 s T T, - 9 / / _ .... 1 1 I / . _ v 17 \T . \ / , _ \ _ / J L i / / ...- . 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