African Methodist Episcopal Church, Charleston, SC

African slavery first appeared in Virginia in 1619. Slave owners feared that the Africans who received baptism would demand freedom; but Anglican missionaries were sometimes allowed to evangelize slaves. In the Great Awakening and subsequent revivals, African-Americans, both slave and free, began to convert to Christianity. Most important for the spread of Christianity among Blacks was African American preaching. During the years of slavery, African-American churches existed in many forms, ranging from secret meetings on plantations to public worship led by African ministers. The Methodists and the Baptists had the greatest appeal because they preached for conversion, worshipped informally and with gusto, empowered lay preachers, and sought a disciplined Christian life. Probably the first independent African-American Baptist church was organized in Silver Bluff, Georgia around 1773. Richard Allen formed Bethel Church in Philadelphia in 1793 and the African Methodist Episcopal Church was established as a denomination in 1816. The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church traces its beginnings to a New York congregation founded by Peter Williams in 1796. Many African-American Christians, such as Frederick Douglass, participated in abolitionism. After the Civil War and well into the twentieth century, the African-American Churches were the bulwark of Black communities, and the home of leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr.