Morris Brown was an African-American Methodist Episcopal bishop. He is a well known as a founder of country’s first African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME).
Background
Morris Brown was born on February 12, 1770 in that unusual circle commonly referred to as the "free people of color" in Charleston, South Carolina. Whereas African-Americans in other parts of the state were handicapped by various restrictions looking toward rigid slave control, this particular group in the largest city of the state had such close relations with the aristocratic whites with the most of whom they were connected by ties of blood, that they were, legally or actually, exempted from such restrictions.
Education
As free people of color were always permitted to maintain schools and churches for their uplift, Morris Brown acquired what was considered a good education for that day.
Career
Morris Brown was ordained deacon in 1817 and elder the next year, became a traveling minister, and exercised much influence in and around Charleston. In his work as a preacher, however, he soon faced obstacles.
His career as a preacher in Charleston was abruptly brought to a close when the Denmark Vesey Insurrection broke out there in 1822.
This plan to liberate the slaves of South Carolina by killing off the whites remaining in the city, while the majority of the aristocrats were away at summer resorts, so startled the authorities that almost any negro of influence among his people was suspected of being implicated in the plot.
An investigation showed that in the freedom of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, which was an organization conducted independently of the whites, there was offered an opportunity for fomenting such plots as that of this projected uprising; although, in spite of the connection of some members with it, there was no evidence that the church had officially instigated this plot.
Coming under the ban, however, and subjected to unusual persecution, suspected free negroes had to take measures for saving their lives. Morris Brown escaped, and finally reached Philadelphia in 1823. There he was not exactly a stranger, having been north before to attend conferences of the church and having made a favorable impression upon his co-workers.
He quickly took rank as a leader in every movement of concern to African-Americans.
Recognizing his services, the African Methodist Episcopal Conference of 1828 elevated him to the episcopate. Upon him, therefore, fell the important task of carrying forward the expansion of this church.
He had to travel in various parts of the country where the body which he represented was unknown and was not welcomed. Despite these handicaps, however, he prosecuted the work with great success, and attained such control that when he became the sole bishop of the church, after the death of Bishop Allen in 1831, the denomination suffered no diminution of interest or loss of prestige.
Achievements
A prosperous shoemaker by trade and charismatic religious leader, Brown travelled to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to collaborate with the Rev. Richard Allen in the founding of the country’s first African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) in 1816. He also founded Emanuel AME Church in his native Charleston, South Carolina as well as conferences of AME churches in the American Midwest and Canada. Under Brown's administration the influence of the church was extended to states which had not hitherto been touched, and fields already invaded were evangelized more intensively.
Morris Brown College in Atlanta, Georgia, which was established in 1885, is named after him.
Religion
Early converted in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and being free, too, he secured a license to preach as soon as he professed religion. In the decline of Bishop Allen, who was then becoming incapacitated for the strenuous services which had characterized the first years of his life, Brown rose to the actual leadership of his church.
Meanwhile the congregation in Charleston rebuilt Emanuel AME Church and worshiped there until 1834, when the city banned all African American churches.
Views
He was once imprisoned for manifesting too much sympathy for slaves. Although free himself he could not forget those of his race who were enslaved.
Morris Brown did for their uplift all that the custom of the times permitted a freeman to do for the oppressed, and occasionally he went beyond the limit set by law and public opinion.
Connections
Brown married Maria, and they ultimately had six children.
collaborator:
Edward Waters
Bishop
To administer the affairs of his evergrowing constituency, it was necessary to associate with him Bishop Edward Waters in 1836.
