At a time when Kentucky was a slave state and many churches either defended slavery or remained silent, John Gregg Fee preached that slavery was a sin against both God and humanity. For that, he was disowned by his slaveholding father, threatened by violent mobs, driven from his home, and ultimately forced into exile.
Born on September 9, 1816, in Bracken County, Kentucky, Fee grew up in a family that owned enslaved people. His father held thirteen slaves and opposed the abolitionist movement. As a teenager, however, Fee underwent a profound Christian conversion that transformed his understanding of the Bible.
While studying at Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati, he became convinced that Christ’s command to “love thy neighbor as thyself” was utterly incompatible with slavery. From that moment, he dedicated his ministry to preaching both the gospel and the immediate abolition of slavery.
Unlike many Northern abolitionists, Fee chose not to leave the South. Friends urged him to move to a free state or even become a missionary overseas, but he believed his calling was to confront slavery where it was most deeply rooted.
Returning to Kentucky, he began preaching throughout Bracken and Lewis counties, often in communities where his message was met with hostility. He insisted that churches should refuse fellowship to slaveholders, a position that put him at odds with many Presbyterian leaders. Eventually, he broke with the denomination, believing that no church could faithfully follow Christ while tolerating human bondage.
By 1848, Fee and members of his congregation had established the Free Church of Christ in Lewis County, one of Kentucky’s earliest openly antislavery churches. He later founded the Union Church in Berea, where Black and White Christians worshipped together at a time when racial segregation was the norm in a slave state.
These churches were built on the conviction that every person bore the image of God and that racial distinctions had no place in Christian fellowship. They became centers of abolitionist teaching, challenging the prevailing belief that Christianity and slavery could peacefully coexist.
The reaction was swift and often violent. Fee was ostracized by fellow ministers, denounced by pro-slavery citizens, and repeatedly attacked.
According to historical accounts, he was threatened, stoned, clubbed, and even shot at because of his preaching. His family also became targets of intimidation. Nevertheless, he continued traveling across Kentucky, planting churches and proclaiming that slavery was morally indefensible. His ministry demonstrated remarkable courage in a region where such views could easily cost a person their life.
In 1853, with land donated by fellow abolitionist Cassius M. Clay, Fee founded the town of Berea, Kentucky. Two years later, he and members of his Union Church established Berea College, beginning in a one-room schoolhouse that also served as a church.
The institution welcomed students regardless of race or gender, making it the first interracial and coeducational college in the American South. Fee envisioned Berea as a Christian community where education, worship, and daily life reflected the biblical principle that all people are equal before God.
His work eventually provoked a full-scale backlash. Following John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859, in which the abolitionist attempted to incite a widespread slave rebellion, fear and hostility toward the antislavery movement swept across Kentucky.
Although Fee had no involvement in the raid and consistently preached peaceful opposition to slavery, many pro-slavery Kentuckians viewed all abolitionists with suspicion.
After returning to Bracken County, where he was staying with his wife’s family, Fee was confronted once again, this time by a committee of prominent local men who demanded that he leave. With mounting threats against his life and the safety of his family, he fled to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he lived in exile for several years while continuing to raise funds for Berea College and preach against slavery.
Fee finally returned to Kentucky in 1864 during the Civil War and devoted himself to helping newly freed African Americans at Camp Nelson, Kentucky’s largest recruitment and refugee center for Black Union soldiers and their families.
He also organized schools, promoted better living conditions, held religious services, and worked tirelessly to secure education and support for those emerging from slavery.
After the war, Fee returned to Berea determined to rebuild the work that had been interrupted by years of conflict and exile. He resumed his ministry, continued developing Berea College, and remained committed to preaching racial equality and Christian unity.
Much of his energy was devoted to Berea College, which continued to expand after the war. True to its founding principles, the institution welcomed formerly enslaved African men and women alongside white students, providing educational opportunities that were almost unheard of in the South. What had begun as a modest one-room schoolhouse steadily developed into a thriving college, awarding its first degree in 1873.
Fee remained convinced that education and the Christian faith were inseparable in the struggle for justice. He recruited teachers who shared his vision and worked tirelessly to ensure that Berea College remained committed to racial equality, academic excellence, and Christian service.
In his later years, Fee continued to preach and establish churches. In 1890, he founded another congregation in Berea that would later become the First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), only a short distance from the Union Church he had established decades earlier. Even in old age, he remained committed to the principles that had shaped his ministry from the beginning.
John Gregg Fee died on January 11, 1901, at the age of 84. More than a century later, in 2016, he was inducted into the National Abolition Hall of Fame in recognition of his lifelong commitment to abolishing slavery, promoting racial equality, and living out his Christian faith.
His legacy lives on through the churches he founded, Berea College, and the countless lives he influenced. Though he paid a heavy price for his convictions, Fee never abandoned them, leaving behind an enduring example of faith put into action.
Sources:
https://www.nationalabolitionhalloffameandmuseum.org/rev-john-gregg-fee.html
https://nkaa.uky.edu/nkaa/items/show/300004113
https://nysm.nysed.gov/research-collections/state-history/news/rev-john-gregg-fee-founder-berea-college-inducted-national
