The Life of Amanda Smith 

Amanda Smith was born into slavery in the year 1837 and was the oldest of thirteen children. Her father worked extra hours during the evening so that he was eventually able to purchase he and his families’ freedom. They then moved and settled in Pennsylvania. Amanda Smith married twice, with her first husband dying while serving with the Union army during the Civil War. She mothered five children, but all but one, Mazie, died before they reached adulthood. She would also adopt two children during her time as a missionary in Africa.

In 1869, despite not having a formal education, Amanda Smith became involved with church-related activities. She would spend the next nine years speaking and singing at African Methodist Episcopal churches throughout the eastern and midwestern regions in the United States. In 1878, with her success as a preacher, friends of Amanda Smith suggested that she join missionaries in England. She would spend a year in England, and then two more years working with churches in India. In 1881, she would travel to Liberia, where she would spend another eight years working in ministries in West Africa.

Amanda Smith returned to the United States in 1890, and she settled in the Chicago area. She continued to preach for two more years, where she also became a national representative for the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). In 1893, she wrote and published her autobiography, An Autobiography, The Story of the Lord’s Dealing with Mrs. Amanda Smith, the Colored Evangelist. Her autobiography has been reprinted in six editions over the past one hundred years. Amanda Smith would use the money earned from selling her autobiography, in addition to lecture and preaching fees, private donations, and support from temperance groups in Great Britain and African American Women’s Clubs in Chicago to fund the opening of her orphanage, the Amanda Smith Orphanage and Industrial Home for Abandoned Destitute Colored Children.

The orphanage was finally opened in 1899 in Harvey, and it was the first orphanage for African American children in the state of Illinois. Upon its opening, the orphanage housed five children. However, ten years later the orphanage housed and cared for thirty-three children. Amanda Smith was able to fund the operation of her orphanage through donations from Colored Women’s Clubs, as well as continued support from philanthropists in the Chicago area. However, Amanda Smith’s orphanage struggled to maintain consistent funding, which threatened its certification by the State. The orphanage was able to receive its certifications each year because it was the only home of its kind in the state of Illinois that cared for African American orphans.

Amanda Smith was forced to retire from her position as caregiver and operator of the orphanage in 1912 due to illness and advanced age, and the home would eventually be reconstituted as the Amanda Smith Industrial School for Colored Girls. The school was run by its principal, Adah M. Waters, an advocate for social advances for African American girls during the Great Migration. Like the orphanage, the school struggled to secure funding, in addition to severe maintenance problems and staffing issues. Due to an electrical fire in 1918, the school burned down and was never reopened, despite efforts made by the school’s Board of Directors and other City of Harvey leaders. 

Citations:

Chatelain, Marcia. 2015. South Side Girls: Growing Up in the Great Migration. Duke University Press.

Illinois Periodicals Online. 1998. “The Last Ministry of Amanda Berry Smith.” https://www.lib.niu.edu/1998/ihwt9820.html.

Written by Michael St. Amour, Intern for the Harvey Historical Society