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January 1820

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Achievement · religion
Daniel Coker Sails as First Black American Missionary to Africa

AME founder Daniel Coker sailed with 88 colonists to Sierra Leone aboard the ship Elizabeth, becoming the first Black American Protestant missionary to work in Africa. Unlike many who returned, Coker remained in West Africa, eventually settling in Freetown where he ministered and taught until his death around 1846, establishing a lasting African-American religious presence on the continent.

Events

  1. January 1820
    Daniel Coker Sails as First Black American Missionary to Africa

    AME founder Daniel Coker sailed with 88 colonists to Sierra Leone aboard the ship Elizabeth, becoming the first Black American Protestant missionary to work in Africa. Unlike many who returned, Coker remained in West Africa, eventually settling in Freetown where he ministered and taught until his death around 1846, establishing a lasting African-American religious presence on the continent.

  2. January 1820
    Daniel Coker Sails as First Black American Missionary to Africa

    AME founder Daniel Coker sailed with 88 colonists to Sierra Leone aboard the ship Elizabeth, becoming the first Black American Protestant missionary to work in Africa. Unlike many who returned, Coker remained in West Africa, eventually settling in Freetown where he ministered and taught until his death around 1846.

  3. 1820
    African Free School No. 2 Founded in New York, Enrollment Reaches 500

    As enrollment at the original African Free School in New York City swelled, a second school was founded in 1820 to accommodate demand. By the mid-1820s combined enrollment exceeded 500 Black students. The schools produced an extraordinary alumni cohort including physicians, ministers, abolitionists, and actors who shaped nineteenth-century Black intellectual life.