Apostle of Liberation: AME Bishop Paul Quinn and the Underground Railroad

Archaeologist LaRoche (historic preservation, Univ. of Maryland; Free Black Communities and the Underground Railroad) writes a fascinating book about Bishop Paul Quinn (1788–1873) of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church and his work on the Underground Railroad. Her deep scholarly biography covers the early history of the AME church—the first independent Black denomination in the United States—founded when Bishop Richard Allen and others left the Methodist Episcopal Church due to of its discrimination against Black people. Some reports list Quinn’s birthplace as India, but this book shows that he was born in British Honduras (now Belize) to a father who owned a mahogany factory and a mother from East Africa. Quinn’s involvement with Quakers early in his life led him to break from his father, eventually coming to the States and joining the AME Church, where he later had a major conflict with Bishop Allen. Quinn is known for his preaching, building schools and churches, and leading the enslaved to safety, along with many other Underground Railroad figures.