History of African Methodism in Virginia ― Or Four Decades in the Old Dominion

In writing this book I have had in mind to write a brief history of African Methodism in Virginia, for the A. M. E. Church and her many readers and ardent laborers in the bounds of the State, and sketches and bits of history in the connection generally. This little volume may not comprehend all the necessary items of the work done by the Church in our State since its organization May, 1867, but it is a beginning; other historians from this, with new data gathered, may write a more comprehensive book, taking in all necessary points of progress. It seems that I was pressed into this service by Providence. The necessity for such a book came up incidentally in 1905. I said that I would think the matter over and decide what I would do. At the expiration of two weeks I had concluded to attempt the writing of this work. Seeing many of the old pioneers passing away so rapidly, I felt the need of such a publication and considered that it was the duty of some one who was contemporary with the fathers, and having spent thirty consecutive years of the forty in the Virginia Conference I undertook the task. It has been my aim to take up the main body of the work done and give sketches of the men who did it and not the organization of every individual church except in a few cases. I do not claim perfection for this little work; getting data even from the Conference Journal has been a very difficult task. I have striven hard for accuracy and have endeavored to get a sketch of every minister who has labored in the Conference since its organization, whether he is living or dead. The living whose sketches do not appear failed to send them to me for publication.