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Collection of Amos brothers’ letters adds new dimension to Lincoln’s founding and global contributions
LINCOLN UNIVERSITY, PA – New book, On Africa’s Lands: The Forgotten Stories of Two Lincoln Educated Missionaries in Liberia, chronicles the lives and missionary experiences of the first graduates of the nation’s first-degree granting Historically Black College & University, The Lincoln University.
Published by The Lincoln University Press, Dr. Cheryl Renee Gooch, Lincoln’s Dean of College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences explores stories of James and his brother Thomas Amos, captured in more than 70 letters they and colleagues wrote from the mission field between 1859 and 1869.
“I wanted to explore the story behind the story of Lincoln’s founding,” said Gooch, a former journalist, who also teaches, conducts research and publishes in the areas of journalism history, ethnographic journalism, and communication and social change. “To date, the story of Lincoln’s founding has not focused on how James and Thomas Amos, Hosanna church and the Hinsonville community helped to establish and support this institution (Lincoln). James and Thomas, (Lincoln’s) first students, were pioneers in a global movement that shaped and still informs Lincoln’s mission.”
The Amos letters, which evoke the voices and experiences of men at the center of the social movement, also offers a different perspective from the often celebratory stories published about Liberia and the colonization movement that encouraged freed slaves to emigrate there.
Proceeds from the book benefit the $10 million Students First Campaign, an endowment campaign for merit and need-based scholarship support.
“James Amos once prayed near a stone that became part of the foundation of this institution’s first building,” Gooch said. “It is fitting that his and Thomas’s voices are evoked as Lincoln raises funds to ensure that students continue to have access to higher learning at an institution where being the first matters.”
To purchase the book, send a $30 check or money order (postage included) payable to: The Lincoln University – Students First Campaign, College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, The Lincoln University, 1570 Baltimore Pike, Lincoln University, PA 19352-0999.
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Reviews
On Africa’s Lands is a reminder that there are still unexplored angles of African American studies which demand attention from both scholars and students…this book brings to life an important but largely unknown chapter in the black missionary movement in the late nineteenth century. Dr. Gooch has performed a highly commendable service in compiling and editing this rich and informative volume, a work in which the voices of James and Thomas Amos echo plainly and eloquently in virtually every chapter.
Lewis V. Baldwin
Professor Emeritus, Religious Studies
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, Tennessee
Writing with a novelist’s artistry, a historian’s expertise, and the zeal of an investigative reporter, Dr. Cheryl Gooch puts this history into a timeline to give an immediate link to a world often relegated to the distant past.
Ernest C. Levister LU’58
Great grandson of Thomas Henry Amos LU’ 1859
Great nephew of James Ralston Amos LU’ 1859
All too often, scholarship has focused on the miracle of Lincoln University’s founding but much less so on the institution’s contributions, especially with regard to graduates in the early years…Professor Cheryl Renee Gooch compensates mightily by turning the spotlight on two of the earliest graduates, James and Thomas Amos, who pioneered as Presbyterian missionaries in Liberia soon after their graduation in 1859. Through extensive background research but relying mainly on the actual words of the brothers expressed in letters to the “home mission office,” Dr. Gooch documents their gripping experiences, hardships, and achievements in realistic terms, a refreshing departure from traditional but often misleading Noble Savage literature of the era.
Horace G. Dawson Jr. LU’49
U.S. Ambassador (ret.)
As graduates of our nation’s oldest degree granting historically Black university. James Ralston Amos and Thomas Henry Amos’ more than 60 letters reveal their mission experiences as Black ordained ministers who served as missionaries in Liberia. This compilation captures African-American agency in the mid-nineteenth century and is a must read for anyone interested in American history as well as scholars of African-American past.
Diane T. Turner, Curator
Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection
Temple University Libraries
Founded in 1854, The Lincoln University (PA) is the FIRST of four Lincoln Universities in the world and is the nation’s FIRST degree-granting Historically Black College and University (HBCU). The University combines the elements of a liberal arts and science-based undergraduate curriculum along with select graduate programs to meet the needs of those living in a highly-technological and global society. Today, Lincoln, which enrolls a diverse student body of approximately 2,000 men and women, possesses an international reputation for preparing and producing world class leaders such as Thurgood Marshall, the FIRST African American U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Lillian Fishburne, the FIRST African American woman promoted to Rear Admiral in the U.S. Navy, Langston Hughes, the noted poet, Kwame Nkrumah, the FIRST President of Ghana, Nnamdi Azikiwe, the FIRST President of Nigeria and a myriad of others.