In the 1840s, people in North Carolina wrote to the editor of The True Wesleyan to request an abolitionist minister. Leaders were reluctant to appoint someone to such a dangerous field, but young Adam Crooks from Ohio volunteered, saying, “Sustained by your prayers, and in the name of my Savior, I will go.”
He founded Freedom’s Hill, the first Wesleyan Methodist church in the slaveholding South, although he was dragged from his pulpit and thrown into jail for antislavery activities. He survived an assassination attempt and set an example of courage and commitment. He became a leader of the Wesleyan Methodists, including serving as editor of The American Wesleyan (now Wesleyan Life) from 1864-1875.
Adapted from The Story of The Wesleyan Church by R. Black and K. Drury