The History of the Negro ChurchWoodson, Carter Godwin
Religion
The History of the Negro Church
Woodson, Carter Godwin
African Americans -- Religion
From the Methodists there emerged another such preacher, Black Harry,
who, accompanying Mr. Asbury, learned from him to preach more forcefully
than Asbury himself. According to a contemporary, Harry was "small, very
black, keen-eyed, possessing great volubility of tongue; and, although
illiterate so that he could not read," was one of the most popular
preachers of that age. Upon hearing Harry preach, Dr. Benjamin Rush
pronounced him the greatest orator in America. Desiring Harry to
accompany him in 1782, Bishop Asbury made the request, saying that the
way to have a very large congregation was to give out that Harry was to
preach, as more would come to hear Harry than to hear Bishop Asbury. On
one occasion in Wilmington, Delaware, where the cause of the Methodist
was unpopular, a large number of persons came out of curiosity to hear
Bishop Asbury. But, as the auditorium was already taxed to its fullest
capacity, they could only hear from the outside. At the conclusion of
the exercises, they said, without having seen the speaker: "If all
Methodist preachers can preach like the Bishop, we should like to be
constant hearers." Some one present replied: "That was not the Bishop,
but the Bishop's servant that you heard." This, to be sure, had the
desired effect, for these inquirers concluded: "If such be the servant,
what must the master be?" "The truth was," says John Ledman in his
_History of the Rise of Methodism in America_, "that Harry was a more
popular speaker than Mr. Asbury or almost any one else in his day." In
this same capacity Harry accompanied and preached with not only Mr.
Asbury but with Garretson, Watcote, and Dr. Coke.
"After he had moved on the tide of popularity for a number of years,"
says John Ledman, "he fell by wine, one of the strong enemies of both
ministers and people. And now, alas! this popular preacher was a drunken
ragpicker in the streets of Philadelphia. But we will not leave him
here. One evening Harry started down the Neck, below Southwark,
determined to remain there until his backslidings were healed. Under a
tree he wrestled with God in prayer. Sometime that night God restored to
him the joys of his salvation. From this time Harry continued faithful;
though he could not stand before the people with that pleasing
confidence as a public speaker that he had before his fall. About the
year 1810 Harry finished his course; and, it is believed, made a good
end. An unusually large number of people, both white and colored,
followed his body to its last resting place, in a free burying ground in
Kensington."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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