Alfred H. Stone Collection
Volume: 107

12. [Daniel Alexander] Payne, Bishop Payne’s First Annual Address to the Philadelphia Annual Conference of the A. M. E. Church. May 16, 1853 (Philadelphia: C. Sherman, 1853). (23 p.)

Speech regarding the temporal (e.g., schools and libraries) and the spiritual (e.g., sunday schools and the ministry) condition of African Americans in Philadelphia. The speaker notes that a reading-room with almost a thousand volumes had been opened in connection with the high school for black students. Male students could use the reading room three nights a week. Access for female students was limited to one afternoon. Mr. Stone has marked a paragraph that begins “A monarchy oppresses the peasants,--the American republic oppresses and enslaves every man who has one drop of African blood in his veins, and hunts the panting fugitive like a wild beast.” (Bishop Payne founded Wilberforce University in 1856 and became the first black college president in America.)