The history of Emanuel AME Church ensures it will emerge from the massacre stronger than ever
The history of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church begins with its denomination, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, which was founded in response to racism in 1794. Richard Allen, a former slave, left St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia after he was told to “pray after the ‘regular members prayed,’” and start his own church, the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Influenced by Allen’s efforts, the black community in and around Charleston formed a religious group that eventually became Charleston’s Bethel AME in 1816, led by the Rev. Morris Brown. That church would later become Emanuel AME.
In 1822, Denmark Vesey, a slave who had purchased his own freedom, became a leader within Charleston’s Bethel AME and attempted to plan the biggest slave revolt in U.S. history