Dennis Dickerson is James M. Lawson, Jr Professor of History at Vanderbilt University, Tennessee. A scholar of American labor history, the American civil rights movement, and African American religious history, he has received grants and fellowships from the American Academy in Berlin, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the American Council of Learned Societies, among others. He is the author of Out of the Crucible: Black Steelworkers in Western Pennsylvania, 1875-1980 (1986), African American Preachers and Politics: The Careys of Chicago (2010) and Militant Mediator: Whitney M. Young, Jr (1998), which was awarded the 1999 Distinguished Book from the National Conference of Black Political Scientists.

'Grateful thanks are due to Dennis Dickerson for this thoroughly researched and beautifully written study of one of World Methodism's most significant branches.' Martin Wellings, Wesley and Methodist Studies

• Introduction; 1. Richard Allen and the rise of African Methodism in the Atlantic World, 1760–1831; 2. The freedom church, 1831–1861; 3. 'Welcomed and ransomed', 1861–1880; 4. A denomination in the diaspora, 1880–1916; 5. Into the second century; 6. Freedom now!; 7. Becoming a global church, 1976–2018; Epilogue.

Dennis Dickerson is James M. Lawson, Jr Professor of History at Vanderbilt University, Tennessee. A scholar of American labor history, the American civil rights movement, and African American religious history, he has received grants and fellowships from the American Academy in Berlin, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the American Council of Learned Societies, among others. He is the author of Out of the Crucible: Black Steelworkers in Western Pennsylvania, 1875-1980 (1986), African American Preachers and Politics: The Careys of Chicago (2010) and Militant Mediator: Whitney M. Young, Jr (1998), which was awarded the 1999 Distinguished Book from the National Conference of Black Political Scientists.

'Grateful thanks are due to Dennis Dickerson for this thoroughly researched and beautifully written study of one of World Methodism's most significant branches.' Martin Wellings, Wesley and Methodist Studies

• Introduction; 1. Richard Allen and the rise of African Methodism in the Atlantic World, 1760–1831; 2. The freedom church, 1831–1861; 3. 'Welcomed and ransomed', 1861–1880; 4. A denomination in the diaspora, 1880–1916; 5. Into the second century; 6. Freedom now!; 7. Becoming a global church, 1976–2018; Epilogue.

Dennis Dickerson is James M. Lawson, Jr Professor of History at Vanderbilt University, Tennessee. A scholar of American labor history, the American civil rights movement, and African American religious history, he has received grants and fellowships from the American Academy in Berlin, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the American Council of Learned Societies, among others. He is the author of Out of the Crucible: Black Steelworkers in Western Pennsylvania, 1875-1980 (1986), African American Preachers and Politics: The Careys of Chicago (2010) and Militant Mediator: Whitney M. Young, Jr (1998), which was awarded the 1999 Distinguished Book from the National Conference of Black Political Scientists.

'Grateful thanks are due to Dennis Dickerson for this thoroughly researched and beautifully written study of one of World Methodism's most significant branches.' Martin Wellings, Wesley and Methodist Studies

• Introduction; 1. Richard Allen and the rise of African Methodism in the Atlantic World, 1760–1831; 2. The freedom church, 1831–1861; 3. 'Welcomed and ransomed', 1861–1880; 4. A denomination in the diaspora, 1880–1916; 5. Into the second century; 6. Freedom now!; 7. Becoming a global church, 1976–2018; Epilogue.