Amanda Smith
African-American evangelist (1837–1915)
Amanda Smith (née Berry; January 23, 1837 – February 24, 1915) was an American Methodist preacher and former slave who funded the Amanda Smith Orphanage and Industrial Home for Abandoned and Destitute Colored Children in Harvey, Illinois (outside Chicago). She was a leader in the Wesleyan-Holiness movement, preaching the doctrine of entire sanctification throughout Methodist camp meetings across the world.
Early life
Smith was the youngest of the thirteen children of enslaved parents Samuel Berry and Mariam Matthews in Long Green, Maryland, a small town in Baltimore County. Her father was a well-trusted man, and his master's widow trusted him enough to place him in charge of her farm. After his duties for the day were done, Mr. Berry was allowed to go out and earn extra money for himself and his family. Many nights he would go without sleeping because he was busy making brooms and husk mats for the Baltimore market. He purchased his own freedom, then that of his family; they then settled in Pennsylvania.
Childhood
Growing up, unlike many other enslaved children and adults, Smith had the advantage of learning to read and write: her father read to the family, and her mother taught her to read before she was eight, the age at which she and her younger brother were sent to school. After her sixth week of attending, the school was forced to close.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Amanda Smith” is african-American evangelist (1837–1915). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Amanda, Smith and African-American, not as a finished interpretation.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4739765. VIAF identifies the subject as 77162969. The Library of Congress control number is n87844975. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1837 and 1915.
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This entry incorporates text from “Amanda Smith” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.