Around the Family Altar: Domesticity in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, 1865-1900

Abstract

Informative and controversial, this book explores the issue of domesticity in the 19th-century African Methodist Episcopal Church. For many in the church, their power to shape the dynamics of the family was the key to strengthening the spirit and role of African-Americans following the Civil War. In the midst of a hostile racial and political climate, black ministers and their congregations embraced Victorian notions of domesticity as a stabilizing force. Julius H. Bailey shows that they used the ideology to overcome regional tensions, restore families torn apart during slavery, challenge the legitimacy of female preachers, and nurture the spiritual growth of children and the religious life of the home. He also examines the ways male church leaders used the concept to defend their leadership, express hopes and fears, and fend off Social Darwinian attacks on their character. Discussions of domesticity helped African-Americans to understand the traits of a good father and mother, even as 19th-century ideas about the home were shifting. Were fathers to be stern heads of households or reclusive, prayerful figures who deferred to mothers? Were mothers natural nurturers? Or should they seek training to become domestic educators? For many of the diverse 19th-century black families, ministers of the AME church offered a universal familial philosophy that could bring harmony to the home. Using the voices of men and women and of clergy and laity and mining the principal publications of the AME church, Bailey presents a new understanding of family life in American religious history.