Six Penny Creek AME Church: Difference between revisions
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==Mt. Frisby African Methodist Episcopal Church== | ==Mt. Frisby African Methodist Episcopal Church== | ||
The Six Penny Creek community established Mt. Frisby African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in 1856<ref>National Park Service 2015</ref>. The church was erected on land owned by the Cole family, a notable family in the community. More information on the Cole family can be found in the "Residents" section of this page. The church became a station on the Underground Railroad<ref>National Park Service 2015</ref>. It was also significant for being the location of the oldest African-American cemetery in Berks County, PA<ref>National Park Service 2015</ref>. Several former laborers at the nearby Hopewell Furnace were buried in the church's cemetery<ref>National Park Service 2015</ref>. | |||
===Significance of AME Churches=== | ===Significance of AME Churches=== | ||
Revision as of 20:22, 26 January 2021
State connection at the beginning -AME to charcoal production through Six Penny because charcoal production occupation among community members
Mt. Frisby African Methodist Episcopal Church
The Six Penny Creek community established Mt. Frisby African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in 1856[1]. The church was erected on land owned by the Cole family, a notable family in the community. More information on the Cole family can be found in the "Residents" section of this page. The church became a station on the Underground Railroad[2]. It was also significant for being the location of the oldest African-American cemetery in Berks County, PA[3]. Several former laborers at the nearby Hopewell Furnace were buried in the church's cemetery[4].
Significance of AME Churches
The Underground Railroad was influenced by religious denominations, including AME, Quakers, Black Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians, among others[5]. Quakers, such as members of the Scarlett family, assisted self-emancipated individuals on the road to freedom. Within the Six Penny Creek community, the efforts of both Quakers and the establishment of the AME church within the community were important. Churches were often established on the edge of a settlement, rather than being centrally situated[6].
The AME denomination grew from the Free African Society, which was founded by Richard Allen, a former slave from Delaware[7], in 1787 when Absalom Jacobs and he broke from Philadelphia's St. George's Methodist Church and established a new congregation[8], Bethel AME, in 1794[9]. Allen was successful in his legal lawsuits in 1807 and 1815 in Pennsylvania courts to secure the right of his congregation to exist as an institution independent of the general Methodist denomination[10]. Allen was a proponent of self-improvement, dignity, and racial equity, and these convictions of his were included in the establishment of other AME churches[11]. AME churches were utilized to harbor self-emancipated individuals along the Underground Railroad[12]. Following Allen's death in 1831, William Paul Quinn took up the mantle and established one of the earliest Black churches west of the Allegheny Mountains, an AME in Pittsburgh, where he served as pastor to the church, which also served as a station on the Underground Railroad[13].