The Sacred, Society, and the Social Sciences in the Work of Amelia E. Johnson

Best known as the African American author of Clarence and Corinne, or God's Way (1890) and The Hazeley Family (1894), Amelia E. Johnson (1858-1922), also wrote Sunday school fiction for the American Baptist Publication Society of Philadelphia and edited a monthly journal titled Joy. In her work, Johnson continually emphasized the extent to which religious faith offered a safe space from which one could spiritually and mentally shield oneself from hazardous familial and urban environments. This paper examines Johnson's views on the impact of alcoholism, poverty, and poor parenting on family life. The paper moves Johnson's work out of the category of Christian fiction, and analyzes it within national currents in late nineteenth century social scientific thought concerning African Americans in urban settings. Johnson's publications, for example, coincide with the rising influence of social Darwinian thought on American intellectuals. Her work, however, should be read in strident opposition to that discourse.