Amanda Berry Smith (1837–1915) was the first African-American woman to serve as an international evangelist. This month is the 100th anniversary of her death.
Smith was born to slave parents Jan. 23, 1837, in Long Green, Md. After her father, Samuel Berry, purchased his freedom and then the freedom of his wife and five children, they moved to York County, Pa. Her parents had seven more children. Their home became a station on the Underground Railroad.
Learning to read and write
She had only three months of formal schooling, but her parents taught her to read and write. At an early age she helped support her family as a washerwoman and maid.
Smith married Calvin Devine in 1854 and had two children.
On March 17, 1856, she experienced a conversion. In her autobiography she wrote, “O, Lord, if Thou wilt help me I will believe Thee, and in the act of telling God I would, I did. O, the peace and joy that flooded my soul! The burden rolled away; I felt it when it left me and a flood of light and joy swept through my soul such as I had never known before.”
After her husband, a Union soldier, died in the Civil War, she moved to Philadelphia. In 1863 she married James Smith, a deacon in the African Methodist Episcopal church. She had three more children. By 1869, her husband and all but one child had died.
Smith began preaching in churches and camp meetings in New York and New Jersey. In 1870 she committed herself to evangelism and for the next several years preached in the East and Midwest. Never ordained, she was an independent evangelist, getting no support from any organization. She relied completely on prayer for all her needs.
Popular with both black and white audiences, Smith was known not only for her inspired teaching but also for her beautiful voice.
Her work as an international evangelist began in 1876 when white friends asked her to go to England. They provided her with a first class cabin on the ship. She preached a year and a half in England and Scotland.
From there she went to India, where she ministered from 1879 to 1881. For the next eight years she worked as a missionary and an evangelist in Liberia and Sierra Leone. After returning to America, she settled in Chicago and continued to preach.
She opened an orphanage in 1899 in Harvey, Ill., for African-American children.
The orphanage was made possible by money from her savings, support from friends and the proceeds from her autobiography, which she had published in 1893.
Retirement
In 1912 she retired to Sebring, Fla., because of her failing health. The state of Illinois took over the orphanage and named it the Amanda Smith Industrial School for Girls.
She died in Sebring on Feb. 24, 1915. A wealthy white friend, George Sebring, arranged for her body to be buried near Harvey. Her funeral on March 1, 1915, was one of the largest ever in Chicago.
After her death the Chicago Defender, a leading black newspaper, called her “the greatest woman that this race has ever given to the world.”
Share with others: