| |
| |
Complete
Women PanelClick on a link to move to a different item number on the panel.
COLUMBIA |
County Info |
(Download this image)amanda_berry_smith.jpg
Amanda Berry Smith was born into slavery in Maryland on January 23, 1837. By 1840, her father, Samuel, and mother, Miriam, had purchased their family's freedom. The family had moved to York, Pa. by 1850. Smith learned to read and write at home since she was unable to attend school. As the oldest daughter, Smith was expected to help her family financially. At the age of thirteen, she went to work as a domestic. Three years later, she married Calvin Devine. They resided in Columbia. Their unhappy marriage ended with Calvin's death early in the Civil War. Smith then married James Henry Smith, an AME Church deacon in Philadelphia.
Smith worked in the mission field for forty-five years. She spent time on four continents and with many different groups of people. She was called "the singing pilgrim" and "God's image carved in ebony" by the newspapers of her time. She was an active member of the AME church even though she spent much of her time in North America preaching to white congregations. Though she was sometimes criticized for her work among whites, she was highly regarded as a leader of the AME church. Smith also wrote an autobiography that is considered a classic of women's literature and she founded and operated an orphanage and industrial school.
Columbia was important to Smith not only because she spent her young adult years there but also because it was in Columbia where Smith had a spiritual conversion. Though Smith was raised Christian and proclaimed she always longed to be Christian, she doubted Christianity and her faith for quite some time. In her autobiography, she explains her mountaintop moment of salvation like this:
"So I prayed and struggled day after day, week after week, trying to find light and peace, but I constantly came up against my will. God showed me I was a dreadful sinner, but still I wanted to have my own way about it. I said, "I am not so bad as Bob Loney, Meil Snievely, and a lot of others. I am not like them, I have always lived in first-class families and have always kept company with first-class servant girls, and I don't need to go there and pray like those people do." All this went on in my mind."
Finally, the revival got into her nerves and she went to the church where she was inclined to go up for an altar call:
"I thought I would turn around and go back, but as I went to turn facing all the congregation, it was so far to go back, so I rushed forward to the altar, threw myself down and began to pray with all my might: "O, Lord, have mercy on me! O, Lord, have mercy on me! O, Lord, save me," I shouted at the top of my voice, till I was hoarse. Finally I quieted down. Then came a stillness over me so quiet. I didn't understand it. The meeting closed. I went home."
This was indeed an important moment for Smith but she found she still needed to do much soul searching, praying, and reading of the Bible following this conversion in order to strengthen her faith.
Smith, Amanda. An autobiography: the story of the Lord's dealings with Mrs. Amanda Smith, the Colored evangelist, 1893, and Adrienne Israel, "Amanda Berry Smith," Black Women in America, An Historical Encyclopedia, eds. Darlene Clark Hine, Elsa Barkley Brown, and Rosalyn Terborg-Penn. Photo from Black Women in America, An Historical Encyclopedia.