Blacks worshiped in own spaces before slavery’s end
On a narrow street in Harlem sits the oldest black church in New York State, one of many black congregations that developed in the decades before slavery ended nationwide and that worked for its abolition.
“Mother AME Zion Church is without question, insofar as New York City is concerned, the grand depot of the Underground Railroad,” says its new pastor, Malcolm Byrd.
As the nation marks the 400th anniversary of the forced arrival of Africans in Virginia—and as New York notes the centennial of the Harlem Renaissance—Mother AME Zion is one of several churches that represent the enduring faith of slaves, free blacks, and their descendants. Historians say the total number is hard to determine, but there were likely more than 100 black churches in existence before the 1865 ratification of the 13th Amendment, which officially abolished slavery.
