Spottswood Rice

Spottswood Rice (November 1819 – October 31, 1907) was a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church and a private in the Union Army during the US Civil War. Rice is most famous for a pair of forcefully written letters to the owner of his wife and children during the war while he was stationed in St. Louis and they were enslaved in Howard County, Missouri. The letters expressed his desire to be reunited with his family and his anger at his wife's owners. Later, he was ordained a minister in the AME church and served congregations in Missouri, New Mexico, and Colorado. In 1882, he founded the first AME church in New Mexico.

Early life Spottswood Rice was born a slave in Madison County, Virginia in November 1819. At a very early age his owner moved with his parents to Howard County, Missouri. Arry was born in Fauquier County, Virginia, and they had seven One son was killed in the civil war, another died in St. Louis in 1919, and the third died in Colorado Springs in October 1925. One daughter, Mary, was born in Missouri on May 1, 1852 and married in 1882. Mary was interviewed and provided a slave narrative for the Works Progress Administration Writer's Program. joining as a private in Company A of the 67th United States Colored Infantry Regiment. While there in September 1864, Rice wrote two letters, one to his daughters who were still enslaved in Howard County and the other to Kitty Diggs, their owner. He wrote passionately of his desire to free them, writing, "be assured that I will have you if it cost me my life." In defiance of Diggs' wish to keep the girls, he said, "She is the first Christian that I ever heard say that a man could steal his own children, especially out of human bondage." He believed that 800 white and 800 black Union soldiers would come to the plantation and rescue them. Kitty's brother, F. W. Diggs, wrote to General Rosecrans, then commander of the Department of the Missouri, arguing that Kitty's loyalty should guarantee the children remaining her slaves.

Rice was a very religious man, and his obituary notes he was a chaplain in the Army. It is unclear if this was an official designation. Rice was mustered out of service in May 1865 and continued to live in St. Louis. In 1871, he had charge of the Savannah, Missouri Mission. He was ordained an Elder in 1876, when he was pastor of the Washington, Missouri Circuit. In 1879 he was transferred to Canton, Missouri. In 1881 he was pastor of St. Peter's Chapel, in St. Louis. In 1882 he was transferred to the State Line Church, in Kansas City, Missouri, a part of the Kansas Congress. In October 1882, he was appointed to pastor of the church at Parsons, Kansas. Rice died on October 31, 1907.