“Christian Science and African Americans: A New Discovery of Early Healing”

Mary Baker Eddy Library, The. “Christian Science and African Americans: A New Discovery of Early Healing.” Released 31 January  2019.

Christian Science has had an impact on many communities, one of these being the Black American community. Until recently, it was believed that the earliest interactions Blacks had with Christian Science were around the beginning of the 1900s. However, The Mary Baker Eddy Library discovered a set of letters written by Lucinda M. Reeves to Eddy in 1881. Reeves was a pupil taught by Eddy. In these letters, Reeves talks about a Black American family that she prayed for. Her prayer practice also blessed two other Black Americans, one unidentified man and a woman who is believed to be Harriet Briscoe, the servant of two of Eddy’s students. These letters of correspondence help trace the impact Christian Science has had on the lives of Black Americans to an earlier date than previously thought.

View this resource on The Mary Baker Eddy Library website.

See also annotations:

“Negro Ministers and the Color Line in American Protestantism” by Jesse Howell Atwood

“A Historic Step into Outer Space” by Walter Leavy