Peter Randolph, 1825-1897

Peter Randolph, 1825 –1897

Pastor & Author

Peter Raldolph was born a slave during a time when professing-Christian slave-owners either refused to allow slaves to hear the gospel or they only allowed them to hear a manipulated, vitiated form of it that solely emphasized the importance of “servants obeying their masters.”

Raldolph was a mighty Christian and even with the threat of 200 lashings he would join with other slaves for secret prayer meetings:

"the slaves assemble in the swamp, out of reach of the patrols. They have an understanding among themselves as to the time and place. … This is often done by the first one arriving breaking boughs from the trees and bending them in the direction of the selected spot.

"After arriving and greeting one another, men and women sat in groups together. Then there was "preaching … by the brethren, then praying and singing all around until they generally feel quite happy."

The speaker rises "and talks very slowly, until feeling the spirit, he grows excited, and in a short time there fall to the ground 20 or 30 men and women under its influence.”

After gaining his freedom, Randolph moved to Boston and became involved with the Anti-Slavery Society, a licensed Baptist preacher, a missionary in Canada, a chaplain in the Civil War, and a pastor of what has become one of the largest black churches in Boston. Most notably, Randolph published two books that became widely circulated: “Sketches of Slave Life” and “From Slave Cabin to the Pulpit” . His books helped shed light on the realities of what life was like as a slave in order to encourage the anti-slavery movement.

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