Reprinted with permission from Eerdmans.
FROM HOWARD THURMAN'S own account, his grandmother, in particular, fundamentally shaped his religious sentiments; she was his hero. His grandmother had been a slave, and later, when Thurman began writing his books on the spirituals, he had her words in mind. Nancy was also a midwife in Daytona, known generally by the community as “Lady Nancy,” and remembered by Thurman as the “anchor person in our family.” She came from a large plantation estate in South Carolina; her owner, John C. McGhee, had moved to Madison County, Florida, before the war, where the majority of the larger planters were from South Carolina. Growing up, Thurman made frequent pilgrimages to Madison County but remembered of his grandmother, “She granted to no one the rights of passage across her own remembered footsteps.”
But there was one great exception. Nancy frequently repeated the story of the slave minister she remembered, who came once a year to preach to them. He would address the enslaved people, saying, “You are not n------! You are not slaves! You are God’s children!” Thurman recounted that story numerous times in his orations, sermons, and books, including the autobiography he prepared later in his life. It was one of his staple parables that he returned to time and again when he reflected on his life. Another of those stories was of the girl who lived with a family for whom Thurman’s grandmother did laundry. Thurman worked raking leaves in their yard, and the girl tormented the boy by scattering the leaves. When Thurman told her to stop, she picked up a pin and jabbed him in the hand. “Oh Howard, that didn’t hurt you! You can’t feel!” she said.
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