Profiles in Africana Religion - Part 22: Alexander Crummell

         There are many thinkers throughout history that have worked to use Christianity as a transformative vehicle for substantive change.  However, there is, understandably, some concern regarding the ability of Christianity and Christians to usher in revolutionary change.  Over the centuries, Christianity has been at the center of many problematic developments: African enslavement, Native American genocide, global colonization, et cetera.  Nevertheless, there are some who have worked tirelessly to preserve the integrity of the Christian belief system regardless of its dubious relationship with peoples of color, women, the LBGT community as well as the poor.  Alexander Crummell’s mission in life was to exact revolutionary change for African people throughout the world, but he felt the best way to make that change was through Christian conversion and strict adherence to Biblical philosophy despite its many short comings.  This essay will work through this contradiction in an effort find the value in the Christianity that Crummell observed.
            In March of 1819 Alexander Crummell was born free in New York City to free parents: Boston Crummell and Charity Hicks.  Like his contemporaries Delaney and Garnet, Crummell could pinpoint part of his African lineage.  His paternal grandfather was Tenme of Sierra Leone, taken from the continent as he was maturing into a young man.[1]  There was of course family lore that Crummell’s paternal grandfather may have been a local chief, however with no way to verify that information.  To be clear, African people in America did not throw away their past as some have surmised, nor was it stripped from them in such a way that they were completely ignorant and oblivious to who they were.  Black people kept their history even if their enslavers did not.  Lineage for the Crummells, like many dislocated Africans was extremely important.  Again, memory, both cultural and familial, are critical for a people once assumed devoid of history and ignorant. 
             The Crummells were situated in the middle of a very active African community in New York City.  Alexander Crummell’s parents lived next door to Henry Highland Garnet’s parents after they absconded from enslavement.  As children Garnet and Crummell attended the same primary educational institution, the African Free School (AFS) No. 2.  The African Free School[2] was founded in 1787 by John Jay and Alexander Hamilton as the first non-religious school for African people in the US.  Though it was white controlled, it became a beacon for hope and advancement for America’s free African population at the time.  John Rury author of the article “The New York African Free School, 1827-1836: Community Conflict Over Community Control of Black Education”, remarks: “Unlike white charity schools, which were reserved for the poor exclusively, the African Free School became a focal point of black community aspirations for a better future.”[3]  Moreover, while religious and/or charity organizations had strict guidelines for community involvement and their educational curriculum, the AFS worked to provide free Africans a voice in the education of their children.
           In the North generally and in New York specially, the African population was growing and moving in extremely dynamic ways.  Not only was there an influx Africans running to the North for their freedom, once safely in the North, many became very active in their communities, helping others find their way to freedom, involving themselves in self-betterment/educational programs and institutions as well as establishing culturally relevant ideas and traditions.  Crummell attended school and worked with Garnet often as young men.  On their road to cultural consciousness and self-discovery they moved in and out of various educational institutions in New England.  Crummell eventually landed at the Oneida Institute, a body centered on the education of the Native American population of the US.  While attended this school Crummell became an Episcopal priest, setting the stage for his life, career and legacy.[4]
        Crummell worked diligently to establish himself and his ministry in New England.  His ordination came in the year 1844 at the hands of the Episcopal Church in Delaware.[5]  Working with the church and in the community Crummell’s reputation as an orator gained traction.  He toured throughout New York state giving lectures and speeches on the evils of slavery.  Eventually, he was asked to be the keynote speak for the Anti-slavery Convention held in Albany, New York in 1840.[6]  Success throughout his travels was hit or miss, he struggled financially, as well, him and his ideas were not always well received by Northern crowds.  Again, Crummell’s focus, while very much centered on emancipation, worked from a very pious point of departure in which obedience to the church was the foundation.[7]  His ideas were not always received well; because of his marginal success touring in the US he decided to take his ministry to England where he found new opportunities.[8]    
         Crummell also had reservations about the ACS (the American Colonization Society, not to be confused with the African Civilization Society), however, once he moved from the US and became acquainted with the African colonization thinkers in the UK, he began to reconsider his stance.  He believed that colonization in the hands of Christianized African Americans would be the best approach, as a way to civilize unconverted Africans and to push the Gospel.  This is a major issue that must be acknowledged for Crummell, in that his philosophy reads much like that of a colonist.  His primary concern was the maintenance of Christianity as a tool of spiritual guidance (read: control), seemingly omitting or neglecting to address critical issues of culture germane to African and African American life.  Essentially, Crummell was a missionary, working to convert African people to Christianity, turning many people off to his message and mission.[9]  Alred Moss author of “Alexander Crummell: Black Nationalist and Apostle of Western Civilization” argues, “His thoughtful and persuasive arguments for Christianity, Western culture, and, paradoxically for black nationalism as the indispensable tools for black empowerment had a significant impact on the tiny cadre of black leaders who sought to protect, motivate, and lead the masses.”[10] 
         Despite Crummell’s conservatism his legacy is quite solid among Pan-African thinkers of the last two centuries.  Like many conservative African thinkers, his ideology was very impactful for Marcus Garvey.  Garvey again represents and epicenter of African thought that ties together two centuries of impactful cultural development.  However, perhaps the most important contribution of Crummell was in the establishment of the American Negro Academy.[11]  This academy was very impactful during first quarter of the 20th century.  In particular, this academy was critical for the development of W.E.B. DuBois establishing the idea of the Talented Tenth.[12]  Again, conservatism notwithstanding, institutional development such as this among African Americans is a critically important stepping stone in the establishment of African Americans as a community.     


[1]   Leon Litwack and August Meier, eds.  Black Leaders of the Nineteenth Century.  “Alexander Crummell: Black Nationalist and Apostle of Western Civilization”,  By Alfred Moss.  (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1988), 238.  More on his lineage: “On his mother’s side he was a member of a New York family that had been free for several generations.  His father, who described himself as the kidnapped son of a West African prince…”  Wilson Jeremiah Moses.  Alexander Crummell.  (Oxford University Press: American National Biography Online, 2008).
[2] John L. Rury, "The New York African Free School, 1827-1836: Community Conflict over Community Control of Black Education," Phylon, Vol. 44, No. 3 (1983) pp. 187–197. Ibid. “African Free School (2010).  Hunt, Thomas C.; Carper, James C.; II, Thomas J. Lasley; Raisch, C. Daniel (eds.). Encyclopedia of Educational Reform and Dissent. SAGE Publications. pp. 31–33.  The African Free School was founded by Alexander Hamilton and John Jay in 1787 to provide free Africans in the state access to education.  According to Rury: The New York African Free School was founded in 1789 to serve the city's growing free black population. Established by the New York Manumission Society to divert black children from "the slippery paths of vice," it was among the first nondenominational charity schools in Ameri can cities  
[3] John L. Rury, "The New York African Free School, 1827-1836: Community Conflict over Community Control of Black Education," Phylon, Vol. 44, No. 3 (1983), 187.
[4] Stephen Thompson.  “Alexander Crummell.”  The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2011 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.).
[5] Leon Litwack and August Meier, eds.  Black Leaders of the Nineteenth Century.  “Alexander Crummell: Black Nationalist and Apostle of Western Civilization”,  By Alfred Moss.  (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1988), 240.
[6] Stephen Thompson.  “Alexander Crummell.”  The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2011 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.).
[7] Leon Litwack and August Meier, eds.  Black Leaders of the Nineteenth Century.  “Alexander Crummell: Black Nationalist and Apostle of Western Civilization”,  By Alfred Moss.  (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1988), 240.
[8] Ibid., 241. 
[9] Ibid., 243.  ”During the American Civil War, Crummell devoted himself to persuading skilled and educated Afro-Americans to resettle in Africa.”
[10] Ibid., 237.
[11] Ibid., 246.  Website: Black Past – American Negro Academy  https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/american-negro-academy-1897-1924/.  Accessed May 2019.
[12] Website: Black Past – American Negro Academy  https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/american-negro-academy-1897-1924/.  Accessed May 2019.