Andrew Warren Sledd (November 7, 1870 – March 16, 1939) was an American theologian, university professor and university president. A native of Virginia, he was the son of a prominent Methodist minister, and was himself ordained as a minister after earning his bachelor's and master's degrees. He later earned a second master's degree and his doctorate.
After teaching for several years, Sledd was chosen to be the last president of the University of Florida at Lake City, from 1904 to 1905, and the first president of the modern University of Florida (first known as the "University of the State of Florida"), from 1905 to 1909. He was also president of Southern University from 1910 to 1914, and later became a professor and an influential biblical scholar at Emory University's Candler School of Theology from 1914 to 1939.
Sledd first received national recognition after he wrote a 1902 magazine article advocating better legal and social treatment of African-Americans, some of whom faced lynching by white mobs. He is also prominently remembered for his role in founding the modern University of Florida, his scholarly analysis of biblical texts as literature, his call for an end to racial violence, and his influence on a generation of Methodist seminary students, scholars and ministers.
Early life and education Sledd was born November 7, 1870, in Lynchburg, Virginia,"Dr. Andrew Sledd, Noted Educator, 68, Drops Dead," The Atlanta Constitution, p. 28 (March 17, 1939). Retrieved November 3, 2015. the son of a Methodist Episcopal minister, Robert Newton Sledd, and his wife, Frances Carey Greene Sledd.Raymond H. Firth, The Life of Andrew Sledd (unpublished thesis), Candler School of Theology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, p. 1 (1940). The elder Sledd was an influential minister within the Virginia Methodist Conference, and at various times while Andrew was growing up, his father held prominent pastorates of large Methodist congregations in four different Virginia cities—Danville, Norfolk, Petersburg and Richmond."Professor Sledd Could Not Stay," Baltimore American, p. 2 (August 11, 1902). Retrieved November 3, 2015. Andrew received his early education in the Petersburg school of W. Gordon McCabe, a former Confederate captain and veteran of the U.S. Civil War.Andrew Sledd, Autobiography of a Southern Schoolmaster (unpublished manuscript), University of Florida, George A. Smathers Libraries, Special Collections, Gainesville, Florida, p. 1 (c. 1905).
In 1888, Sledd entered Methodist-affiliated Randolph–Macon College in Ashland, Virginia. While at Randolph–Macon, he was a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity (Virginia Gamma chapter); he was also the college's outstanding student-athlete and was particularly known as the baseball team's first baseman and star hitter.Albert E. Barnett, Andrew Sledd: His Life and Work, Candler School of Theology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, p. 4 (1956). Sledd left the college without finishing his undergraduate degree requirements, first accepting a position as a teacher in Durant, Mississippi, and then as the principal of a high school in Arkadelphia, Arkansas.Firth, Life of Andrew Sledd, p. 3. After teaching in Arkansas for two years, he returned to Randolph–Macon and completed his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in 1894. Sledd graduated in mathematics, was recognized for completing the best work in the mathematics and Greek departments during his senior year,J. A. Kern, President of Randolph–Macon College, in a letter of recommendation dated February 28, 1894. University of Florida, George Smathers Libraries, University Archives, Gainesville, Florida. and was honored as a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
Sledd taught at the Randolph-Macon Academy in Front Royal, Virginia, from 1894 to 1895, before returning to graduate school. He earned a second Master of Arts degree in Greek from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1896,Marion Elias Lazenby, History of Methodism in Alabama and West Florida, North Alabama Conference and Alabama–West Florida Conference of the Methodist Church, p. 852 (1960). and completed one year's additional graduate work toward a doctoral degree. While he was at Harvard, he played for the Harvard Crimson baseball team, and he is remembered as one of Harvard's greatest athletes of the era; he was offered a professional baseball contract but turned it down. Several years later, during a break in his teaching career, Sledd completed his doctorate.Terry L. Matthews, "The Voice of a Prophet: Andrew Sledd Revisited," Journal of Southern Religion, vol. 6, p. 2 (December 2003). Retrieved November 3, 2015.
Scholar and educator Emory College and the "Sledd Affair" After completing his graduate studies at Harvard, Sledd briefly served as a Latin instructor at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee."New Professor At Emory. Professor Andrew Sledd Chosen for Chair of Latin," The Atlanta Constitution, p. 3 (November 23, 1897). Retrieved November 3, 2015. The Atlanta Constitution heralded Sledd's hiring as "a valuable acquisition to the educational forces of Georgia." Id. He was ordained as a Methodist minister and licensed to preach in 1898. At the suggestion of his father, he contacted Methodist minister Warren Akin Candler, then president of Emory College in Oxford, Georgia, who was a prominent leader of the Georgia Methodist ConferenceRalph E. Reed, Jr., "Emory College and the Sledd Affair of 1902: A Case Study in Southern Honor and Racial Attitudes," The Georgia Historical Quarterly, vol. 72, no. 3, p. 467 (Fall 1988). and was a few months from being elevated as a Methodist bishop.Bauman, Warren Akin Candler, p. 76 Candler was impressed with the character and academic credentials of the young scholar, and assisted him in becoming a professor of Latin language and literature at Emory College, a position Sledd held from 1898 to 1902. While living in the Candler family home, Sledd fell in love with the bishop's only daughter, Annie Florence Candler, and he married her on March 22, 1899; his father conducted the wedding ceremony.Henry Y. Warnock, "Andrew Sledd, Southern Methodists, and the Negro: A Case History," The Journal of Southern History, vol. 31, no. 3, p. 252 (1965). "Sledd-Candler," The Atlanta Constitution, p. 9 (March 23, 1899). Retrieved November 5, 2015.
Later in 1899, while traveling by train between Atlanta and Covington, Georgia, Sledd witnessed the aftermath of the lynching of an African-American man named Sam Hose.Hose was accused of the murder of a white man, and the rape of the dead man's wife. The matter of Hose's guilt or innocence has been hotly contested over the years since. See Joel Williamson, The Crucible of Race: Black-White Relations in the American South Since Emancipation, Oxford University Press, New York, New York, pp. 259–261 (1985). Retrieved November 3, 2015; and also Edwin T. Arnold, What Virtue There is in Fire: Cultural Memory and the Lynching of Sam Hose, University of Georgia Press, Athens, Georgia, pp. 173–177 (2009). Retrieved November 3, 2015. For a brief summary of the Hose lynching, see E.M. Beck & Stewart E. Tolnay, " Lynching ," New Georgia Encyclopedia (April 30, 2009). Retrieved November 3, 2015. The idealistic young minister was outraged.Matthews, "Voice of a Prophet," p. 5. In reaction, he wrote an essay entitled "The Negro: Another View," which was published as an article in the July 1902 issue of The Atlantic Monthly. In the article, Sledd denounced the lynchings of black men in the South in graphic terms: "lynching is not 'justice,' however rude; it is a wild and diabolic carnival of blood."Andrew Sledd, "The Negro: Another View," The Atlantic Monthly, vol. 90, p. 70 (July 1902). Sledd described Sam Hose's lynching as follows: "The burning of Sam Hose took place on a Sabbath day. One of our enterprising railroads ran two special trains to the scene. And two train-loads of men and boys, crowding from cow-catcher to the tops of the coaches, were found to go to see the indescribable and sickening torture and writhing of a fellow human being. And souvenirs of such scenes are sought, knee caps, and finger bones, and bloody ears. It is the purest savagery." Id. at 71. While he flatly asserted that the "negro race" was not the equal of the "white race,"Sledd, "The Negro: Another View," pp. 66–67. he nevertheless demanded equal justice for blacks and whites alike, writing "There is nothing in a white skin or a black to nullify the essential rights of man as man." Even though Sledd's essay condoned the continued racial segregation of white and black Southerners as a necessary social expedient,Matthews, "Voice of a Prophet," pp. 5–8. a public firestorm ensued in Georgia over Sledd's criticism of the South's treatment of its black citizens, with the controversy stoked by the vitriolic letters and editorial attacks of agrarian populist Rebecca FeltonFor a brief biography of Felton, see David B. Parker, " Rebecca Latimer Felton (1835–1930) ," New Georgia Encyclopedia (February 5, 2008). Retrieved November 3, 2015. in The Atlanta Constitution newspaper.Warnock, "Andrew Sledd, Southern Methodists, and the Negro," pp. 257–262. See, e.g., Mrs. W.H. Felton, "The Negro, as Discussed by Mr. Andrew Sledd," The Atlanta Constitution (August 3, 1902). As the controversy grew, The Atlanta Journal and Atlanta News quickly joined the anti-Sledd chorus.Warnock, "Andrew Sledd, Southern Methodists, and the Negro," pp. 261–262. When a majority of the members of Emory's board of trustees threatened to withdraw their support of the college because of the negative publicity, the newly installed college president, James E. Dickey, demanded Sledd's resignation from the faculty, and Sledd resigned on August 9, 1902."To Protect Emory Sledd Will Leave," The Atlanta Constitution, p. 1 (August 9, 1902). Retrieved November 3, 2015. Also see second page of the article. Warnock, "Andrew Sledd, Southern Methodists, and the Negro," pp. 262–264. Among the college's trustees, even Asa Candler, the founder of Coca-Cola and Sledd's uncle by marriage, strongly advocated Sledd's removal in private correspondence with Dickey. See Reed, "Emory College and the Sledd Affair," pp. 474, 477–479, 485.Thomas H. Jackson, Jr., "President Dickey and the 'Sledd Affair': Lynching, Academic Freedom, and the Old 'New South'," Emory University (2011). Archived August 14, 2014; retrieved November 3, 2015. The Sledd Affair subsequently attracted attention throughout the United States as a matter of academic freedom and freedom of speech.See, e.g., "Topics of the Times," The New York Times, p. 8 (August 7, 1902), "Why A Georgia Professor Has Resigned ," The Hartford Courant, p. 1 (August 13, 1902), "Right of Opinion in the South ," Chicago Daily Tribune, p. 12 (August 19, 1902), and " Freedom of Speech, The Right of It Frequently Denied," Daily News-Review, p. 2 (April 7, 1903). All retrieved November 3, 2015.