6. Primitive Methodist Church, the result of immigration from England and Canada, and not of any division on this side of the sea. It has two annual conferences and 8,600 members.
7. Congregational Methodist Church, the out come (1872) of withdrawals from the Metho dist Episcopal Church, South, on account of ob jections to its system of government. A small body known as the New Congregational Methodist Church separated in 1881 from the original body. There was also a colored Con gregational body, which has disappeared. The two which remain have together about 18,000 members, mostly in the South. Independent Methodist churches have dwindled to the point of extinction.
Colored Methodist Methodism with its fervent appeals and experiences attracted negroes from the first, both North and South. °Black Harry') accompanied Bishop Asbury on some of his journeys, and often spoke with moving power to his own people. Asbury's attitude toward slavery was one of opposition, and he had little or no caste prejudice. Ac cordingly many negroes became members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, particularly in the cities of New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore. The service of white ministers was not always obtainable or satisfactory, and as early as 1787 some colored people in Philadel phia withdrew and Bishop White, Protestant Episcopal, ordained one of their number to serve them. Bishop Asbury likewise ordained, 1799, Richard Allen, a slave, who had bought his freedom. Including 341,000 colored mem bers in the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1917, and the various distinct colored brances, there are in all about 1,800,000 negro Metho dists. (The United States census of 1916 con siderably reduces this number, but the Churches say the government figures are too low).
8. African Methodist Episcopal Church, organized in Philadelphia, 1816, with Richard Allen, ex-slave, as its first bishop. In doc trines, discipline and government it does not differ materially from the Methodist Episcopal Church, from which it sprang. It has been very prosperous, and under the leadership of Bishop Daniel A. Payne, who graduated from the Reformed Theological Seminary of Gettys burg, it has taken great interest in education.
It has four universities, including Wilberforce University, in Ohio. It began foreign missions early in its history in Africa, the West Indies and elsewhere. It has 16 bishops, 5,000 min isters, 6,000 churches and 620,000 members. United States census figures for 1916 are 552,265.
9. African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, organized in New York City as a society for separate worship in 1796, formally as a denom ination in 1820. It was the result of a desire of colored members to conduct their own wor ship. They built a church called Zion and occupied it in 1800. For some years white ministers served it as pastors. Then they secured colored ministers. James Varick was their first bishop. Since 1880 their bishops have been elected for life instead of for four years. It has nine bishops and a full list of denominational boards for its missions and benevolences, and several colleges. It carries on foreign missions in Africa, the West Indies and Guiana. Its publishing house is in Char lotte, N. C. The number of its members, 1915, was 569,000, with upward of 3,500 itinerant ministers and 3,200 churches. The United States census of 1916 cuts down the member ship to less than 259,000.
10. Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, organized in 1870, under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, of mi ters and members connected with the lane body, which reported nearly 208,000 cokce members in 1860. Seven years later it had* 54,000, the rest having gone into the urine colored churches or into the Methodist Em copal Church, which created the Freedman! Aid Society after the war. The Coln* Methodist Episcopal Church has grown rape!. reporting in 1900 about 205,000 member la 1917 it had 251,560 members, with 3,400 Sine ant ministers and 3,285 churches. It has cd leges and benevolent societies, eight hishm and a publishing house at Jackson, Tenn.
There are minor colored bodies: (a) lila American Methodist Episcopal Church, ning in Wilmington, Del., in 1813; (b) Africa Union Methodist Protestant, dating from lilt; (c) Zion Union Apostolic, organized in 1*, Reformed Methodist Union Episcopal Choi with a few members. These bodies have gether some 35,000 members.