In the summer of 1842, a courageous 29-year-old black woman named Harriett Jacobs escaped a cruel, lecherous slavemaster in North Carolina and arrived in the abolitionist stronghold of Philadelphia. Here members of the Underground Railroad led her to Jeremiah Durham, a free African American minister of Philadelphia's Bethel A.M.E. Church. Often called the “Mother Bethel” Church, it was playing an important part in the burgeoning abolition movement.
Jeremiah Durham was an indispensable friend to people like Harriett Jacobs. By rescuing her and others like her, he risked his own freedom, and possibly his life. How many people like Harriett did he take in as a minister at Mother Bethel Church? How many terrified, hunted men and women fleeing slavery did he free from the whipping post? How many lives did this brave minister save while following the example of Christ, “Inasmuch as you have done it unto the least of these, my brethren, you have done it unto me”?
In this month we designate Black History Month, I find the history of Harriett Jacobs and Jeremiah Durham especially inspiring. The accomplishments of Jeremiah Durham and others like him make Black History Month a self-evident necessity. The unimaginable suffering and bravery of the escaped slave Harriett Jacobs, whose name is absent from all the schoolbooks, make me, a white man, both humble and proud to be her American compatriot.
My name is Steve Vaughan, and that’s my perspective.
