erved. In nearly all the county
histories we find mention of several of these Negro exhorters who
seemingly were men of some degree of intelligence. The majority of
them were apparently themselves slaves, subject to the will of their
masters, and while the restrictions on their movements were very lax,
they seldom if ever spoke beyond the borders of their home
county.[375]

One of the famous Negro preachers of the early nineteenth-century
South was Josiah Henson. From 1825 to 1828 he was a slave in Daviess
County, Kentucky, and in his autobiography he has given us a picture
of the circumstances under which he became a slave preacher. "In
Kentucky," said he, "the opportunities of attending on the preaching
of whites, as well as of blacks, were more numerous; and partly
attended by them, and the campmeetings which occurred from time to
time, and partly from studying carefully my own heart, and observing
the developments of character around me, in all the stations of life
which I could watch, I became better acquainted with those religious
feelings which are deeply implanted in the breast of every human
being, and learnt by practice how best to arouse them, and keep them
excited, and in general to produce some good religious impressions on
the ignorant and thoughtless community by which I was surrounded.... I
cannot but derive some satisfaction, too, from the proofs I have had
that my services have been acceptable to those to whom they have been
rendered. In the course of the three years from 1825 to 1828 I availed
myself of all the opportunities of improvement which occurred and was
admitted as a preacher by a conference of the Methodist Episcopal
Church."[376]

In Ballard County there was another interesting exhorter. Advertising
for his Negro Jack who had run away in 1850, C. B. Young pointed out
that although he was a slave and the property of the "subscriber" he
was a well-educated Baptist preacher and in the pursuit of his
vocation he was well known by "many of the citizens of Paducah,
McCracken County, and also by citizens of Hickman and Fulton Counties,
and is thought by many to be a free man."[377]

The only credentials which the Negro preacher carried, according to
his own testimony, came directly from the Lord. His education was only
of a sufficient character to enable him to read the Bible and line out
the words of the hymns. His creed was never the creation of any school
of theology. It was usually an orig