author
Daniel Alexander Payne
1811–1893
A free Black educator from Charleston who became one of the most influential leaders in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, he pushed hard for learning, discipline, and self-determination. His life joined preaching, teaching, and institution-building at a time of enormous change in American history.
1 Audiobook
Welcome to the ransomed; or, Duties of the colored inhabitants of the District of Columbia
by Daniel Alexander Payne
About the author
Born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1811, Daniel Alexander Payne grew up free at a time when that freedom was still sharply limited. He opened a school for Black children while still a young man, but hostile laws in the South eventually forced him to leave Charleston.
Payne joined the African Methodist Episcopal Church and became one of its major nineteenth-century leaders. He served as a bishop for more than four decades and was known for insisting on educated clergy, stronger church organization, and broader educational opportunities for Black Americans.
He also played an important role at Wilberforce University, where he became a leading administrator and is often noted as the first Black president of an American college or university. Along with his work as a church leader and educator, he wrote memoirs and historical works that preserved important parts of Black religious and intellectual life in the United States.