Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church and Mount Zion Cemetery | |
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Location | 172 Garwin Road, Woolwich Township, New Jersey, U.S. |
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Coordinates | 39°45′54″N75°17′50″W / 39.76500°N 75.29722°W Coordinates: 39°45′54″N75°17′50″W / 39.76500°N 75.29722°W |
Area | church 0.1 acres (0.040 ha) cemetery 0.25 acres (0.10 ha) |
Built | 1834 |
Architectural style | Mid 19th Century Revival |
NRHP reference No. | 01000768 [1] |
Added to NRHP | July 25, 2001 |
Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church and Mount Zion Cemetery is a historic church and cemetery located at 172 Garwin Road in Woolwich Township, New Jersey, United States. The church was a stop on the Greenwich Line of the Underground Railroad through South Jersey operated by Harriet Tubman for 10 years. The church provided supplies and shelter to runaway slaves on their way to Canada from the South. The church and cemetery were part of the early 19th-century free negro settlement sponsored by Quakers known as Small Gloucester.
The church was founded in 1799 as a Methodist Society and became part of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1813. The current structure was built in 1834, remodeled in 1887 and expanded in 1959. The cemetery is a quarter of an acre in size and located just west of the church. It contains more than 200 graves, some of which date back to 1861. The church and cemetery are on the New Jersey Register of Historic Places and were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.
In the 17th century, Swedish, Dutch and English settlers brought slaves to South Jersey to perform the manual labor needed to establish their colonies. Many of the English settlers that founded the West Jersey colony were Quaker and began to debate the morality of owning human beings. In 1738, the Quakers of New Jersey and Pennsylvania united and submitted an agreement to the Society of Friends which recommended to discontinue the use of Africans as slaves. While the Quakers were early proponents of the religious education of slaves, few African-Americans took up Quakerism. However, many Methodists evangelized in South Jersey to slaves and converted many of them. Several African-American preachers, including Richard Allen, traveled throughout the West Jersey colony, including around Woolwich township, and had a great impact on establishing Methodism among the African-Americans living there. [2]
After the American Revolutionary War, the Quakers and other anti-slavery proponents established small hamlets on their property for freed slaves and African Americans to live. The church and cemetery were part of the early 19th-century free negro settlement known as Small Gloucester supported by local Quakers including the Van Leer family. The church was founded in 1799 as a Methodist Society and became a member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1813. [2] The land for the church was purchased in 1833 and the one-story frame church was built in 1834. [3] It was remodeled in 1887 and expanded in 1959. The changes made in 1959 include the addition of a social hall, kitchen, pastor's study and bathrooms. The additions gave the building an L-shape. The addition of vinyl siding and minor cosmetic changes were made in the 1990s. [2]
The church was part of the Underground Railroad route through South Jersey known as the Greenwich Line. The line began in Springtown, New Jersey through Small Gloucester and north to Mount Holly, Burlington and Jersey City. Harriet Tubman helped operate the Greenwich Line for over 10 years. [4] The church provided supplies and shelter for slaves using the Underground Railroad to flee to Canada. A secret three-by-four foot trap door in the vestibule of the church was used [5] to access a crawlspace to hide runaway slaves. [6]
The church and cemetery are on the New Jersey Register of Historic Places [7] and they were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2001. [1] The congregation is still active and holds worship services on Sundays. [5]
The cemetery is a quarter of an acre in size and is located just west of the church. The plot contains more than two hundred graves, most of which are unmarked. The oldest gravestone has a date of 1861, however it is believed that burials date back to the 1830s. [2] Thirteen black soldiers from the American Civil War are buried in the cemetery. [8] The cemetery was closed to new burials, fell into disrepair, many of the stones sank into the ground and the plot became overgrown with trees. Many of the overgrown trees have been cut back and the cemetery is currently maintained by the Gloucester County Probation Office. [2]
Woolwich Township is a township in Gloucester County, New Jersey. As of the 2010 U.S. census, the township's population was 10,200, reflecting an increase of 7,168 (+236.4%) from the 3,032 counted in the 2000 census.
William Still was an African-American abolitionist based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was a conductor on the Underground Railroad, businessman, writer, historian and civil rights activist. Before the American Civil War, Still was chairman of the Vigilance Committee of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, named the Vigilant Association of Philadelphia. He directly aided fugitive slaves and also kept records of the people served in order to help families reunite.
Harriet Tubman National Historical Park is a US historical park in Auburn and Fleming, New York, associated with the life of Harriet Tubman. It comprises three properties: the Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged, in Auburn; the nearby Harriet Tubman Residence ; and the Thompson A.M.E. Zion Church in Auburn. They are located at 180 and 182 South Street, and 90 Franklin Street, respectively. The Zion Church unit is administered by the National Park Service (NPS), while the South Street properties, including a historic barn and a visitor center, are jointly managed and operated by both the NPS and the Harriet Tubman Home, Inc. The church also works with the NPS in park operations. The Harriet Tubman Grave in nearby Fort Hill Cemetery is not part of the park.
Mt. Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church, Mt. Zion A.M.E. Church or other variants thereof, may refer to:
St. James AME Zion Church is a historic African Methodist Episcopal Zion church located at Ithaca in Tompkins County, New York. It is a two-story, frame church structure set on a high foundation and featuring a four-story entrance tower. The church structure was begun in the 1830s and modified many times since. The original stone meetinghouse was built in 1836 and is believed to be Ithaca's oldest church and one of the oldest in the AME Zion system.
Bethel A.M.E. Church, now known as the Central Pennsylvania African American Museum, is a historic African Methodist Episcopal church at 119 North 10th Street in Reading, Berks County, Pennsylvania. It was originally built in 1837, and is a 2½-storey brick and stucco building with a gable roof. It was rebuilt about 1867–1869, and remodeled in 1889. It features a three-storey brick tower with a pyramidal roof topped by a finial. The church is known to have housed fugitive slaves and the congregation was active in the Underground Railroad. The church is now home to a museum dedicated to the history of African Americans in Central Pennsylvania.
Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church is a historic African Methodist Episcopal Church in Springtown, New Jersey, United States. The church was part of two free negro communities, Othello and Springtown, established by local Quaker families. The congregation was established in 1810 in Greenwich Township as the African Methodist Society and joined the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1817. A previous church building was burned down in the 1830s due to arson and the current structure was built between 1838 and 1841.
Appoquinimink Friends Meetinghouse, also known as the Odessa Friends Meetinghouse, is a very small but historic Quaker meetinghouse on Main Street in Odessa, Delaware. It was built in 1785 by David Wilson and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. Members of the meeting, including John Hunn and his cousin John Alston, were active in the Underground Railroad and Harriet Tubman may have hid in the meetinghouse. Measuring about 20 feet (6.1 m) by 22 feet (6.7 m), it may be the smallest brick house of worship in the United States.
Timbuctoo is an unincorporated community in Westampton Township, Burlington County, New Jersey, according to the US Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System. Located along the Rancocas Creek, Timbuctoo was settled by formerly enslaved and free Black people, beginning in 1826. It includes Church St., Blue Jay Hill Road, and adjacent areas. At its peak in the mid-nineteenth century, Timbuctoo had more than 125 residents, a school, an AME Zion Church, and a cemetery. The key remaining evidence of this community is the cemetery on Church Street, which was formerly the site of Zion Wesleyan Methodist Episcopal African Church. Some current residents are descendants of early settlers.
The British Methodist Episcopal (BME) Church, Salem Chapel was founded in 1820 by African-American freedom seekers in St. Catharines, Ontario. It is located at 92 Geneva St., in the heart of Old St. Catharines. The church is a valued historical site due to its design, and its important associations with abolitionist activity.
Mount Zion Cemetery/Female Union Band Society Cemetery is a historic cemetery located at 27th Street NW and Mill Road NW in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., in the United States. The cemetery is actually two adjoining burial grounds: the Mount Zion Cemetery and Female Union Band Society Cemetery. Together these cemeteries occupy approximately three and a half acres of land. The property fronts Mill Road NW and overlooks Rock Creek Park to the rear. Mount Zion Cemetery, positioned to the East, is approximately 67,300 square feet in area; the Female Union Band Cemetery, situated to the West, contains approximately 66,500 square feet. Mount Zion Cemetery, founded in 1808 as The Old Methodist Burial Ground, was leased property later sold to Mount Zion United Methodist Church. Although the cemetery buried both White and Black persons since its inception, it served an almost exclusively African American population after 1849. In 1842, the Female Union Band Society purchased the western lot to establish a secular burying ground for African Americans. Both cemeteries were abandoned by 1950.
Marshalltown is an unincorporated community located within Mannington Township, in Salem County, New Jersey. It has also been known as Frogtown.
Springtown is an unincorporated community in Greenwich Township, in Cumberland County, New Jersey, United States.
Mortonson–Van Leer Log Cabin, is an historic cabin and one of the last historical dwellings in Swedesboro, Gloucester County, New Jersey, United States. It stands on the grounds of the cemetery of the Trinity Church. It is one of the oldest original log cabins of early Swedish-Finnish architecture in the United States.
The A.M.E. Zion Church of Kingston is an African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church located in Kingston, New York. Founded in 1848, as a land grant from wealthy Black residents, Mrs. Sarah-Ann Hasbrouck and her husband, Alexander, it is the oldest continuous African-American congregation in Kingston and Ulster County. The church is located at 26 Franklin Street in the city's Fourth Ward.
Lincoln Cemetery was founded in November 1877 by the Wesley Union African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, and is located at 201 South 30th Street in the Penbrook area of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
The Stoutsburg Sourland African American Museum (SSAAM) is a history museum located in the Skillman section of Montgomery Township, New Jersey, United States. The museum is located at the Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church, an African Methodist Episcopal church constructed in 1899. The church was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 7, 2021.