WHAT IS THE HISTORY OF BLACK CHURCHES?
WHAT RELIGIONS DID THEY PRACTICE?
Since slavery religion has provided the black community with peace and comfort. Some black churches were formed during slavery while others came about afterwards. Today religion is a part of everyday life for many blacks.
Richard Allen was a freed ex-slave who felt it necessary to form a place of worship for black people. In 1787 he formed the Free African Society, a non-denominational religious mutual aid society for the black community. In 1794 he founded Bethel, the "Mother" church of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the first independent black domination.
During slavery black slaves attended the same churches and prayed together with their white slave masters. The blacks were seen as having spiritual equality, but still played roles as servants within the church. The inferiority of the blacks within the church lead them to want separate services, but the law forbid blacks to congregate without white supervision. The law forced the slaves to organize "invisible institutions," which consisted of secrete sermons within slave quarters.
After the Civil War one of the most important things blacks wanted to do was organize religious communities. The blacks in the north wanted to help out their southern brothers by setting up a massive missionary effort into the south. Black leader such as Daniel A. Payne and Theophilus Gould Steward were the first to help form missions in the south which resulted in the growth of many independent black churches. The majority of the black people joined either the African Methodist Episcopal, African Methodist Episcopal Zion, Methodist Episcopal church and the National Baptisit Convention.
The African Methodist Episcopal Church was started in 1787 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by a group of disinherited Americans whose ancestors came from Africa. The leader of this group was Richard Allen. The Methodist Episcopal Church was found by indigenous Southern black leaders. The National Baptist Convention was Formed by black Baptist in 1894. The National Baptist Convention is currently is the largest black religion organization in the United States.
The missionary effort was very successful because it helped finance and build new churches and schools and increased the literacy rate. It also promoted blacks to to seek jobs in politics, education and other professions.
Eventually there was tension between the blacks in the north and those of the south. The Northerners were better educated than the southerns and therefore look down on them. The Northerners felt that it necessary to read the bible during service, while the southern saw religion as a matter of oral tradition and immediate experience and emotion, because they could not read.
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