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The Big Quarterly
"For the sake of peace, love, and nothing but that..."
-- referring to the break with Asbury Methodist Church of Wilmington, Reverend Peter Spencer
The August Quarterly, originally known as the Big Quarterly, is the oldest continuously celebrated African American festival in the nation. First celebrated in 1814, and every year since, the festival commemorates the founding of the first African American church to be independently incorporated in the United States, the Union Church of African Members.
In the early years, the festival became a kind of "independence day" for black s of the Delmarva Peninsula. On condition that they return at the end of the weekend, slaves were permitted to gather once a year to celebrate the freedom to worship in their own unique way, free from discrimination. Relatives and friends separated by slavery were reunited to spend the weekend worshiping, showing off their finest clothes, telling stories, and sharing African music, dance, humor and food. Eventually, delegates from over 600 churches representing more than 25,000 members in the United States and Canada assembled annually in Wilmington during the last weekend in August. It was this quarterly meeting, open to all church members, that became known fondly as the "Big Quarterly."
Prior to the Civil War, the gathering provided a forum for slaves and free men and women to publicly discuss colonization and other issues of slavery. For a few, it offered the chance to escape. Many runaways were aided along the Underground Railroad in Delaware by "conductors" and abolitionists of the stature of Thomas Garrett, Harriet Tubman, John Hunn and Samuel D Burris. Suspicions were aroused when a few of the elders in the black community referred to the festivals as "big excursions on the Underground Railroad."
After slavery ended, the August Quarterly tradition continued. The Wilmington Morning News of August 31, 1885, reporting on the annual gathering stated, "The incoming trains of Saturday and yesterday up to noon brought large numbers of colored persons from points along the lines of the different railroads. The steamers Champion and Delaware brought excursions from Camden and Salem, NJ respectively. The steamers Wilmington and Brandywine also brought a goodly number of persons from Philadelphia, Chester and Marcus Hook, most of whom returned by rail." Today the festival continues to draw people from around the nation.
This painting by Simmie Knox, a former resident of Delaware, depicts the August Quarterly around 1950. In the background is the Mother Church as it stood in the 800 block of French Street before it was razed in 1971 under a program of urban renewal. In the foreground is the Church's founder, Rev Peter Spender. In 1805, Spencer, who had been born a slave and purchased his own freedom, led a group of forty followers out of the white Asbury Methodist Church of Wilmington to establish their own congregation. It was not until 1813 that Spencer, with his associate William Anderson, was finally able to found the Union Church of African Members. Now, as in every year following Spencer's death in 1842, the festival includes a wreath-laying ceremony to honor the Church's founder. |