Berea College founders and founding collection : RG 1.02, John G. Fee 1816-1910. Series III, Box 13, Writings.

[Place of production not identified : producer not identified, 1816-1910]

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John G. Fee, born in Bracken County, became an ordained Presbyterian minister and worked with the American Home Missionary Society until 1848 when he disassociated himself from the group because it did not condemn slavery. Fee then began a long time affiliation with the anti-slavery American Missionary Association. In 1853, Cassius Marcellus Clay offered Fee land if he would move to Madison County. Fee moved in 1854, and with the assistance of the AMA, operated a one-room school from 1855 to 1859. In 1859, he joined with others to found Berea College as an institution specifically opposed to slaveholding, and with the other founders was forced into exile because of this teaching. Fee returned to Berea in 1865, but also preached and taught at Camp Nelson in Jessamine County, a military base for free blacks. In 1866, again with the support of the AMA, he joined with J.A.R. Rogers and John Hanson of the original founders to incorporate Berea College. Fee maintained an active interest in the College throughout the rest of his life. He was displeased when William Goodell Frost, President of the College from 1892-1920, shifted the emphasis from Blacks to White Appalachians and corresponded about it with him and others about it.

Slavery, abolition & social justice.

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October 24, 2023