| American Missionary Association |
| The American Missionary Association
By the 1870's the secular institutions that supported the education of the freedmen were worn out. Unfortunately their subscribers grew tired of the fundraising appeals, the Freedmen's bureau came to an end by 1872, and the North went about the business of making money. However, one group came forward to still channel northern teachers to the south - - - the American Missionary Association. The Association had its roots deep into the abolitionist movement. The Association started as a group of churches joined in New England to help the Africans who overcame their captors in the Amsted incident. The incident was about a slave ship where the Africans took charge and tried to sail back to Africa but ended up in the United States. The Africans were turned over to be tried and hung, but the Association defended them and they were found innocent and allowed to return to Africa. The Association was an interdenominational society in the beginning but gradually it became a Congregational missionary board. The Board for Homeland Ministries of the United Church of Christ is the direct descendent of the American Missionary Association. The AMA was formed September 3, 1846. It was the result of a growing dissatisfaction with the comparative silence of the older missionary societies in regard to slavery and was a protest against it. The American Missionary Association was the combination of four separate missionary groups. The Amistad Committee was formed August 26, 1839. The Union Missionary Society to discountance slavery and the fruits of slave labor (see bill announcing formation). The Committee for West India Missions Jamaica (1837) and The Western Evangelical Missionary Society formed in 1843. In the American Missionary of March 1865 the American Missionary Association defined its mission to the freedmen: The work to be done for the Freedmen is threefold: 1. To promote their physical comfort. 2. To promote their intellectual improvement. 3. To promote their spiritual welfare. The records for the American Missionary Association are stored at Tulaine University in New Orleans in the Amsted Center. The Constitution of the American Missionary Association (extracted) Article II - The object of this Association shall be to conduct Christian missionary and educational operations, and diffuse a knowledge of the Holy Scriptures in our own and other countries which are destitute of them, or which present open and urgent fields of effort. Article III. Any person of evangelical sentiments who professes faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is not a slaveholder, or in the practice of other immoralities, and who contributes to the funds, may become a member of the Society; and by the payment of thirty dollars, a life member; provided that children and others who have not professed their faith may be constituted life members without the privilege of voting. |