Bethel African Methodist Church in Lancaster: Prolegomenon to a Social History by Leroy Hopkins, Ph.D. in Lancaster City"s southeastern quadrant, at the juncture of North and Strawberry Streets, stands a structure which has long been connected with Lancaster"s Afro-American community: Bethel Africa

movement? The comparison of an economic study with an oral history can perhaps shed some light on this question. Mrs. Maude Wilson Ball (1890- ) is the oldest living member of Lancaster City's largest and oldest Black church, Bethel AME. In 1976, in the midst of the Bicentennial, "Aunt Maude," as she is

- clusion of the two groups of manumitted slaves from Virginia between 1819 and 1821, Columbia's Black community began to organize itself and create institutions that manifest a growing sense of community and communal cohesiveness. One such institution was the Black church. There is no reliable history of

activities conducted by the African Union Society on the lot but the ground rent records show that lot #441 was rented in 1841 by Isaac Gillmore (sic), in 1851 by three individuals named Hood, Gillmore (sic), and Walker, and again in 1860 by the Union African Church. Two other relevant facts can be found in