Three Faithful Preachers

I am also reading The Faithful Preacher this week, a book by Thabiti Anyabwile that presents selections from Lemuel Haynes, Daniel Payne, and Francis Grimke, three African-American pastors from the Reformed tradition. 

The African American church generally is not associated with Reformed theology.  However, things were not always this way.  Thabiti quotes one biographer of Lemuel Haynes, commenting on African American theology from the 18th century:

"Calvinism seems to have corroborated the deepest structuring elements of the experiences of such men and women as they matured from children living in slavery or servitude into adults desiring freedom, literacy, and membership in a fair society. From Calvinism, this generation of black authors drew a vision of God at work providentially in the lives of black people, directing their sufferings yet promising the faithful among them a restoration to his favor and his presence."