A History of the Black Church in Tuscaloosa

By Forrest Moore

The history of the black church in Tuscaloosa could very well be the story of the black church in most of the southern cities in the United States. The purpose of this book is to document a historical progression of the black church in Tuscaloosa and how it has evolved into what it is today. The saga of a stolen, raped, enslaved, and disenfranchised people who took the crumbs of their existence and produced a loaf of hope for their descendents is worth investigating.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Mar 2, 2009
• ISBN: 9781467873772

Forrest Moore

Pastor Moore is entering his twenty-seventh year as pastor of the Westhighland Missionary Baptist Church at 628 29th Street, Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He has earned degrees in Religious Studies from bible college and seminary and is currently a professor at the Tuscaloosa extension of the Birmingham Theological Seminary.

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Contents

Foreword

Introduction

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Works Cited

Foreword 

The history of the black church in Tuscaloosa could very well be the story of the black church in most of the southern cities in the United States. The purpose of this book is to document a historical progression of the black church in Tuscaloosa and how it has evolved into what it is today. The saga of a stolen, raped, enslaved, and disenfranchised people who took the crumbs of their existence and produced a loaf of hope for their descendents is worth investigating.

The knowledge of where one comes from is essential to the historical and intellectual wholeness of a people. A people that do not keep up with history cannot pass on history. This challenges the African American Christians to earnestly endeavor to bridge the informational gap between the current generation and the generations that preceded this one before it’s too late. The religious legacy of the black church in Tuscaloosa hangs in the balance. There is already too much important history lost.

Introduction 

According to the American Heritage Dictionary, history is said to be a chronological record of events, as of the life or development of a people, country, or institution. If this is the case, history is important and should be studied. The definition suggests that all events that occur in time eventually become history. Every generation makes history, whether recorded or not. Each successive generation is responsible for learning from the history of the previous generations. This makes recorded history even more important. If history gives an account of the development of a people or an institution; the black church in the city of Tuscaloosa has a history.

It is virtually impossible to give an account of every event or circumstance that takes place in the development of a people or an institution, but diligent research can provide enough information to get a general idea of how things evolved. It is regrettable that there is no chronological record of the development of the black church in the city of Tuscaloosa, so, after much research, this book offers a history of the black church in Tuscaloosa, as opposed to the history.

This project is a matter of gathering bits and pieces of information from a variety of sources and compiling them in an imperfect chronological order. Most of the historical details come from the individual churches’ histories. Research shows that the history of the black church is, by and large, a series of both divine and natural elements working strategically together to produce; against all odds, a miracle.

It is impossible to research black history without including slavery. There would be no black church in Tuscaloosa had there not first been black slaves in Tuscaloosa. To appreciate the evolutionary process of the people and the institution, we must begin our journey on the west coast of the continent of African and travel by ship to the Gulf and Atlantic coasts of America.

Chapter One 

Important Historical Facts

Blacks in Tuscaloosa are the descendants of the original African slaves who were bought or kidnapped and brought to America from West and West Central Africa during the transatlantic slave trade from 1500 to 1900.

The transatlantic slave trade generally followed a triangular route. Traders set out from European ports toward Africa’s west coast. They kidnapped and bought slaves in exchange for European goods, loaded them on ships, and sailed from six to eight weeks to the Americas (South and North America). After unloading the slaves, the ships would sail back to Europe carrying sugar, coffee, tobacco, rice, and cotton. The major European nations involved in slave trade were Portugal, Spain, Britain, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden.

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The Transatlantic Trade Route

The history of African American slavery in the United States can be divided into two periods: the first coincided with the colonial years, about 1650 to 1790; the second lasted from American independence through the Civil War, from 1790 to 1865. Prior to independence, slavery existed in all the American colonies and therefore was not an issue of sectional debate. With the arrival of independence, however, the new Northern states came to see slavery as contradictory to the ideals of the Revolution and instituted programs of gradual emancipation.

By 1820, there were only about 3,000 slaves in the North, almost all of them working on large farms in New Jersey. Slavery could be abolished more easily in the North because there were far fewer slaves in those states, and they were not a vital part of Northern economies. There were plenty of free white men to do the sort of labor slaves performed. In fact, the main demand for abolition of slavery came not from those who found it morally wrong, but from white working-class men who did not want slaves as rivals for their jobs. However, circumstances in the newly formed Southern states were quite different. The African American population, both slave and free, was much larger.

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An overloaded slave ship

In Virginia and South Carolina in 1790, nearly half of the population was of African descent. Historians have traditionally assumed that South Carolina had a black majority population throughout its pre-Civil War history, but census figures for 1790 to 1810 show that the state possessed a majority of whites. There were other Southern states that had large black minorities.

Of equal importance in the Southern states was the economic role that slaves played. These states were much more dependent on the agricultural sector of their economies than were Northern ones. Much of the wealth of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia came from the cash crops that slaves grew. Indeed, many white Southerners did not believe white men could (or should) do the backbreaking labor required to produce tobacco, cotton, rice, and indigo, which were the region’s chief cash crops. As a consequence of these factors, the Southern states were determined to retain slavery after the Revolution. Thus began the fatal division between free states and slave states that led to sectionalism and, ultimately, to civil war.

Another regrettable and often overlooked fact, in respect to origin, is that there were black slave owners as well as white. It is a historical fact that many freed slaves became slave masters themselves, and for the same reason as whites: to make use of slave labor for the sake of profit. There is ample evidence that demonstrates free blacks purchased slaves as capital investments. These slave owners bought slaves as commercial assets and used them to make a profit.

Even though black slave owners demonstrated benevolent behavior toward their slave relatives and friends, a commercial exchange existed between them. Case in point: in 1834, Richard Holloway, Sr., a free black of Charleston City, South Carolina, bought a slave woman named Sarah and her two children, Annett and Edward, from Susan B. Robertson for $575. Within three years of the purchase, he sold the family for $945, a $370 profit. In another of many instances, Rose Summers, a black slave owner, stated in her will: I desire as soon as it may be practicable that my Executor herein named will sell for money my four slaves to the best possible advantage together with all my household furniture. Black slave owners used the slaves they owned as commodities, collateral to secure loans, payment for debts owed, financial investments, and mortgages.

The black masters who were not related to their slaves by ties of kinship were not disturbed when default or seizure occurred. In December 1841, John S. Mark, a barber of Charleston City, bought a slave named Billy and his wife Provy from Otto Cook for $420. Two years later, he obtained a loan from George Shrewberry for $300. To secure the loan, he mortgaged Billy and Provy. Shortly thereafter, John defaulted on the loan and sold Billy and Provy for $375. Black slave masters continued to own slaves even when the Union army was preparing to invade South Carolina in 1864.

African Americans in Tuscaloosa are likely to have descended from several African tribes, including Mandingos, Binis, Sengalese, Hausas, Yorubas, Ibos, Efiks, Krus, Fantins, Ashantis, and Dahomeans. As a result of cross-breeding and the process of dissemination, African Americans are still experiencing an identity crisis in respect to their roots. They have been called slaves, niggers, Negroes, colored, Afro-Americans, blacks, and now African Americans.

Slavery was not new to Africa. Traditionally, slavery was used as a punishment for serious crimes. However, although slavery was a punishment for criminals, they were, in the main, treated fairly well by their masters. This was not the case once trading in slaves became big business.

From about 1510, Europeans had begun capturing slaves and taking them to work in the Americas. They were easily able to do this because their weapons were much more powerful than the Africans’ traditional spears and shields.

As the demand for slaves grew, the demand for slaves by Europeans grew. They exchanged guns for slaves, and African chiefs, eager to possess guns which would give them power over rival chiefs, began inventing new crimes for which the punishment was slavery. At the same time, coastal Africans were using guns to raid inland villages for the slaves that the Europeans wanted. Those who resisted capture were killed.

Slaves were chained together and marched to the coast. Sometimes this could take many days or weeks. Slaves who did not move fast enough, or showed any sign of resistance to the traders, were whipped.

Those who were too weak or sickly to complete the journey at the required pace were left to die. Fear of the slave trader led many Africans to move to remote areas where the soil was not so good and they were unable to grow enough crops to feed themselves. Africa became a continent of violence, war, fear and famine. Once in the Americas, slaves were sold, by auction, to the person that bid the most money for them. It was here that family members would find themselves split up, as a bidder might not want to buy the whole family, only the strongest and healthiest member.

The first Africans, twenty in number, landed at port Jamestown Virginia, in 1619. They were brought to the colony as indentured servants. To meet the growing demand for labor, Virginia instituted slavery in 1671. From that time until slavery’s abolition in 1865, millions of African slaves were shipped to North America. White fortunes were made, banks and businesses founded, towns and cities built, and independence gained in the two hundred fifty years slavery existed. This was no coincidence. The unpaid labor of slaves wove through every aspect of American life. Not only were slaves unpaid, they were treated like material objects to be bought and sold at market. Slave auctions were advertised when it was known that a slave ship was due to arrive. Posters would be displayed around the town.

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Slave auction poster

When the slave ship docked, the slaves would be taken off the ship and placed in a pen. There they would be washed and their skin covered with grease, or sometimes tar, to make them look healthier. This was done so that they would fetch as much money as possible. They would also be branded with a hot iron to identify them as slaves.

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Slave holding pen

There were two main types of slave auctions:

1. Those that sold to the highest bidder

2. Grab and go auctions

Sold! to the highest bidder

The slaves would be brought from the pen, in turn, to stand on a raised platform so that they could be seen by the buyers. Before the bidding began, those that wished to could come up onto the platform to inspect the slaves closely. The slaves had to endure being poked, prodded, and forced to open their mouths for the buyers. The auctioneer would decide a price to start the bidding. The bidding would be higher for fit, young slaves and lower for older, very young, or sickly slaves. Potential buyers would then bid against each other. The person who bid the most would then own that slave. The picture below shows slaves being auctioned to the highest bidder.

The Grab and Go Auction

All people who wanted to buy a slave on the day of the auction would pay the trader an agreed amount of money. The trader would then give them a ticket for each slave that they had bought. At the sound of a drum roll, the door to the slave pen would be opened, and the buyers would rush in and grab the slave or slaves that they wanted. The buyers then checked their slaves out by returning their ticket or tickets to the slave trader.