The Devil's sons. Vol. 5

Chloé Wallerand

Description

The story of a church that became influential within the Black community in Florida after the Civil War

This history of the
African Methodist Episcopal Zion (AMEZ) Church in Florida tells how
dedicated members of one of the oldest and most prominent black
religious institutions created a forceful presence within the
African-American community--against innumerable odds and constant
challenges.

The African Methodist Episcopal Zion denomination
established an official presence in the state one year before its
better-known cousin and rival, the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
When Connecticut native Wilbur Garrison Strong arrived in Key West in
1864, he stood out as the first black ordained minister in all of
peninsular Florida. He brought with him the northern Methodist tradition
of joyful praise and preaching, an ethos of a plain and simple gospel
that emphasized "righteous living" and an unbending commitment to
emancipation and hope. With Key West under the control of Union forces
during much of the Civil War, slaves and free Black people were able to
express their desire for independence from white churches more easily
there than throughout the rest of the state, and they gravitated to the
church that Strong established.

During its formative years, the
AMEZ became one of the first mainline churches to ordain women to full
clerical status. Its ministers commanded great strength in certain
cities, and its membership included more of the urban and middle-class
population than was typical for southern religious organizations, which
were predominantly rural. At its zenith, the AMEZ was one of the largest
African-American churches in the state. But it faced
difficulties--gender issues, idiosyncratic leadership, rivalries between
local ministers and Episcopal authorities, and political dissension at a
point when the church was attempting to address larger social issues.
In addition, the scourge of hurricanes and yellow fever and citrus crop
freezes affected church fortunes. By 1905, when the governor urged the
expulsion of all African-Americans from Florida and when state laws
mandated racial segregation on public transportation, the era of
lynching, discrimination, and disfranchisement already had begun and the
period of AMEZ decline had commenced.

In this remarkable yet
virtually unknown story, the coauthors capture the mood of the
post-Civil-War period in Florida, when Black people faced the obstacles
and the opportunities that accompanied their new freedom. This work adds
significantly to the growing body of literature on African-Americans in
Florida and offers keen insights into the nature of institution
building within the black community and the greater society.

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