Autobiography

Amanda Berry Smith was a trail-blazing black woman evangelist of the nineteenth century. She became a member of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal congregation in Philadelphia in 1865, a time when women were denied positions of authority in the denomination. By the time of her death in 1915 the church had conceded to women the positions of congregational stewardess, conference evangelist, and denominational deaconess. Her autobiography, first published in 1893, not only captures the spirit of the woman who became a celebrity of Christian evangelism around the world; it also tells us much about black women's historical struggle to be accepted into the ministry and polity of denominations.