Religion

In 1761 three new parishes were created in Virginia, the Portsmouth parish being the only one in Hampton Roads. It would eventually be known as Trinity Episcopal Church, built in 1762 at the corner of High and Court Streets. Portsmouth's Presbyterian Church, which stood at the corner of London and Dinwiddie Streets, was destroyed in a fire.

The Baptists and Methodists flourished especially among Blacks--free and bond--because of that denomination's acceptance of them as members. However, it was in Portsmouth that the first Baptist denomination was established in Hampton Roads in the late 18 th century. Almost from the beginning of the denomination in the United States, Black Baptists were licensed to preach and Black deacons were selected to look after the Black members. And like most other Baptist congregations, Court Street Baptist Church in Portsmouth was composed of men and women of many races and socio-economic classes. Even its pastors were from varying socio-economic levels, and not all of them were White. In 1792, Jacob Bishop, a Black preacher originally from Northampton County, VA, whose freedom was purchased by the brethren at the Court Street Baptist Church in Portsmouth, became the Church's pastor. Bishop purchased his wife's and eldest son's freedom and was so respected by his congregation that he was sent as a delegate to the Portsmouth Baptist Association meetings. His tenure as pastor lasted until 1800, when the fires of evangelicalism were doused.

In Norfolk, the founding of First Baptist Church on Bute Street in 1830, Bank Street Baptist Church in 1840, and St. Johns Methodist Episcopal Church in 1848 heralded the birth of a community spirit by affording opportunities for socialization, literacy programs, and burial and charity societies. During the antebellum years free and also enslaved Blacks organized benevolent societies such as the Norfolk Lyceum, the Sons of Liberty, the Bible Stars, the Daughters of St. Luke, Pilgrims, Sons of Adam, Zion's Sons, Humble Sons of God, and Good Samaritans. These societies would lay the groundwork for Black self-help organizations in the post-Civil War era.

Another church would also emerge in these years. This church would be the first African American church in the area founded and controlled by free and enslaved African Americans. The origins of what is now Emanuel A.M.E. Church (formerly known as the Old Glasgow Street M.E. Church and the African M.E. Church) in Portsmouth date back to 1772, three years before the American Revolution. “The house of worship was on Washington Street, east side, between High and King Streets. It has been torn down to make room for a public high-school building. The only [Black] Methodists in Portsmouth then was that congregation, and by authority of a statement of the late Vernon Eskridge, who was their pastor, they worshipped in that building previous to 1831, and how long before he does not say in his statement, but they worshipped until that year. The insurrection, known as Nat Turner's War, as our fathers and mothers called it, broke out in Southampton County. After that they were prohibited from worshipping separately. They worshipped with the [W]hite Methodists at the old church on Glasgow Street, between Court and Dinwiddie--the former building having been sold, the colored people occupying the galleries. They continued to do so until 1834, and Dinwiddie Street Church, now Monumental Methodist, being completed, the [W]hite people moved into it and gave the old building on Glasgow Street over entirely to the [Black] people, with Rev. George M. Bain, pastor, in 1839, where they continued to worship as a separate congregation, with a white pastor, until September 26, 1856. It was then set on fire and entirely consumed, ‘the work, no doubt, of some wicked hand,' said Rev. Bain, in his historical sketch.” Through largely the efforts of free and enslaved African Americans, the congregation bought the lot on North Street in 1857.

Efforts by Blacks to create a separate religious sphere for themselves were not unusual throughout the nation. Racism was strongly manifesting itself by the early nineteenth century in the wake of declining support for the Great Awakening. African Americans reacted to this change initially by organizing separate religious meetings, held prior to or after regularly scheduled services. Within a few years, the leaders of these meetings would direct the group to form their own churches, sometimes without but more often with the permission of the White church. Moreover, beginning in the 1820s, Norfolk and Portsmouth became a major disembarkation points for groups of local African American church missionaries who would emigrate to Liberia. The city was a central player in the American Colonization Association's efforts to encourage African Americans to relocate to the colony of Liberia. Many local Blacks agreed to be resettled, persuaded by the argument that Africans would accept the Word of God from African Americans more easily than Whites, and that equality was more an achievable possibility in Africa than in America. By the 1850s, however, many African Americans believed it was a scheme to rid the nation of free Blacks resulting in fewer people willing to participate in this venture.

Not surprisingly, African American churches in the pre-1865 period had to walk a tight line. Because the congregations were composed mainly of free Blacks, their activities were always scrutinized and their meetings were often monitored. Immediately following the war, Blacks established their own churches or moved membership of pre-existing churches to all-Black national organizations. They also replaced their White pastors with Black ministers, resulting in the Black church having an expanded role as the center of urban life. Other African Americans withdrew from White-controlled churches, such as the seven Blacks who withdrew as members from Court Street Baptist Church and unofficially began worshipping in a blacksmith shop in January 1864. While Court Street Baptist never gave permission for them to form a church, the small congregation registered and purchased land to build a church later called Ebenezer Baptist Church, with the Reverend J. W. Godwin (who had been a deacon at Court Street Baptist) serving as their pastor. The Reverend Thomas Hume preached the dedication sermon for the church. When their church was destroyed by fire in 1869, they moved into the old Wesley Chapel, a Methodist church, on Effingham Street. In 1865, 318 Black members of Court Street Baptist received permission, unlike the group who started Ebenezer, to establish Zion Baptist Church.

In the years following the Civil War numerous African American churches in Tidewater rendered innumerable services to the Black community, including Emanuel AME Church, Queen Street Baptist Church, and St. Joseph's Catholic Church; and after 1930, African Methodist Episcopal Zion and the Church of Christ. Committed to self-help, the churches' benevolent and mutual aid societies served as agencies for the improvement of social and moral conditions among African Americans primarily by promoting education and encouraging members to become Bible readers. Along with such auxiliary religious organizations as the Norfolk Association of Colored Women, the women's auxiliary of Lott Carey, the Black National Nurses Association and the Colored King's Daughters, many church groups established missions in the slums and jails, founded and supported homes for the aged and orphans, and generally contributed to the overall improvement of Black living conditions in Norfolk.

Emanuel M.E. in Portsmouth joined the African Methodist Episcopal Church approximately in 1871. Its membership would be composed of representatives from the oldest native-born colored citizens of Portsmouth and new and progressive citizens who migrated to the area. Together, these churches would provide numerous services to Portsmouth's Black community, including educational and evangelical missionary societies.

It was through the Black church, especially in this post-war era, that literary and benevolent organizations and self-help groups emerged serving as agencies for the improvement of the social and moral conditions of African Americans. As before the Civil War, the Black church continued to promote education, largely by encouraging its members to become Bible readers and by serving as a welfare agency. Innumerable services were rendered to the Black community by the new institutional churches. Many church groups established missions in the slums and jails, established or supported homes for the aged and orphans, and generally contributed to the overall improvement of conditions in urban communities.

But churches were not insulated institutions. It was not unusual in Norfolk and in Portsmouth to see events held in a rotating fashion among churches. Quartets and choirs from one church would often sing in another in a fundraising effort. And numerous people sometimes crossing church and denominational lines attended baptisms, which were usually warm weather events because they were typically conducted in the local rivers, lakes, and creeks. For example, a Norfolk Journal newspaper account noted that Rev. E. G. Corprew baptized twelve congregants on Sunday at Swimming Point in the Elizabeth River on October 8, 1867. These events were widely attended, usually with hundreds of spectators who accompanied the baptism with hymns of praise.

Thus, an important agency for maintaining group cohesion and rendering self-help was the church. Although church membership was increasing, the attention to problems of segregation, intimidation, fear and violence were not addressed. Instead, attention to one's sins (an otherworldly approach) still dominated and resulted in the Black church being challenged in primarily northern urban areas by a rising progressive order. Many Blacks began abandoning the traditional Baptist and Methodist denominations and joined Congregational, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, and Catholic churches that seemed to have a more flexible attitude toward the reforms--attention being directed to the immediate societal problems at hand--upon which they insisted. Furthermore, African Americans began organizing their own denominational groups and religious organizations--e.g., the National Baptist Convention, R.H. Boyd's National Baptist Publishing House--as a way of insuring self-determination.

Another manifestation of the African Americans' need to become socially self-sufficient was the growth of fraternal orders and benefit associations. Masons and Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, and the Knights of Tabor competed for membership among Black men, while the Order of Eastern Star and Sisters of Calanthe competed for Black women's membership. These groups offered insurance against sickness and death, aided widows and orphans of deceased members, and gave opportunities for social intercourse. So aside from the actions and efforts of a few Black leaders, the Black community has traditionally pulled together, despite its meager resources, to assist one another to succeed. Blacks--free and slave—organized benevolent societies even prior to emancipation. That tradition has continued until the present. Portsmouth's Black churches host many after school and summer programs. Continuing the tradition of a multi-purpose establishment, churches provide needed meeting space for organizations, schoolrooms for tutorial programs, auditoriums for local theatrical societies, and religious meetings for Sunday and mid-week services.