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http://www.afro-diaspora.net">Afro-Diaspora Net</a>
In October of 1853, the New Castle Presbytery met in Coatesville, Pennsylvania,
and announced they would establish a school devoted to training African
Americans for missionary service in Africa. It was called Ashmun Institute
in honor of the Reverend JEHUDI ASHMUN (1794- 1828) agent of the American
Colonization Society in West Africa from 1822 to 1828. The plans for such
a school were formed at the coaxing of JAMES RALSTON AMOS (1825-1864),
who had been attending a school sponsored by the Philadelphia Synod of
the Presbyterian Church but left under threat of violence from white students
irate at having to study with a black student.
Dr. JOHN MILLER DICKEY, Amos's mentor, interested the members of his local
chapter of the American Colonization Society in plans for such a school.
In an effort to raise money for the school, both Amos and Dickey traveled
throughout the country giving sermons and talks on colonization and the
Ashmun Institute. Presbyterians opened their pockets, and the main building
of the Institute was opened 31 December 1856. The first two students admitted
the next day to classes were
the brother, JAMES RALSTON and THOMAS H[ENRY] AMOS. The annual report
of the Presbyterian Board of Education for 1860 noted that since Ashmun
Institute opened, it had admitted eighteen students, of which three were
missionaries. The missionaries were James and Thomas Amos and ARMISTEAD
MILLER. Miller and the Amoses preached in churches around the country
on the virtues of African Colonization.
After being founded in 1854 as Ashmun Institute, the Institue was renamed
Lincoln University after President Abraham Lincoln's assassination. It
opened its doors to admit women students in 1952.
I am distantly related to James Ralston Amos (1826-1864).
Iinterestingly, many references have been made that [Frederick] Douglass
and [Sojourner] Ttruth
lectured at Hosanna Meetinghouse, but I cannot document or establish any
dates...such is research.
Coni Porter Uuzelac, executive director Dorothy Porter Wesley Research
Center, Inc.