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OCR Page 1 of 33AFRICAN MEETING HOUSE
8 Smith Court
Boston
Description
Completed in 1806, a brick 3-story meeting house.
Significance
The first Africans arrived in Boston in February of 1638, eight years after the city was founded.
They were brought as slaves, purchased in Providence Isle, a Puritan colony off the coast of
Central America. By 1705, there were over 400 slaves in Boston and the beginnings of a free
black community in the North End.
The American Revolution was a turning point in the status of Africans in Massachusetts. At the
end of the war, there were more free black people than slaves. When the first federal census was
enumerated in 1790, Massachusetts was the only state in the Union to record no slaves. Between
1800 and 1900, most of the African Americans who lived in Boston lived in the West End and
the North Slope of Beacon Hill.
At the heart of the Beacon Hill community was, and still is, the African Meeting House. It is the
oldest standing African-American church in the U.S. and was built by free African American
artisans. Before 1805, although black Bostonians could attend white churches, they generally
faced discrimination. They were assigned seats only in the balconies and were not given voting
privileges. Thomas Paul, and African American Preacher from New Hampshire, led worship
meetings for blacks at Faneuil Hall. Paul, with 20 of his members, officially formed the First
African Baptist church on August 8, 1805. Ironically, at the public dedication on December 6,
1806, the floor level pews were reserved for all those "benevolently disposed to the Africans,"
while the black members sat in the balcony of their new meeting house.
The African Meeting House was constructed almost entirely with black labor. Funds for the
project were raised in both the white and black communities. Cato Garner, a native of Africa,
was responsible for raising more thatn $1,5000 (or 20%) toward the total $7,7000 to complete
the meeting house. It was the first black church in Boston and many members of the
congregation were still tied to their ancestral roots in West Africa. Most black churches of the
day were either Baptist or Methodist because neither required the minister to undergo formal
theological training. In addition, evangelism was a growing movement in the early 1800s in
America and the great displays of emotion and movement that accompanied them rang in accord
with African religions. The combined influences of evangelism and the African tradition of call
and response singing produced an improvisational style of singing that disturbed many of the
new Englanders used to a more formal, structured style of worship. Many white churches
established a black counterpart or an independent facility for the black community.
Creating a place or building for worship and finding the means to maintain it over time was a
major challenge to black churches. Many churches started in homes of the congregation or
rented out halls until enough funds could be raised by its members or with the help of local
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