I've done quite a bit of traveling lately in this blog, so it's nice to return to my home county for a bit of a breather. This is one of the markers I collected on my last birthday, and the subject is an interesting one. I could wish that slavery wasn't part of our country's history, but it's one of those chapters that we have to acknowledge. The woman at the heart of today's quest was never a slave herself, but the reality of slavery impacted her for most of her life and shaped who she was and who she became.
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| The marker is situated at 410 Union Street, Allentown, in front of the church |
As a teenager, she had her first religious experience when, in 1842, she accompanied her mother to a prayer meeting, or what she herself called a "band meeting." In her own words, she felt a powerful sensation come over her. "The power of God struck me down. I cried out with all my heart to Jesus, the way I heard my mother do, but I did not know who he was or where he was." This single experience would be the starting point of her call to preach.
Three years later, at the age of seventeen, Harriet married the fugitive slave William Baker. "It did make me feel quite big to see my name in the paper," she wrote later, "especially as two of the first families of the town were to be married and the notice of their marriage would appear at the same time." However, because of William's fugitive status, they were in danger; in 1847 it appeared that he was to be sold to a slaveholder in Georgia, so the couple fled with their firstborn infant to Columbia, Pennsylvania, with just ten cents to their names. But Columbia, in Lancaster County, was an important lumber region and William was a talented lumberman, and they soon had enough money to buy a lot and build a home.
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| Harriet Cole Baker, as seen in her biography |
They pulled the triggers. Not a single gun fired. Harriet forever considered it divine providence, and I certainly don't have a better explanation.
William was sent to Philadelphia, tried, and convicted as a fugitive slave. Four citizens, however, raised $750 in gold to purchase his freedom, and Harriet mortgaged their home in order to pay them back. Finally free, they returned to Columbia and resumed their lives, raising five children together - William, Caroline, Harriet, Lincoln, and Eva. (Their names are given in a 1913 Morning Call article dictating the terms of Harriet's will.)
It was in 1872 that Harriet announced that she felt the call to preach. This was not met with a great response. Harriet and William were members of the African Methodist Episcopal church, or AME as it's usually called, and in those days they didn't permit women in the pulpit - God didn't intend women to be preachers, they said. Neither was William exactly enthusiastic about his wife's idea. Harriet was undeterred, however; even her own pastor effectively attacking her in a sermon didn't sway her. She believed that Christ had commissioned her and that was that. As one contemporary source put it, "She observed thousands perishing around her, and she felt she must go out and speak to them, tell them of the love of Jesus." Off she went.
Harriet traveled from one community to the next, working as an evangelist, and as her biographer puts it, "the hearts of the people were open to receive her." She was unexpectedly popular. In the summer of 1874 she was invited to a camp meeting in Cressona, south of Pottsville, and by this time she had gained so much traction as a preacher that special trains were run to bring people to the meeting. The exact figure is unknown, but it was estimated that there were roughly 16,000 people on hand to listen to her preach. This event led her to be invited to preach at several other churches throughout Schuylkill County; she was regarded as something of a female John the Baptist. The AME Church finally accepted her as their first female minister, opening the door for other women to answer the same call.
William died in 1892; a few years later, Harriet relocated to Allentown, where she stayed for the rest of her life. Here she established the Bethel Mission at 738 North Penn Street, where she served as the minister to a congregation of more than 100 people. People, both black and white, came from as far away as the New England states to hear her preach and listen to her lead the choir. The Allentown Democrat, which no longer exists, made the observation that she was responsible for bringing several thousand people to Christianity. When she realized she was nearing death, she turned over the Bethel Mission's lease to J.C. Banks, president of the National Industrial School in Philadelphia, with her final request being that he would establish an annex to the mission to serve as a school for colored girls. Harriet herself had never been able to go to school, only finally learning to read and write as an adult, and she wanted the new generations to have more opportunities.
Harriet died on the first of March in 1913, and was extensively mourned by the community. The Morning Call noted that "Allentown has lost one of its most helpful and prominent women. Her life was one of constant service and to such a life humanity pays tribute in unaffected terms." As for the mission which was her final great project, it changed its name in 1914 to the St. James AME Church (now the St. James AMEZ Church), and in 1936 relocated to a new building on Union Street where it remains today. They keep her legacy of faith and service alive, even in these less than certain times.
Sources and Further Reading:
Except where indicated, all writing and photography on this blog is the intellectual property of Laura Klotz. This blog is written with permission of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. I am not employed by the PHMC. All rights reserved.
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