Twenty-six "free persons of color, attached to the African Methodist Episcopal Church, in Charleston, called Zion" are joined by thirty-four white supporters, including pastors of several Charleston congregations, in seeking permission to worship in their recently erected church. The petitioners declare that they are desirous "to open said building for the purposes of Divine worship, from the rising of the sun, until the going down of the same, under the following regulations." They propose that the church doors "shall always remain open, and that all white ministers of the Gospel of every denomination shall be respectfully invited to officiate in the said Church; ... that no minister of color, who does not reside in this State shall officiate for the said congregation nor shall any slave be admitted a member thereof without the approbation of his or her owner, nor shall any person, who is a member of any other religious Society be admitted into the same, without a recommendation from the minister of such Society, and (if a slave) the written permission of his or her owner." They further assert that "every exertion will be used by your Petitioners to preserve the utmost order and decorum in the said congregation, to inform against all evilly designed persons of color" and bring them to justice. The petitioners, avowing no "other wish or design, than to worship the omnipotent ruler of the Universe in spirit and in truth," therefore pray that "their Petition be granted."
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Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
