Amanda Berry Smith served in Egypt, Sierra Leone, and Liberia

Evangelist and missionary Amanda Berry Smith (1837-1915) became well known for her beautiful voice and inspired teaching, and hence, opportunities to evangelize in the South and West opened up for her.

In 1876, she was invited to speak and sing in England and to travel in a first-class cabin provided by her friends. The captain invited her to conduct a religious service on board, and she was so modest that the other passengers spread the word of her, resulting in her staying in England and Scotland for a year and a half.

She next traveled to and ministered in India, then spent eight years in Africa (Egypt, Sierra Leone, Liberia), working with churches and evangelizing. While in Africa, she suffered from repeated attacks of “African Fever” but persisted in her work. In her journal entry for February 5, 1884, she writes:

“Second Gospel Temperance meeting. Surely the Spirit of the Lord is with us, and He is blessing us greatly. Not so much liberty in speaking, but God is with us, and we are expecting great things. Oh, Lord, for Jesus’ sake, answer prayer, and send us the Holy Ghost to quicken and revive us.”

She founded the Amanda Smith Orphans’ Home for African-American children in a suburb of Chicago. She was called “God’s image carved in ebony.” Amanda Smith retired to Sebring, Florida in 1912 due to failing health. She died in 1915 at the age of 78.

Amanda has one of the very few written autobiographies by Black Americans of that time period.  You can read her an electronic copy of her autobiography, “An Autobiography. The Story of the Lord’s Dealings with Mrs. Amanda Smith the Colored Evangelist; Containing an Account of Her Life Work of Faith, and Her Travels in America, England, Ireland, Scotland, India, and Africa, as an Independent Missionary” at this link –  Autobiography of Amanda Smith