Emanuel A.M.E. Church

Emanuel A.M.E. Church is rooted in the African Methodist Society that was formed soon after the founding in 1772 of the Methodist Society in Portsmouth. The African Society met independently until Nat Turner's Insurrection in 1831, worshiped with white Methodists for three years, then met under white supervision until 1864. The members occupied a Methodist church on Glasgow Street until the building burned in 1856. Slaves and free blacks provided most of the funds and labor to construct North Street Methodist Church in 1857. In 1871, the congregation adopted the name Emanuel ("God with us") and became part of the African Methodist Episcopal movement.