Documents Relating to African American Experiences of White Congregational Churches in Massachusetts, 1773–1832

Through membership documents, this essay traces the decline in African American affiliation with Massachusetts Congregational churches-from the pre-Revolutionary era, when enslaved blacks, such as Cuffee Wright, routinely joined Congregational churches, to 1828–32, when four African Americans applying to Lyman Beecher's Boston church were among the last wave of blacks seeking membership in northern white churches.