Description
Book SynopsisAfter slavery was abolished, how far would white America go toward including African Americans as full participants in the country''s institutions? Conventional historical timelines mark the end of Reconstruction in the year 1877, but the Methodist Episcopal Church continued to wrestle with issues of racial inclusion for decades after political support for racial reform had receded. An 1844 schism over slavery split Methodism into northern and southern branches, but Union victory in the Civil War provided the northern Methodists with the opportunity to send missionaries and teachers into the territory that had been occupied by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. To a remarkable degree, the M.E. Church succeeded in appealing to freed slaves and white Unionists and thereby built up a biracial membership far surpassing that of any other Protestant denomination. A Long Reconstruction details the denomination''s journey with unification and justice. African Americans who joined did so in
Trade ReviewDeeply researched and clearly written, Harris traces the hopes for African Americans in the Methodist Episcopal Church after the Civil War (including at the time about one in five black Methodists). The author traces the story of the hopes for creating an interracial movement and eventually a reconciliation with the MEC, South, to (later) the realization that racial justice and racial reconciliation would be at odds. The story is a vital but relatively little-known one, and Harris's book should stand as the standard account. * Paul Harvey, Department of History, University of Colorado *
A Long Reconstruction explicates the largely untold story of African Americans within the Methodist Episcopal Church and in doing so, pushes us to rethink what we mean by the term "Black Church." Gracefully written and exhaustively researched, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in race and religion in the United. * Christopher Cameron, Professor of History, University of North Carolina at Charlotte States. *
In A Long Reconstruction, Harris relates the relationship between African Americans and the MEC over nine chapters. * Scott M.Anderson, Proceedings of the Wesley Historical Society *
A Long Reconstruction is a daring work that revisits the complexities of the Reconstruction era, as it exposes the complicated methodologies Black people were forced to utilize in order to benefit their communities. * Aaron M. Treadwell, Journal of Southern History *
Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Wesley's Shadow 2. The Straitened Gate 3. Though I Walk Through the Valley 4. The Chattanooga Embarrassment 5. Our Brothers in White 6. The Southwestern Confronts the Nadir 7. "What Shall We Do with the Negro" 8. Turning Inward 9. Walk Together, Children Bibliography
