“Sympathy for the Black Man”: Alexander Campbell’s Conflicting Legacy among African Americans

Alexander Campbell had a complex relationship with African Americans. He hated the practice of slavery; on the other hand, he had personal encounters with a Black man in the ante-bellum South. Andrew Marshall, a black Baptist preacher in Savannah, Georgia, invited Campbell to preach for his 2,000- member congregation. The white preacher’s sermons ignited a storm of contro- versy among Baptists in the Savannah area. Campbell’s interaction with Marshall suggests that he was not only willing to cross denominational barriers, but he was also courageous enough to traverse racial boundaries as well.