Chronology: Slavery Issue and Religion

1799 Second Great Awakening begins with the Cane Ridge camp meeting. The meeting takes place in Kentucky and embraces African-Americans. Many slaves convert to Christianity.

1800 Gabriel's Rebellion is attempted in Richmond, Virginia. Gabriel, the Black Sampson, uses Old Testament themes to as inspiration to rise up against slavery. Slave revolts in South Carolina, North Carolina, George, Louisiana and Mississippi follow.

1800 The state of Virginia passes a law forbidding African-Americans to assemble between sunset and sunrise for religious worship or for instruction.

1800 The Great Awakening moves to the frontier.

1801 John Chavis, a "free negro", is appointed by the Presbyterian General Assembly to work in Virginia and North Carolina to serve as a missionary to other African-Americans.

1805 The North Joy Street African Baptist Church of Boston is organized.

1807 The African Union Church, the earliest black Methodist church, is incorporated in Wilmington, Delaware.

1812 "Free negro" and Baptist preacher Joseph Willis forms Louisiana's first baptist church at Bayou Chicot. He serves as pastor and helps organize other baptist churches in the area.

1814 African Methodist Episcopal Church forms in Philadelphia

1816 Several African Methodist churches meet at Bethel church in Philadelphia in April and form the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

1818 Louisiana Baptist Association forms; Joseph Wills serves as the Association's first moderator.

1821 The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church is organized on June 21. AME Zion forms a new denomination with members from New Haven, Philadelphia and Long Island.

1822 Denmark Vesey, a Methodist and a former slave to Captain Joseph Vesey, leads a slave insurrection in South Carolina. Vesey and his men are arrested before they have a chance to put their plan into action.

1827 First African-American newspaper, Freedom's Journal, begins publication

1829 David Walker publishes and the first edition of his Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World and distributes the work to African-Americans in the south. This revolutionary literature warns against the work of white plantation missionaries.

1830 Second Great Awakening ends

1830's-1840's There is increased concern among white church men about the religious well-being of slaves in the south. This concern leads to plantation missions.

1830-1880 The two Marie Laveaus, mother and daughter, lead voodoo cults in New Orleans, Louisiana.

1831 Nat Turner, a Baptist slave preacher, leads a revolt in Southampton County, Virginia, killing at least 57 whites.

1838 Presbyterians divide over slavery.

1844 Methodists divide over slavery.

1845 Baptists split; Southern Baptist Convention founded.

1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin is published.

1852 Josiah Priest publishes Bible Defense of Slavery.

1856 Booker T. Washington is born in Franklin County, Virginia, on April 5. Washington later becomes a leader in the educational, social and political realms of African-American life.

1857 On March 6, the Supreme Court decides that an African-American cannot be a citizen of the U.S., and has no rights of citizenship.

1860 Abraham Lincoln is elected the 16th President on November 6.

1861 Civil war begins

1862 Slavery is abolished in the District of Columbia.

1863 The Emancipation Proclamation takes effect January 1, legally freeing slaves in areas of the South in rebellion.

1865 On January 31, Congress approves the Thirteenth Amendment outlawing slavery in the United States.

1865 Civil War ends

1865 President Abraham Lincoln is assassinated.

1866 The African Union Church unites with the First Colored Methodist Protestant Church forming the African Union First Colored Methodist Protestant Church of America.