Endorsements
Too often, the stories of faithful Black women have been lost to history. Thankfully, Jasmine Holmes has done the hard work of bringing these stories to light by chasing down footnotes and searching through archives for her new book, Carved in Ebony . Reading these stories will encourage your faith, inspire your courage, and remind you of Gods extraordinary work in the midst of the everyday faithfulness of his people.
Melissa Kruger, author and director of womens initiatives for The Gospel Coalition
Carved in Ebony , like its author, is courageous, compassionate, and clear. In considering the lives and faith of the women profiled here, we can learn how we as Christians can serve Christ and love the world for which he died and lives again.
Russell Moore, public theologian at Christianity Today and director of Christianity Today s Public Theology Project
Jasmine Holmes dusts off the lives of ten Black women in history, placing their contributions to the world and the Church squarely in our current climate and circumstances. I was convicted, comforted, and challenged by Jasmines strong, wise, and informed voice. Carved in Ebony is a treasure that belongs on every shelf of American history.
Lore Ferguson Wilbert, author of Handle with Care: How Jesus Redeems the Power of Touch in Life and Ministry
Jasmine Holmes has uncovered a wealth of buried treasures in the lives of these remarkable, inspiring, and ordinary women. They have so much to teach us today, and we have so much to learn. Get ready to be humbled and awed by these powerful Black women.
Karen Swallow Prior, research professor of English and Christianity and Culture at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and author of On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books
I can recommend Carved in Ebony for so many reasons: its serious historical research, its vivid writing, its unflagging commitment to the Gospel, its challenge to lasting racial prejudice. But let me say it most plainly. The stories of these ten Black women inspire faithfulness and courage. They offer a glimpse of what God can do when we surrender ourselves to him.
Jen Pollock Michel, author of A Habit Called Faith and Surprised by Paradox
Carved in Ebony introduces the stories of Black women that for too long have been untold. With unapologetic conviction and vulnerable eloquence, Jasmine shows how their faith and steadfast purposefulness indelibly shaped our nation and world. You will be both inspired and challenged to continue the legacy these women began.
Elizabeth Woodson, institute classes and curriculum director, The Village Church
What a gift this book you hold in your hands will be to you! Jasmine has a way of teaching you a history lesson you never knew you needed, while also pointing you to a God who deeply cares for his children. I love God more now that I know these ladies in this book, and I suspect you will as well!
Jamie Ivey, bestselling author and host of The Happy Hour with Jamie Ivey podcast
Books are meant to shape us. While reading Carved in Ebony , I imagined that I was joining Jasmine Holmes on a journey looking at old truths with fresh eyes. After I was done, I realized that Jasmine wasnt just using her pen to tell a story. She was using it as a chisel. My faith and confidence in the goodness of God has been refined and polished as a result of seeing Gods faithfulness in the lives of these women. I cant wait to witness the other statues she sculpts when other people get their hands on this book.
John Onwuchekwa, pastor of Cornerstone Church and cofounder of Portrait Coffee
Title Page
Copyright Page
2021 by Jasmine Linette Holmes
Published by Bethany House Publishers
11400 Hampshire Avenue South
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55438
www.bethanyhouse.com
Bethany House Publishers is a division of
Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan
www.bakerpublishinggroup.com
Ebook edition created 2021
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meansfor example, electronic, photocopy, recordingwithout the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4934-3371-1
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the Christian Standard Bible, copyright 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible and CSB are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.
Scripture quotations identified ESV are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ESV Text Edition: 2016
Cover art and design by Jena Holliday
Author represented by The Gates Group
Baker Publishing Group publications use paper produced from sustainable forestry practices and post-consumer waste whenever possible.
Dedication
For the Black women who shape me
MommyBridget
MamaOphelia
and MaKaren
Contents
Endorsements
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Foreword
Introduction
1. A Midwife at the Birth of a Nation
Elizabeth Freeman
2. The Almost-Forgotten Spitfire
Sara Griffith Stanley
3. The One I Almost Left Out
Nannie Helen Burroughs
4. Inspired by the Bronze Muse
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper
5. Gods Image Carved in Ebony
Amanda Berry Smith
6. Mother from Far Away
Maria Fearing
7. Where Are Our Illustrious Ones?
Maria Stewart
Lucy Craft Laney
9. Daughter of a Legacy
Charlotte Forten Grimk
10. She Leaned upon the Rock of Ages
Sarah Mapps Douglass
The Women I Left Out
Acknowledgments
Appendix I: The Founding Fathers and Slavery
Appendix II: The African American Jeremiad
Notes
About the Author
Back Cover
Foreword
Ebony.
Stubborn. Unyielding. Commodified. Precious.
The ebony tree is most often found standing alone on a vast savanna, defying harsh elements that would wither other vegetation.
She survives and grows because her Planter watches over her solitude with love and careful attention.
As she matures, she receives a hundred years of sunlight and rich earth nourishment, and stretches her limbs toward the nighttime stars.
When the Planter becomes Woodsman, she is suddenly felled. Though her fall to the ground is hard and resounding, her Woodsman is no harsh plunderer. He only earnestly desires to fashion her ebony trunk into the eternal, priceless commodity he intended from her seed-hood.
Once fallen, her nature is still stubborn and unyielding, except in the hands of the expert Craftsman who has now brought her to his side.
He leaves off his large cutting tools and moves to fine carving, excising unnecessary pieces to reveal what he sees inside her roughhewn trunk. He shapes her edges, softening some and leaving others intentionally sharp for the moment they are used for her good and his glory.
The Craftsman leans in close for this detailed work, eye and hand anticipating every nick, dark curl, and plunging waveintention and love guiding his precision. As he polishes with his cloth, his creation drinks deep of his nourishing holy oil. A million crisscrossed hues unveil from within her darkness, uncovering the Masters splendor that he knew lay deep within.
Jasmine Holmes is herself a work of the Master Craftsman, and she has unearthed ten completed works of art: women from American history who were likewise carved in ebony and yielded to their Creator. She gives voice to the particular struggles and kingdom victories of pioneering, self-sacrificing Black female missionaries, and celebrates Gods glory in their lives and his kingdom advance in their respective spheres.