Who is Daniel Alexander payne?

Answer 1

Payne, Daniel Alexander (24 Feb. 1811-2 Nov. 1893), minister and educator, was born in Charleston, South Carolina, the son of London Payne, a free African American, and Martha (maiden name unknown), a Catawba Indian, both of whom died in the early 1820s. For two years he attended the Minor's Moralist Society School; he then continued his education with a tutor and through extensive independent reading. He joined the Methodist Episcopal church in 1826. Payne established a school for blacks in 1828 but closed it in 1834 when South Carolina outlawed education for slaves. Moving to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in 1835, Payne studied on a scholarship at the Lutheran Theological Seminary, but failing eyesight forced him to leave before graduation. He was licensed to preach in 1837 and ordained in 1839, thus becoming the first African-American minister in the Franckean Evangelical Lutheran Synod. In 1840 he opened a second school for African Americans, through which he was introduced to the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church. He left the Franckean Church in 1841--partly because of its reluctance to give an African-American minister the responsibility for a parish--and joined the AME church. Serious ideological differences quickly became evident between Payne and the AME church; he favored a formal service conducted by educated ministers, while many of the AME's members opposed an educated clergy and preferred an emotional, evangelical style of worship. Payne was assigned first to the Israel Bethel Church in Washington, D.C., then to the Bethel Church and later the Ebenezer Church in Baltimore. In addition to the usual duties of a pastor, he worked to standardize the AME service, to keep records of church history, and to improve religious education. Although initial resistance to his attempts to educate the clergy was strong, by 1844 the General Conference had accepted his recommendation to standardize a course of study for all ministers. In 1850 Payne published Pleasures and Other Miscellaneous Poems. Elected a bishop in 1852, Payne worked to expand the church's home and overseas mission programs, especially those involving newly freed slaves. This later led to rapid growth in the church's membership in the postwar South. Payne had married Julia A. Ferris in 1847. After her death, he married Eliza J. Clark in 1853. In 1863 Payne purchased and became president of Wilberforce University in Ohio, the first African-American-controlled college in the United States. He facilitated the growth of the university by raising standards for both students and faculty and by improving its financial stability. While visiting South Carolina in 1865, Payne founded the South Carolina Conference of the AME church, which was to play an important role in the denomination's expansion in the South. In 1866 he published his church history, Semi-Centenary and the Retrospection of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States of America. He resigned the presidency of Wilberforce in 1876 and became chancellor and dean of the theological school, positions he held until his death. A prolific author, Payne wrote numerous poems, essays, speeches, and sermons. In later life he published his autobiography, Recollections of Seventy Years (1888), as well as Treatise on Domestic Education (1885) and History of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (1891). His last public appearance was at the World Parliament of Religions at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. He died in Xenia, Ohio, a few weeks later. Payne's importance lies in his contributions to the history of African Americans in the nineteenth century and the history of the African Methodist Episcopal church. He also played a significant role in the expansion of educational opportunities for African Americans, both before and after emancipation.