Faith Community UMC Church

Faith Community UMC Church. Living a Double Life. , During the 1840s and 1850s, the locals knew Reverend Samuel Green as a literate, highly respected Methodist Episcopal preacher and community leader. His church once stood here on land donated in 1843 by free woman Sarah Young. While the building no longer survives, the congregation remains active., Like most African Americans in the region, Green’s family lived in fear of separation. His wife Kitty and children Sam Jr. and Sarah were enslaved. When Sam Jr. escaped in 1854, his owner was so enraged that he sold Sam Jr.’s sister Sarah to slave traders from Missouri., Unknown to many, Rev. Green had a second life. For years, he served as an Underground Railroad agent, secretly aiding Harriet Tubman and freedom-seeking refugees., Green’s luck ran out in 1857 when authorities tracked the escape of a group of freedom seekers, known as the “Dover Eight” to his doorstep. Green was arrested, tried and sent to prison, convicted of possessing a copy of the abolitionist publication, Uncle Tom’s Cabin., [Caption:] , Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Vol. II. –Harriet Beecher Stowe’s anti-slavery novel was considered by some to have “laid the ground work for the Civil War.” Image courtesy of the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collection Library, University of Virginia.