THE EMERGENCE OF FREE
BLACK COMMUNITIES
5.3
FREE BLACK COMMUNITIES
• After the Revolutionary War in the North and upper
South many cities had a growing free black
population
• As theses communities acquired wealth and
education they established institutions that shaped
African American life
FREE BLACK COMMUNITIES
• Factors that encouraged the growth of these black
institutions included…
• The knowledge that they would be considered inferior to
whites and be excluded from white groups
• The desire to perpetuate African heritage
BLACK SOCIETIES
• The earliest black institutions were mutual aid
societies
• These groups provided medical and burial expenses
as well as support for widows and children
• These institutions became self improvement groups
as well and encouraged the middle class
aspirations of poor African Americans
THE ORIGINS OF INDEPENDENT BLACK
CHURCHES
• Black churches emerged and eventually became
the core of the African American community
• Pastors became the primary African American
leaders
• Integrated churches that resulted from the Great
Awakening often treated blacks as unequal to
whites and led to the emergence of black churches
THE FIRST INDEPENDENT
BLACK CHURCH
• The first independent black churches were
founded in Philadelphia by Richard Allen and
Absalom Jones
• They were former slaves who had purchased their
freedom and became preachers at St. George’s
Church in Philadelphia
• They were insulted by the white preacher’s
segregation within the church and formed their
own congregations
THE FIRST INDEPENDENT BLACK
CHURCHES
• The black congregation split over differences of
opinion and resulted in two black churches
• The St. Thomas’s Episcopal church led by Jones and
Mother Bethel’s church led by Allen
• Allen’s church became the birthplace of the
African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) which
quickly spread to other cities
THE FIRST BLACK SCHOOLS
• Schools for African Americans, slave or free, date
back to the 1700’s
• These early schools were run by white priests,
abolitionists and missionaries
• The first African American led schools arose after
the Revolution
THE FIRST BLACK SCHOOLS
• Philadelphia’s Mother Bethel church was the first
school entirely run by African Americans
• Threats of violence against black schools were
common due to fear that an educated free black
population would encourage slave revolts
• Nevertheless, black schools continued to operate
producing a growing class of literate African
Americans
ASSIGNMENT
• 1. What factors led African Americans to form their own
separate institutions?
• 2. Describe the role of mutual aide societies in the black
community.
• 3. Why did black churches split from the integrated churches
of the Great Awakening?
• 4. What were the first independent black churches to form?
Describe the role of Richard Allen and Absalom Jones.
• 5. Who ran the first schools for black students? Why were the
early black schools threatened?