Autobiography, An: The Story of the Lord’s Dealings with Mrs. with, the Colored Evangelist
[Religion]. Smith, Mrs. Amanda. An Autobiography: The Story of the Lord’s Dealings with Mrs. Amanda Smith, the Colored Evangelist. Containing an Account of Her Life Work of Faith, and Her Travels in America, England, Ireland, Scotland, India and Africa as an Independent Missionary. Chicago: Meyer and Brother, 1893.
8vo.; engraved portrait frontispiece of Smith in missionary uniform; blue cloth; front cover with a gilt design after the portrait frontispiece; covers lightly used, rubbed.
First edition of the life story of Amanda Berry Smith, an American born ex-slave and evangelist missionary. The text narrates Smith’s childhood (she was born a slave, in Maryland), her early adult years in post-emancipation America; her marriage; her growing religious beliefs; and, eventually, her ascension through the ranks of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and her evangelical trips to the British Isles, India, and Africa to “improve the earthly existence of my people.” A compelling document of one woman’s transition from servitude to literal, figurative, and spiritual autonomy. It originally appeared during what critic Henry Louis Gates Jr. has termed the “Black Woman’s Era” in publishing, which saw a dramatic increase in works by African American women published between 1896-1910.
Interesting, especially in retrospect, is the section in which Smith describes her moment of religious enlightenment, which coincides with an act of self-defense against her son-in-law and her estranged husband:
...That day in New Utrecht, John Bentley [Smith’s son-in-law] came in as I was in the room talking with James, my husband. I had gone over to see him. My rent was due, and he had not been over for weeks and had not sent me any money. My baby was sick, and I was insisting that James...should at least [give me] the 60 cents that it cost me to come to New York. But he would not...
The situation, according to Smith, escalated:
John Bentley cursed and swore at me...I turned to him and said quietly: ‘Why, John Bentley, haven’t I a right to come where my husband is?’ But he was fierce. I did not know but that he was going to strike me.
Smith relates a violent physical and verbal altercation in which both her husband and son-in-law struggle with her, an altercation interrupted only by Smith’s sudden spiritual strength:
He went on talking and abused me terribly. There seemed to come an indescribable power over me, and I said to him: ‘Mind, John Bentley, the God that I serve will make you pay for this before the year is out.’ He said: ‘Well, I don’t care if he does. Let Him do it...’
Remarkably, this was the result:
This was about two weeks before Christmas, and before the New Year came, John Bentley was dead and buried! I always feel sad when I think of it, but I believe that God was displeased with that man for cursing me that day. (pp. 94-5)
The proceeds from the Autobiography enabled Smith to purchase and convert a large brick house in Harvey, Illinois, into a home and school for black orphans. Smith, like Phillis Wheatley, Sojourner Truth, and others, demonstrated a “perfect self-consecration to the service of God and man and...the possibilities of the Negro Woman [to] rise like her in His likeness and image” (Rev. William Taylor, introduction, pp. xxix).
(#4801)
Print Inquire
