[Illustration: REV. L. M. HAGOOD, M.D. ] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ THE COLORED MAN IN THE Methodist Episcopal Church. BY THE REV. L. M. HAGOOD, M.D., OF THE LEXINGTON CONFERENCE. --------------------- CINCINNATI: CRANSTON & STOWE. NEW YORK: HUNT & EATON. 1890. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright by _L. M. HAGOOD,_ 1890. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ PREFACE. ---------- The history of the relations existing between the Methodist Episcopal Church and the colored man—or rather, the status of the colored man within the Church—so far as known, has never been written. There are many cogent reasons why such a history should be written. From the time of the landing of a cargo of twenty African slaves at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1620, until this hour, the colored man has been the subject of much discussion. Touching his status as a man, there have always been two sides: one in favor of enslaving him, and the other objecting to enslaving him. Both sides of this vexed question have always been represented within the Church. The fact that there has always been a majority in the Church opposed to enslaving him; that therefore the Church early enlisted in the cause of his emancipation,—has kept up a continuous though bloodless warfare within the Church. Thus the colored man early learned to love Methodism, and soon large numbers were brought into its communion. The emancipation and enfranchisement of the race did not put a quietus upon the agitation of the question. Many white and colored members are not conversant with the history of our Church touching this subject. It has always been a question to many, why men of the race within the Church have not been as ready to write the _actual facts_ in the case, as some of the race in other Churches have been to record many _half truths_ relating thereto. It is true that while the public eye and ear appear always open and attentive to anything written or spoken by those who can claim kin with Jefferson, Clay, Sumner, Lincoln, or Grant, there is an apparent unwillingness to give audience to those who have always been subjected to ostracism.