Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Restrictions to Use

No usage restrictions.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the South Carolina African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church Photograph Collection #70135, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Purchased from Auger Down Books in August 2022 (20220825.1).

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: Patrick Cullom, Rebecca Stubbs, October 2022

Encoded by: Laura Smith, October 2022

Since August 2017, we have added ethnic and racial identities for individuals and families represented in collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• African Americans-–Religion.
• African American churches–-South Carolina.
• African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.
• Chester County (S.C.)--Photographs.
• Spartanburg County (S.C.)--Photographs.
• York County (S.C.)--Photographs.

The African Methodist Episcopal Church can be traced to the early 1800s when Richard Allen and other representatives from Methodist congregations officially formed the African Methodist Episcopal Church at a meeting in Philadelphia, Penn. The group sought to create a safe place where African Americans could worship and attend services without the ill treatment and discrimination that was experienced by them at predominately white Methodist churches. In 1848, the name African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church was adopted in order to distinguish between two denominations of the AME church: the African American Methodist denomination (AME) based in Philadelphia and the growing African American Protestant denomination (AME Zion) based in New York. The AME Zion denomination spread to other Northern states including New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania. With the inability to spread south during times of enslavement, the AME Zion Church was primarily a Northern institution. It was not until after the Civil War that AME Zion congregations began to develop in southern states. AME Zion churches became known as "freedom churches" due to their aid and assistance during times of enslavement assisting those who freed themselves. Notable members included Frederick Douglas, Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Tubman. AME Zion churches helped enslaved people who self-emancipated and served as stations with the Underground Railroad.

This collection consists of photographic images depicting African American members of the South Carolina African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and surrounding communities including Yorkville, Chester, and Spartanburg, S.C., during the 1880s-1890s. These formats include tintypes, carte de vistas, an ambrotype, and a lithograph. Among the identified images are Reverend E. Hinton, Reverend H. Blake, Reverend R. C. Collins, and J. E. Young. It is notable that the AME Zion Church was among the first to ordain women, as five of the subjects are African American women.

These images were originally housed in a photograph album, which was disassembled by an online seller. Auger Down Books collected the images to the best of its ability, recovering nearly all of the images from the original album. Auger Down Books chose to leave the images loose rather than reassemble the album due to the lack of any identifying marks on the album mounts.