JOHN FEE

 

John Fee was a faithful abolitionist and vowed “to love thy neighbor as thyself.” Fee, a pastor in Kentucky, preached against slavery. Fee received a lot of backlash for his anti-slavery messages in a pro-slavery setting. Despite his conflicts, he remained firm in his beliefs and continued to fight against slavery. Fee also founded the first racially-integrated college in the Southern United States.

 

In preaching against slavery, Fee encountered resistance due to his view that Christians shouldn’t fellowship with slave owners. Fee was forced to leave his church. Undaunted by this rejection, Fee founded Berea, Kentucky in 1853. He continued preaching and founded the first interracial college in the South, Berea College, which began as a single room that served as the classroom and church building. Fee also served as a chaplain for African American soldiers at Camp Nelson. 

 

In his autobiography, Fee described one of his sermons and wrote, “I selected the text, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself.’ I showed that human slavery was plainly a violation of this fundamental principle of the Christian religion. I then considered the various texts in the Old and New Testaments assumed as sanctions of slavery. I showed that such assumptions were wrong; that the precepts of Christianity must be construed in harmony with its fundamental principles, and that slavery was sinful as certainly as any- thing in human action could be sinful.”