Page:Journal of Negro History, vol. 7.djvu/503



This work is a biographical sketch of one of the most prominent Negro Baptist preachers of his time. The author, the son of the subject of the sketch, believes that too little has been said concerning the Negro Church, which is largely responsible for whatever advancement the race has made. To stimulate interest in this institution and to give it the proper place in the history of the race, this biography is given to the public.

The book contains an introduction by Dr. L. K. Williams, the popular successor of Dr. Fisher at the Olivet Baptist Church in Chicago, where the latter faithfully served many years. It contains also an appreciation by Martin B. Madden, Congressman from Illinois, who personally knew Dr. Fisher and speaks most commendably of his character and achievements in that State.

The actual sketch begins with the chapter entitled "Bound and Branded," presenting the life of Dr. Fisher during the slavery of the last decade prior to emancipation. Herein are set forth interesting facts showing the connection of the Negro with Africa and his status in the slave-holding South. The effects of the Civil War in this section appear also from page to page.

Then follows that part of his career when he as a youth undertook to secure an education by which he might be qualified for the serious duties of life. How he began as a teacher during the beginning of Negro education of the Reconstruction period, and how he finally became an exhorter and developed into a minister acceptable to the communicants of his denomination, make the story increasingly interesting. The sketch reaches its climax through a detailed account of Dr. Fisher's work at Atlanta, Nashville, and Chicago, emphasizing the last mentioned as the place of his most successful labor.

The historian will find this work valuable in that it illuminates one of the most interesting periods of Negro church history. It is not only a sketch of one distinguished churchman but a narrative presenting an important chapter of the story of the Baptists by 449