Women of Valor: Amanda Berry Smith
Before Her Calling:
Amanda was born into slavery on Jan. 23, 1837, in Long Green, Maryland. She was the firstborn of 13 children born to Samuel and Mariam Berry. Samuel and Mariam were faithful followers of Jesus, discipling their children from the beginning by reading their Bible. Samuel had the reputation of being a godly and hard-working man, and he worked an extra night shift for years to buy his freedom for himself, his wife, and his children. After purchasing their freedom, he moved them to a farm in York County, Pennsylvania, where he became a conductor for the Underground Railroad. She wrote that her father would lead 15-20 men a day from their location to another secure place around 15-20 miles away. He would start around midnight with a freedom seeker and arrive home just before daylight. She writes in her autobiography, “Perhaps he could sleep an hour then go to work and so many times baffled suspicion.” Her mother also worked on the Underground Railroad, providing for those who came into their tenant house on the John Lowe farm. Amanda tells stories of slave catchers harassing her family and, one time, almost killing her mother.
Her Competence
She saw her parents’ persecution and tenacity for their faith and for doing good, even when punished, spurred and equipped Amanda to forge her path. Although she was never able to attend a formal school due to the time she lived in, her parents were able to teach her to read, write, and have a love for the church. When Amanda was 13, she left home to work as a live-in domestic, and it was while she was there that she began to attend a Methodist church. Anything her parents didn’t teach her, Amanda taught herself.
Her Calling
When she attended a tent revival meeting at age 17, she truly began to follow Jesus, not just her parents’ faith. She grew to be active in this Holiness movement, which urged all believers to share their faith publicly regardless of their situation, status, or color. In 1854, she married Calvin M. Devine, and after losing their first child, they had a daughter, Mazie, together. Calvin enlisted in the Union Army soon after and unfortunately never returned home, dying in battle. She felt a call upon her life to share Jesus with others, and in the meantime, moved back to Philadelphia to be close to her family.
A year later, Amanda had sunk into an illness and, while sleeping, dreamed that she was preaching at a camp meeting. She recovered soon after and began to work towards what she encountered in that dream. Amanda later married a deacon in the African Methodist Episcopal church, James H. Smith, in 1865, who promised her God had called him to be a minister. She believed at the time that this was God’s way of answering her prayer of going into ministry, but after several years of marriage, Amanda realized that Calvin had lied to her just so that she would marry him. During this time, they lost three children while she worked as a domestic servant, cook, and laundress. They lived in poverty, even moving to New York City to find more work, while James began to suffer from stomach cancer. He eventually passed in 1869, leaving Amanda to be a widow two times over. Her grief pushed her to start attending revival tent meetings with Mazie to find comfort. By the 1870s, Amanda could no longer keep herself from ignoring the multiple calls upon her life, and she soon found herself preaching and singing on stage at those same tent meetings in New York and New Jersey, both to black and white audiences.
Her Courage
In 1872, God opened Amanda’s eyes to the need overseas, but she continued to preach at Holiness meetings stateside. By 1878, Amanda Berry Smith sailed for England, spending a year in the U.K. evangelizing those who came to the meetings. From 1879 to 1881, she traveled and spoke in India, sailing for West Africa in 1881, where she spent the next eight years doing missionary work in Liberia and Sierra Leone, working alongside Methodist missionaries, including Bishop William Taylor. She spent twelve years preaching in Great Britain and India eight of those years in Africa. Today, she’s celebrated as the first Black woman to work as an international evangelist.
Her Character:
After her time in Africa, Amanda’s health began to decline. When she returned to the States, she began to pursue her dream of educating African American children. She moved to Chicago and wrote her autobiography, which she took all the funds to save for the future children’s home. Methodist bishop James M. Thoburn respected her so well that he wrote the introduction for her autobiography. And if not for her book, we might have lost her entire story. She raised individual support for her evangelistic missions on the side.
In 1899, she founded the Amanda Smith Orphanage and Industrial Home for Abandoned and Destitute Colored Children in Harvey, Illinois. The 12-room brick house that served as the Home opened its doors to homeless African American girls and was the first of its kind. When operating the Home, she began writing a monthly newspaper called “The Helper” to raise funds for the school.
She tried for years to raise funding for the school but never was able to make any headway. By 1912, at 75 years of age, she retired and moved to Sebring, Florida. The state of Illinois took over the orphanage and named it the Amanda Smith Industrial School for Girls. On Feb. 24, 1915, Amanda joined Jesus forever.
Her Legacy:
Clergy, African Americans, and whites have honored Amanda Berry Smith. While caring for needy African American children at the end of her life, she is also connected to the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Amanda has helped to move and make ways for the less fortunate and those set-aside. She demands spiritual reformation and justice in society. Her work is well known to make the way smoother for more women in ministry, especially within the AME and Methodist churches. Her faith and obedience are ones to which one can aspire.
She is now known as “God’s Image Carved in Ebony,” and she wrote this poem,
In some way or other
The Lord will provide;
It may not be my way,
It may not be thy way,
And yet, in His way,
The Lord will provide.
Her Impact on Me:
I first heard of Amanda and her faithful obedience from a fellow seminarian, Faith Kendall Gibson, whom I must thank profusely for introducing her to me. The older I get, the more I see and acknowledge the many strong women of faith who have gone before me. Faith wrote, “Amanda’s character marked by prayer, humility, perseverance, faith, and love for the Lord inspires me to live for the only One who’s opinion really matters, to make Him my aim over everything else this world tries to offer.”
Several things about Amanda’s story got to me. She was tenacious. She was fearless. She fought through societal norms of gender, equality, status, and race to obey Her creator. That speaks VOLUMES about her integrity, strength, and complete reliance on Jesus. Her story honestly confronted me with my own demons.
I often struggle to wonder why God has placed me on this path. I trust people too quickly and try to ignore the red flags when their actions don’t match their words. Amanda is a kindred spirit to me in this regard. On the other hand, I thought I would spend the rest of my life ministering alongside my husband. Amanda dreamed of this as well. This was an honorable thought, and there’s nothing really wrong with it.
But God.
The more I mature and age, the more I realize that the plan God has for me is not at all what I think or believe. I have to trust Him to obey. And if I’m not obeying, then do I really trust Him?
Amanda obeyed God’s calling on her heart, even when she had to strike out on her own to obey God. She went through two husbands, who she thought would be her way into ministry.
But God called her- with only Him to fall back on.
Wow. What power lies in those words!
Bibliography and More Resources on Amanda:
Jae Jones, “Amanda Berry Smith: Opened First Orphanage for Black Children in Illionois,” Black Then. Online. Sept. 12, 2023. Accessed Apr. 9, 2024. https://blackthen.com/amanda-berry-smith-opened-first-orphanage-for-black-children-in-illinois
Faith Kendall Gibson, The Life of Amanda Berry Smith: The Colored Evangelist & Missionary of America, England, Ireland, Scotland, India, and Africa. Presentation and Outline. (Western Seminary, 2023).
Jamie Noerpel and Jim McClure, “Amanda Berry Smith: ‘God’s Image Carved in Ebony’ Witnessing York. Online. Accessed Apr. 9, 2024. https://www.witnessingyork.com/mapping-meaning/amanda-berry-smith-underground-railroad/
Gary B. McGee, “Smith, Amanda (Berry),” in Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, ed. Gerald H. Anderson (New York: MacMillian Reference USA, 1998), 625.
Amanda Berry Smith, An Autobiography: The Story of the Lord’s Dealings with Mrs. Amanda Smith, the Colored Evangelist: Containing an Account of Her Life Work of Faith, and Her Travels in America, England, Ireland, Scotland, India, and Africa, As an Independent Missionary. (Chicago: Meyer, 1893).
McLeister, Clara and E.E. Shelhamer. Men and Women of Deep Piety. Syracuse, (N.Y.: Wesleyan Methodist Publishing Association, 1920).
Taylor, Marshall William. The Life, Travels, Labors, and Helpers of Mrs. Amanda Smith: The Famous Negro Missionary Evangelist. (Cincinnati: Printed by Cranston & Stowe for the author, 1887).
Cadbury, M. H. The Life of Amanda Smith: The African Sybil, the Christian Saint. (Birmingham: Cornish Bros, 1916).
Dodson, Jualynne. “Nineteenth-Century A. M. E. Preaching Women: The Cutting Edge of Women’s Inclusion in Church Polity.” In Women in New Worlds: Historical Perspectives on the Wesleyan Tradition, edited by Hilah F. Thomas, Rosemary Skinner Keller, and Louise L. Queen. (Nashville: Abingdon, 1981).
Israel, Adrienne M. Amanda Berry Smith: From Washerwoman to Evangelist. (Lanham, Md: Scarecrow Press, 1998).
