FREEDOM HILL CHURCH
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“No slaveholder can be a Christian!”
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A mile south of here is the site of Freedom Hill Wesleyan Methodist Church, a simple frame building
that measured 27 by 36 feet and was dedicated in March 1848. When local residents sent a plea for a
minister to the Wesleyans in Ohio in 1847, the Rev. Adam Crooks accepted the call. Among the most
outspoken of southern abolitionist groups, the Wesleyans held to the principle that no Christian could
in conscience own slaves, a position similar to that of the Quakers. Confrontation with the dominant
slave-owning society here was inevitable. Pro-slavery mobs
attacked the congregation and fired small arms at the church
door. The sanctity of the pulpit was no protection, but the
congregation and Crooks refused to renounce their beliefs.
Members of the congregation were active in the Under¬
ground Railroad and, thereby, put their property, families, and
lives at risk. Nearby are several hiding places that runaway
slaves used. During the Civil War, members of the congregation
concealed deserters, draft resisters, and escaped Federal
prisoners-of-war. If they had been caught, they would have been
confined in the Confederate prison in Salisbury. North Car¬
olina’s government did not acknowledge the Wesleyans as paci¬
fists, in contrast to the official attitude toward
the Quakers. Conscription wagons took many
Wesleyans away to forced military service.
The old church has been moved twice,
and now stands on the campus of Southern
Wesleyan University in Central, South Carolina.
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Bullet-riddled door to church,
ca. 1970s - Courtesy North Carolina
Office of Archives & History
Freedom Hill Wesleyan Methodist Church, photo ca. 1950s
Courtesy Friends Historical Collection , Guilford College
The Rev. Adam Crooks • Courtesy
Southern Wesleyan University
The Rev. Adam Crooks (1824-1874),
who came to North Carolina
from Ohio in 1847, was tarred and
feathered in effigy, beaten, poi¬
soned twice, barred from speaking
at the courthouses in Guilford
and Forsyth counties, and jailed
in Randolph, all for his faith.
He asked his congregants, “Can
you give your life for the cause?”
In 1851, North Carolina forced him
to leave, but he had already planted
Wesleyan abolitionist churches
in North Carolina and Virginia.
The physical abuse he endured
contributed to his early death.
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