Colored Churches in Philadelphia (1864)

Source: The Friend. Honolulu: August 4, 1864

There are in Philadelphia about 23,000 colored people. A large majority of them are sober, industrious and intelligent, sustaining themselves by laboring in various ways; many of them in the capacity of servants, scattered promiscuously over the city. These people have eighteen churches of their own, with an average capacity of 300. Of these 23,000 people, there are 4,000 in communion with these eighteen churches. Those worshipping in Roman Catholic churches do not amount to more than 200, which is the extreme number. The sum total of those who are in church communion, and of those not members who attend worship on Sabbath, does not exceed 7,000.