Amanda Berry Smith 1837- 1915 Program

Amanda Berry Smith. Photograph, Albumen silver print, c. 1885, by T. B. Latchmore. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.

Amanda Berry Smith 1837- 1915:

Smith was born enslaved, and through a circumstance she and her family believed to be a Divine miracle, her father was able to buy her freedom when she was a child.

She lived from pre-Civil War to the year of the fiftieth anniversary of the Civil War. Though she was poor, she traveled internationally as a preacher and teacher, spoke to large crowds, and inspired people to listen to her spiritual messages. Although at first she didn’t believe she had the education to do it, she eventually wrote her autobiography. All this she believed was the work given to her by God.

“I often say to people that I have a right to shout more than some folks; I have been bought twice, and set free twice, and so I feel I have a good right to shout. Hallelujah!” Amanda Berry Smith

 

In this program we look at the journey of Smith and what sustained her through it. We look at some of the trials and miracles she experienced. All of this makes for a life interestingly lived through some of the turmoil experienced socially in the United States and the world during her lifetime.