From Slavery to Strieby

Alfred Islay Walden was born into slavery in the 1840's. His struggles as a slave were nothing compared to his struggles as an emancipated minister of the Gospel. In 1879 Rev. Islay Walden turned down a lucrative position in Washington, DC to return to the Uwharrie Mountains of his native Randolph County, North Carolina. Under the auspices of the American Missionary Association he ushered in a new era of education and social reform in that backwoods community remembered today only as Strieby.