The African Methodist Episcopal Church and Its Reckonings with Deadly Plagues, 1793–2020

In each century in the existence of African Methodism, from its launch in the eighteenth century into its institutional maturity in the twenty-first century, the oldest of historically African American religious bodies has reckoned with deadly plagues. From the bold public health intervention of Richard Allen and Absalom Jones against yellow fever in Philadelphia in 1793 through the vigorous acquiescence to government guidance about coping with COVID-19 in 2020, the AME Church has validated its responses in acceptance of the latest science in dealing with epidemics in the later 1700s and 1800s and pandemics in the 1900s and 2000s. © 2002 Taylor and Francis.