![]() Nearly a decade earlier, when black Methodists in New York City were denied ordination in the MEC, they turned instead to leaders in the Methodist Society. When Apess was denied ordination as an Elder in the Methodist Episcopal Church, he almost certainly looked to the Methodist Society intentionally. There is even stronger evidence that Apess knew James Covel, who, like Apess, found something intriguing and appealing in the Mormon message, but who ultimately chose to “return to his former people and principles.” Covel was a prominent leader in the MPC, and was known to reach out to preachers of color. It is possible that Greene’s conversion to Mormonism might have been discussed among other Methodist Protestant preachers-the published minutes of their annual conference certainly suggest as much. Greene first read the Book of Mormon in July 1830, but remained uncommitted to joining the new church, following other Methodist dissidents into the MPC in early 1831. Three months prior to Apess’s meeting with Hyde and Smith, another preacher in the Methodist Protestant Church had been baptized in Mendon, New York. Many early Mormon converts, of course, came from Methodist backgrounds. ![]() There is also circumstantial evidence that Apess might have been familiar with Mormonism prior to his encounter with Mormon missionaries in 1832. In 1831, Apess reprinted a slightly-altered edition of A Son of the Forest, and over the course of the next decade gained some notoriety, both for his participation in civil rights activism (he was arrested after helping organize and lead the Mashpee Revolt of 1833) and his continued prolificacy as an author (he authored four more volumes before passing away in 1839). It describes his childhood of neglect and abuse, his participation in the War of 1812, subsequent fall into alcoholism, eventual conversion to Methodism, his falling out with Methodist Episcopal leaders after being refused ordination, and his ordination in the Methodist Society (one of the more substantial schismatic groups that in 1830 joined together and formed the Methodist Protestant Church). Comprising a Notice of the Pequod Tribe of Indians (New York: 1829). In 1829, William Apes (who would later alter the spelling of his last name to Apess, by which he is more commonly known today) published A Son of the Forest: The Experience of William Apes, a Native of the Forest. What neither Hyde nor Smith almost certainly did not realize was that the “Indian Missionary” with whom they conversed was on his way to becoming one of the foremost Native American evangelists and activists in antebellum America. This “intelligent son of Abraham” was identified as one “Apes” in Smith’s diary, whose own entry adds further detail:īrother had Some writing to do he wrote to Zion Sending the names of Some Subscribers for the Star gave viena & fifteen dollars reeived from Subscribers to carry to the Bishop in ? viSited by a man by the name of ApeS an Indian of the Peyrd tribe he waS a Preacher though Some unbelieveing at first but became more belileveing & concluded to give the work a candid investigation & invited us to Preach in his hall that hireed to preach in himsef & also invited uS to pay him a visit we concluded to go to Prividence & we told him that we would when we returned In sitting down with an intelligent son of Abraham and conversing with him is something agreeable. We agreed to call and see him quite an interesting time with him. ![]() Gave Sister Vienna Fifteen dollars to pay over to Brother Whitney in Ohio, for the Star talked two or three hours with a Indian Missionary who was believing, or at least, willing to give the subject a candid hearing of the Perqod Tribe gave us an invitation to preach in his hall, and also to come and pay him a visit. July 10th, 1832: Wrote to Zion sent 8 or 9 subscriptions for the “Star”. Hyde’s journal entry that evening reads as follows: On July 10, Hyde and Smith had a chance encounter with a Methodist preacher. That woman-Vienna Jacques-had prepared several of her friends and family members for the arrival of the itinerant missionaries, and Hyde and Smith gained several converts that summer, a number of whom came from the Bromfield Street Methodist Episcopal Church, to which Jacques had belonged prior to her conversion to Mormonism. The previous year, a young Methodist woman had traveled from Boston to Kirtland, Ohio, been baptized a Mormon, and then returned to her Massachusetts home. Smith arrived in Boston, Massachusetts to preach Mormonism to the people of what was then the fourth largest city in the United States. ![]()
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