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Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church

Greenwich, US

Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church

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, like the Van Leer Family. The congregation was establi

shed 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 in an arson incident and the current structure was built between 1838 and 1841. It is the oldest African Methodist Episcopal Church congregation in New Jersey and one of the last buildings standing where Richard Allen is known to have preached. The church and community were a stop on the Greenwich Line of the Underground Railroad through South Jersey operated by Harriet Tubman for ten years. The church and its members provided shelter and support for fugitive slaves fleeing Maryland and Delaware for free states in the north and Canada. Several church members were operators in the Underground Railroad. The church is on the New Jersey Register of Historic Places. It was placed on the National Register of Historical...

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