Slave Religion, Methodism, and Marble: Legacies of Slavery Etched into Emory University’s Campuses Public

Abstract

This thesis provides a counternarrative to the reductionist story of Emory’s involvement with slavery by going beyond the standard recognition of the university’s place in the Methodist Church’s split in 1845. The project examines the importance of slavery and its defense in campus curriculum and student life, including in the development of scientific knowledge and medical education in the state, and it also considers the university’s efforts to recognize its “entwinement” with slavery by hosting national conferences and artist Charmaine Minniefield’s Praise House Project. This is an interdisciplinary thesis that draws on institutional archival records, interviews, oral history, religious history, slavery studies, and memory studies. Chapter 1 considers the evolution of Methodism’s positions on slavery and the roles of Emory faculty and leadership in authoring denominational defense of slavery, which resulted in the splitting of the Methodist Church. The chapter also examines the relationship between the Methodist Episcopal Church South and the Colored (now Christian) Methodist Episcopal Church and attempts to develop insight into the religious and spiritual lives of Southern Black Methodists, especially, but not only, in Oxford, Georgia. Chapter 2 calls attention to and advances a growing body of research that examines the ways in which slavery factored into multiple areas of Emory’s curriculum and campus life across the humanities, sciences, and medical education. The chapter sheds light on Dr. Alexander Means as a “hidden figure” whose deeds are overshadowed in institutional history, but who was a principal proponent of scientific and medical racism with ties to the illegal cadaver trade involving enslaved and free Black people. Chapter 3 draws on Toni Morrison’s concept of “rememory” to help piece together my own family story and to consider the cultural work of artist-activist Charmaine Minniefield’s contemporary Praise House Project as means to re-member and humanize the history and stories of people whose names we do and do not know who were enslaved at Emory, in Oxford, and surrounding areas.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1

Chapter 1 ....................................................................................................................................... 15

Methodist Ideas of Morals in the Slaveholding South .................................................................. 15

Chapter 2 ....................................................................................................................................... 31

Slavery as Sustenance in Nutrient-Deficient American Universities ........................................... 31

Chapter 3 ....................................................................................................................................... 54

Collective Memory through Movement in the Praise House Project ........................................... 54

Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 73

Appendix A ................................................................................................................................... 79

Appendix B ................................................................................................................................... 82

Bibliography ................................................................................................................................. 83

Images

Figures

1. Rev. Tony Baker (1837-1908)......................................................................................3

2. Rust Chapel United Methodist Church.......................................................................26

3. Medical College of Georgia, Graduating Class of 1875.............................................49

4. Medical College of Georgia, Graduating Class of 1877.............................................50

5. Medical College of Georgia, Graduating Class of 1880.............................................50

6. Medical College of Georgia, Graduating Class of 1902.............................................51

7. Praise House at Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church......................................63

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	African American Studies
Degree	B.A.
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	African American Studies History, Black Black Studies
Mot-clé	Institutional memory Slave religion Black Methodism Rememory Praise House Methodism Medical racism Slavery Oxford, Georgia Emory University Memory studies
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Dr. Michelle Gordon, Emory University
Committee Members	Dr. Dianne Stewart, Emory University Dr. Kiela Crabtree, Emory University

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