EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: AMANDA BERRY SMITH P/165

                                                                   Read Part One HERE                                                            

In this post I continue to focus on a woman named Amanda Berry Smith. She lived from 1837 - 1915.

In 1890, Amanda returned to the US, and after two years of preaching and related work in the East, she settled in the Chicago area. There, she continued to evangelise.

Amanda then began to raise money for her latest mission: the care of homeless black children. She published a small newspaper entitled "Helper" to publicise and support that cause. With the proceeds from her donations from supporters, she opened the Amanda Smith Orphans Home for African-American children in Harvey, Illinois in 1899.

The Amanda Smith Home was the first, and for some time, the only, orphanage for black children in Illinois. Over time, though it expanded both in the number of children served and in the size of its facilities. During the ten years between 1900 and 1910, the institution grew from twelve to thirty-three children. The Home was destroyed by fire in 1918, and never re-opened.

Amanda provided direction and care for the Home until illness forced her to retire in the autumn of 1912. George Sebring, a wealthy pottery manufacturer from Ohia, built his dream city in Florida. He had long admired Amanda's work, and he provided her with a lovely home and saw to it that she had no want or worries for the rest of her life.

For almost fifty years following the Civil War, Amanda followed paths which led her to prominence as a black woman in a society dominated by white males. She was one of the few African American women to gain visibility in the Women's Christian Temperance Union and was closely connected to the work of the Coloured Women's Clubs.

Amanda died in 1915, at the age of 78. 

Read Part One Hundred And Sixty-Six HERE