Faith Confronts Evil: From Birthmothers to Holy Women, African American Christian Women, 1619–1865

Faith Confronts Evil tells the stories of African American women before the Civil War who countered the rampant evil of slavery with the strength of their Christian faith. They claimed the words of the gospel, that Jesus comes to set the captives free. They embraced Christianity as the source of liberty, humanity, and justice in which God was on their side, Jesus was their friend, and the Holy Spirit was their guide to all truth. Their stories are essential for understanding the central role Christian faith played in realizing, however imperfectly, the promises the US Constitution made to all its citizens. As we listen to Phillis Wheatley, Jarena Lee, Betsy Crissman, Mary Reynolds, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, and many others, we discover that their shared stories turn strangers into acquaintances, acquaintances into friends. These stories of antebellum African American Christian women are our story, an "our" that embraces anyone who identifies as a Christian or anyone who is merely interested in the early formation of the United States of America.