MISS HOLLY AT NEWPORT
In the midst of the worldly care of preparing for our annual summer visitors, at this season, one of the most gifted messengers of the Anti-Slavery Gospel has appeared among us to awaken and to warn. Sallie Holley has given four lectures here, three of which were delivered in the Methodist Church. All honor to that church and their minister, — a true son of brave John Wesley, — for their hearty and cheerful cooperation in the good work! But we regret to say, that, though anti-slavery members used their influence in the right direction, the house belonging to the Baptist Society, — considered most liberal towards reforms, — was refused. ….Yet the leaven is at work here, and the eloquence of Sallie Holley, not of earth, but of heaven, full of inspiration, has made many see what God is asking of the Church; to see that it is not merely a poor negro slave knocking at the door, but Christ himself, his locks dropping with the dews of his mental agony, his chains clanking around his wasted form…….We should call her a preacher of anti-slavery righteousness, rather than a lecturer. All that we hear speak of it say they never heard such preaching. She is an Anti-Slavery Revivalist, full of wonderful mastery over the heart.
Newport, April 18, 1856
(Liberator, April 25, 1856, pg 3)
