A.M.E. Church Memorial

Description

Members of Payne African Chapel, the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church in Atlanta, Georgia, sent this petition to Congress in 1866. In 1864, their church was destroyed during the campaign led by General William Tecumseh Sherman during the Civil War. The A.M.E. church was an outgrowth of the Free African Society, which originated when African-American congregants of St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia were forced to establish a separate church because of segregation. The A.M.E. Church was not solely a church of worship for one denomination, but served as a means to unify the African-American community to worship freely. The petitioners expressed their appreciation for their freedom, but made the argument that it was not their fault that the church was destroyed. They requested $7,000 from the U.S. Congress to rebuild the church. On April 11, 1866, the Committee on Claims was discharged from further consideration of the petition.