African Meeting House
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What is the African Meeting House?
The African Meeting House, built in 1806, is the oldest standing Black church in the United States, located in Boston, Massachusetts. Black people formed their own churches because they were not allowed to sit with white members or vote in white churches. Besides being a place of worship and school, the African Meeting House hosted the founding of the New England Anti-Slavery Society in 1832. The African Meeting House was called the Black Faneuil Hall because of the meetings held there to protest slavery. The Museum of African American History acquired the building in 1972 and restored its interior to its 1855 appearance. Together with the Abiel Smith School, it was declared a National Historic Site in 1974.
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Where is the African Meeting House located?
The African Meeting House is located at 46 Joy Street in Boston, Massachusetts. Constructed in 1806, it stands as the oldest church building in the United States built by African Americans. Around 1805, Reverend Thomas Paul established a congregation of the African Baptist Church, initially gathering at Faneuil Hall. Later, the congregation acquired land in Boston's West End, now known as the North Slope of Beacon Hill, where they constructed the African Meeting House. Besides serving as a place of worship, the Meeting House also housed the African School, later known as the Smith Primary and Grammar School, until 1835. In 1972, the Museum of African American History acquired the building and restored its interior to its 1855 appearance. Today, it is a stop on Boston’s Black Heritage Trail.
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Why was the African Meeting House built?
The African Meeting House, constructed in 1806, stands as the oldest Black church in the United States. It emerged from the efforts of Thomas Paul, a Black preacher, who established a congregation that would become the African Baptist Church.
The Meeting House served multiple purposes, including religious services, education, and community gatherings. It functioned as a school for African American children since they were denied access to free schools. Additionally, the African Meeting House was a site for organizing and planning events important to Boston's Black community. Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison founded the New England Anti-Slavery Society there in 1832, and it earned the name "Black Faneuil Hall" for its role in protesting slavery.
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Who used to attend and gather at the African Meeting House?
The African Meeting House, built in 1806, is the oldest standing Black church in the United States. Thomas Paul, a Black preacher, founded a congregation that met at Faneuil Hall before the construction of the African Meeting House. The Meeting House served as a place of worship, a school, and a focal point for Boston's Black community.
Notably, the New England Anti-Slavery Society was founded there in 1832 by William Lloyd Garrison. The 54th Regiment of the Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, the first Black regiment of the American Civil War, was recruited at the Meeting House in 1863 by Frederick Douglass. According to historian George Levesque, the Meeting House was the center for ceremonial, recreational, political, and social activities in the Black community during the mid-1800s.
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How did the African Meeting House contribute to the fight against slavery?
The African Meeting House, also known as the Black Faneuil Hall, played a significant role in the fight against slavery. Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison established the New England Anti-Slavery Society there in 1832. The Meeting House served as a focal point for Boston's Black community, hosting important discussions and planning sessions related to abolition. Additionally, the 54th Regiment of the Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, the first Black regiment of the American Civil War, was recruited there in 1863 by African American abolitionist Frederick Douglass. The African Meeting House also served as a school for African American children because they were denied access to free schools.
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What is the African Meeting House used for today?
Today, the African Meeting House is a stop on the Museum of African American History’s Black Heritage Trail, highlighting the history of Boston’s African American community. The Museum of African American History acquired the building in 1972 and restored its interior to its 1855 appearance.
Originally constructed in 1806, the Meeting House is the oldest standing Black church in the United States. In addition to serving as a church, it was also a school for African American children and a meeting place for abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass. By the late 19th century, the surrounding community had moved, and the building was sold to a Jewish congregation to be used as a synagogue. The African Meeting House, together with the Abiel Smith School, was declared a National Historic Site in 1974.
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African Meeting House, meetinghouse, built in 1806 and located at 46 Joy Street in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., that is the oldest standing church for African Americans in the United States. It was one of four separate churches—two of which (including the African Meeting House) were Baptist and two were African Methodist—established in Boston between 1805 and 1848. Those churches were instituted because African Americans attending white American churches were generally not allowed to sit in the nave with white congregants or to vote in those churches.
Origins
About the turn of the 19th century, a Black preacher from New Hampshire named Thomas Paul founded and led a congregation of the African Baptist Church. Its first meetings were held at Faneuil Hall—Boston’s public meeting hall where patriots of the American Revolution had held their meetings. There is a surviving account of a baptism of “nine Negroes” on May 26, 1805, during which Paul and his brother Benjamin led congregants to the waterside, leading a sermon, saying prayers, and singing as large numbers of people watched.
In 1805 Paul’s congregation purchased land in the West End of Boston, where most of the city’s Black population lived (a neighborhood now called the North Slope of Beacon Hill). A new brick building costing $77,000 was built with funds raised from Black and white donors, with the construction done almost entirely by Black people. The building had three stories, measured 40 × 48 feet (about 12 × 15 meters), and contained 72 pews. The church was dedicated on December 6, 1806, and Paul was installed as its minister. He remained in that office until 1829.
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Because two requests—one (1787) to the Massachusetts legislature and the other (1798) to the city of Boston—for separate schools for Black children had been denied (they had received “no benefit from the free schools”), the new church (which became known as the African Meeting House) also served for a time as a school for Boston’s African American children. The schoolroom was set up in the basement vestry of the church.
The school that met there was the privately funded African School. It originally had been organized in a home on the corner of George and May streets in the Black community, but it was not very successful until it moved to the African Meeting House. The school remained at the meetinghouse until 1835, when it moved to a new building and became the Smith Primary and Grammar School. Owned by the city, the school had an endowment from Abiel Smith, a wealthy Boston businessman who was an early supporter of the education of Black youth.
The Black Faneuil Hall
The African Meeting House served as more than a place of worship and a school. The abolitionist editor William Lloyd Garrison founded the New England Anti-Slavery Society at the Meeting House on January 6, 1832. Just as Faneuil Hall had been called “the cradle of liberty” because of the meetings held there to protest British tyranny before the Revolution, the African Meeting House was called the Black Faneuil Hall because of the meetings held there to protest slavery. The 54th Regiment of the Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, the first Black regiment of the American Civil War, also was recruited there in 1863 by African American abolitionist Frederick Douglass.
The African Meeting House also served as a focal point in the Black community of Boston. As historian George Levesque noted,
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“Ceremonial and recreational activities of all sorts were held in this the largest and most centrally located structure in the Negro community. Much of the history of black Bostonians in the middle years [of the 19th century] was planned and plotted, debated and discussed in this very house.”
Late 19th century to the present
By the late 19th century, Boston’s African American community had largely moved from the West End to the South End and Roxbury, and the African Meeting House was sold to a Jewish congregation, which used it as a synagogue. In 1905, the 100th anniversary of Garrison’s birth, a memorial service was held for him in the building.
The original church records for the African Meeting House were destroyed by fire in the early 20th century. Nevertheless, the Museum of African American History acquired the building in 1972 and subsequently restored its interior to its appearance in 1855. Today the African Meeting House is a stop on the museum’s Black Heritage Trail, a walking tour of Boston that highlights the history of the city’s African American community. Together with the Abiel Smith School, the African Meeting House was declared a National Historic Site in 1974.