Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1859-03-22
Henry Evans, the Negro Preacher.

In the course of bis autobiography, Bishop
Capers refers to some Of those remarkable char.
acters who may be found 10 many parts of the
South, to shame our sbolitionists and who are
denominated "black preachers" The account
of Henry Evans, Of North Carolina, exhibits one
of these 49, ee ts .s83i
"Henry Evans was confessedly the father OF
the Methodist Church, white and black, in Fay
etteville, and the best preacher of his time in
that quarter, and was so remarkable as to have
become the greatest curiosity Of the town, in
much that distinguished visitors hardly felt
bat they might pass Sunday in Fayetteville
ithout hearing him preach. Evans was from
|irginia; shoemaker by trade, and, think,
es born free. he became christian and q
ethodist qnite young, and was licensed to
each in Virginis. While yet young man,
determined to remove to Charleston, s. O.,
hiking be might succeed best there at bis trade.
This determined him to stop in
fayetteville; and he began to preach to the me-
eroes with great effect. The town council in
terfered, and nothing in bis power could pre-
vail with them to permit him to preach. he
then withdrew to the sandhills, out of town,
and held meetings in the woods, changing his
appointments from place to place. No law was
violated, while the council was effectually elud-
cd, and so the opposition passed into the hands
of the mob. These he worried out by changing
his appointments, so that when they went to
work their will upon him, he was preaching
somewhere else. =. +s,a = Happily
for him and the cause of religion, his honest
countenance and earnest pleadings were soon
powerfully seconded by the fruits of his labors.
One after another began to suspect their ser.
wants of attending his preaching, not because
they were made worse, but wonderfully better.
The effect on the public morals OF the negroes,
too, began to be seen, particularly as regarded
their habits on Sunday, and drunkenness. And
it was not long before the mob was called OF,
by change Of opinion, and Evans was allowed
to preach In town. At thar time, there was
not single edi6ce in town, and but one con-
gregation resbyterian-who worsbipped in
what was called the State-house, under which
was the market; and it was plainly Evans, or
nobody, to preach to the negroes. Now, too,
all of the mistresses, there were not few, and
some masters, were brought to think that the
preaching which had proved so benenicisl to
their servants, might be good for them also, and
the famous negro preacher had some whites as
we'll as blacks to hear him. Seats, distinctly
separated, were at first appropriated to the
Whites, near the pulpit. But Evans had already
become famous, and these seats were insufficient.
Indeed, the negroes seemed likely to lose their
preacher, negro though be was, while the
whites, crowded out of their appropriate seats,
took possession of those in the rear.
Meanwhile, Evans had represented to the
preacher of Bladen Circuit, how things were
going, and induced him to take his meeting
house into the circuit and constitute church.
AS there was no longer room for the negroes in
the house when Evans preached, and for the ac-
commodation of both classes, the weather.
boards wei knocked off, and sheds we're added
to the house on either side; the whires occupy
ing the whole of the original building and the
negroes those sheds as part of the same house.
Evans dwelling was shed at the pulpit end of
the church. s.ja .
1t was my practice to hold meeting with the
blacks in the church, directly after morning
every Sunday, and on the Sunday
before his death, during this meeting the little
door between his humble shed and the chancel
where | stood, was opened, and the dying man
entered for last farewell to his people. he
was almost too feeble to stand at all, but sup
porting himself by the railing of the chancel, he
said, 81 have come to say my last word to you.
1t is this None but Christ. Three times have
had my life in jeopardy for preaching the gospel
to YOU. Three times have broken the ice on
the edge of the water, and SWAN across the
Cape Fear river, to preach the gospel to you.-
And now, if in my last hour, ! could trust to
anything else but Christ crucifed, for my saliva
ton, all would be lost, and my soul perished
forever"