TheUnited American Free Will Baptist Church is the oldest national body of predominantlyblackFree Will Baptists in theUnited States.
TheFree Will Baptist Church in America grew up on two separate fronts:North andSouth. In the South the denomination began in 1727 when Paul Palmer started a church inChowan,North Carolina. The work in the north began with a congregation organized byBenjamin Randall in 1780 atNew Durham, New Hampshire. Though they arose independently and there was no organizational connection between them, both taught the doctrines of free grace, free salvation andfree will.
Free blacks andblack slaves were members of predominantlywhite Free Will Baptist congregations of the South. African-Americans organized their first separate congregation, Shady Grove Free Will Baptist Church, at Snow Hill, Greene County,North Carolina, in 1867. The first annual conference was organized in 1870, and the first association in 1887. The first General Conference for United Free Will Baptists convened at St. John's church inKinston, North Carolina, on May 8, 1901. The greatest strength of this body is in North Carolina, where it maintains headquarters and a tabernacle and operatesKinston College in North Carolina.[1] In 2007, there was an estimated 75,000 members in about 500 churches.[2] The General Conference has published a book of discipline since 1903 and publishes a periodical calledThe Free Will Baptist Advocate.[3] The United American Free Will Baptist Church is a member of theNational Fraternal Council of Negro Churches. Bishop J. E. Reddick currently serves as General Bishop.[4]
In 1968, a division brought about a second group of black Free Will Baptists, theUnited American Free Will Baptist Conference.[5]
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