blacksdahistory
Early Black Adventists
Compiled by Benjamin Baker
This page features images of the earliest known black adherents to Millerism, Sabbatarian Adventism, and Seventh-day Adventism. Please contact us here about contributions to this page.
Black Millerites (c. 1835-1870)
Truth lived with Millerite groups and attended and spoke at Millerite campmeetings. In her 1850 autobiography, she includes an extensive section titled "The Second Advent Doctrines."
Foy (1818-1893) was a Millerite minister renowned for his four visions in 1842-1844. -Photo is of William Foy's son, Orrin/Oren Foy. Courtesy of Michael W. Campbell.
The Platts believed in the Millerite doctrine and later became Seventh-day Adventists in 1851. Pictured is William K. Platt, son of Henrietta and Elias Platt
Truth lived with Millerite groups and attended and spoke at Millerite campmeetings. In her 1850 autobiography, she includes an extensive section titled "The Second Advent Doctrines."
Black Seventh-day Adventists (c. 1845-1865)
Prince Minisee and wife Marie/Maria and their family of nine children joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church around 1863. They resided in Gaines Township, Michigan. Photo courtesy of Grand Rapids Public Library
Minisee was the son of Prince and Marie Minisee. He became a Seventh-day Adventist with his family around 1863, and remained one throughout his life. Photo courtesy of Grand Rapids Public Library
Son of William and Eliza Hardy, Eugene Hardy converted to Adventism with his family in the summer of 1857.
Prince Minisee and wife Marie/Maria and their family of nine children joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church around 1863. They resided in Gaines Township, Michigan. Photo courtesy of Grand Rapids Public Library
Timeline of Black Adventist History
1865-1899
Compiled by Benjamin Baker
1865
May 17: 3rd General Conference Session, Battle Creek, Michigan.
May 23: General Conference Session resolves: “That a field is now opened in the South for labor among the colored people and should be entered upon according to our ability.”
December 25: Ellen White receives vision to establish a health institution.
Churches: 140
T&O: $12,000
End Membership: 4,000
1866
May 16-17: 4th General Conference Session, Battle Creek, Michigan.
June 12: The Visions—Objections Answered by Uriah Smith is published.
September 5: Western Health Reform Institute in Battle Creek, Michigan, opens for patients.
Churches: 150
End Membership: 4,250
1867
May 14-May 19: 5th General Conference Session, Battle Creek, Michigan.
Churches: 160
End Membership: 4,320
1868
May 12-May 18: 6th General Conference Session, Battle Creek, Michigan.
December 25: John West, believed to be the second black Seventh-day Adventist minister, dies in Peterboro, New York.
Churches: 159
Beginning Membership: 4,320
End Membership: 4,475
1869
May 18-24: 7th General Conference Session, Battle Creek, Michigan.
Churches: 167
Beginning Membership: 4,475
End Membership: 4,900
1870
March 15-20: 8th General Conference Session, Battle Creek, Michigan.
December 20: William Hawkins Green is born in Lewisburg, North Carolina.
Churches: 179
T&O: $25,375
T&O (1866-1870): $103,157
Beginning Membership: 4,900
End Membership: 5,440
1871
February 7-February 12: 9th General Conference Session, Battle Creek, Michigan.
May 2: Elbert B. Lane, the first Adventist minister in the South, reports in the Review and Herald of holding meetings in a depot in Edgefield Junction, Tennessee, with "white people occupying one room, and the Colored the other." Black Baptist minister Harry Lowe embraces Adventism at the meetings.
December 29, 1871-January 3, 1872: 10th General Conference Session, Battle Creek, Michigan.
Churches: 185
Beginning Membership: 5,440
End Membership: 4,550
1872
December 29, 1872-January 3, 1873: 10th General Conference Session, Battle Creek, Michigan.
Churches: 204
Beginning Membership: 4,550
End Membership: 4,901
1873
March 11-March 14: 11th General Conference Session, Battle Creek, Michigan.
November 14-November 16: 12th General Conference Session, Battle Creek, Michigan.
Churches: 239
Beginning Membership: 4,901
End Membership: 5,875
1874
March 4: Anna Knight is born to Newton and Georgeanne Knight in Jones County, Mississippi.
June 4: First issue of Signs of the Times, edited by James White, is published in Oakland, California.
August 10-August 15: 13th General Conference Session is held in Battle Creek, Michigan.
1875
April 1: Silas Osborn reports in the Review and Herald of four black converts from meetings he held in Powder Mills, Kentucky.
August 15-August 18: 14th General Conference Session, Battle Creek, Michigan.
Churches: 339
T&O: $33,156
T&O (71-75): $147,690
Beginning Membership: N/A
End Membership: 8,042
1876
March 31-April 6: 1st Special General Conference Session, Battle Creek, Michigan.
June 10: Lottie Cornella Isbell Blake is born.
September 19-September 24: 15th General Conference Session, Lansing, Michigan.
November 12 and 13: 2nd Special General Conference Session, Battle Creek, Michigan.
Churches: 398
Beginning Membership: 8,042
End Membership: 10,044
1877
February 22: A report appears in the Review and Herald from Mrs. H.M. Van Slyke about a "colored school" in Ray County, Missouri, in which she taught black orphans to read the Bible.
May 24: William F. Minisee dies in Solon, Kent County, Michigan.
March 7: James Kemuel Humphrey is born.
September 20-September 28: 16th General Conference Session, Lansing, Michigan.
September 22: Lucille Lewis (later Byard) is born.
Churches: 478
Beginning Membership: 10,044
End Membership: 11,608
1878
January 3: C.O. Taylor reports in the Review and Herald that lawyer and planter W.F. Killen of Houston County, Georgia, is converted to the Adventist faith, along with his family. Killen states that "I have no trouble in getting my laborers (colored people) to keep it [the Sabbath]."
March 1-March 4: 3rd Special General Conference Session, Battle Creek, Michigan.
March 14: C.O. Taylor reports in the Review and Herald that a black minister in Worth County, Georgia, is keeping the Sabbath.
August: Charles Kinny/Kinney is baptized in Reno, Nevada, during a tent meeting conducted by J.N. Loughborough and guest speaker Ellen White.
October 4-October 16: 17th General Conference Session, Battle Creek, Michigan.
Churches: 549
Beginning Membership: 11,608
End Membership: 13,077
1879
July 6: James Gershom (J.G.) Dasent is born.
November 7-December 1: 18th General Conference Session, Battle Creek, Michigan.
Churches: 599
Beginning Membership: 13,077
End Membership: 14,141