Reverend Samuel Green and the Original Colored People’s Methodist Episcopal Church
A historic site in East New Market, Maryland, an NPS Network to Freedom, Reverend Samuel Green and the Original Colored People’s Methodist Episcopal Church is filed here for what the record attaches to it. The free Black minister—imprisoned for owning a copy of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The archive files it under the Underground Railroad, African American history and dark history. The dossier holds 4 documented facts — a documented spine with no haunting reports attached. The site is open to visitors.
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Is Reverend Samuel Green and the Original Colored People’s Methodist Episcopal Church haunted?
No claims are filed here — the record keeps this place for its documented history, not for a haunting on file.
The record — long form
The Colored People's Methodist Episcopal Church is Samuel Green's church — the 1844 congregation in East New Market where the free Black preacher was a trustee. Green was born enslaved in 1802, bought his own freedom, bought his wife Kitty for $100 and freed her the same day. His children stayed slaves — the property of Dr. James Muse, the loss Green carried while he preached.
He was the Underground Railroad agent the planters couldn't catch — the Dover Eight he helped in March 1857, the trial that acquitted him for lack of evidence. They got him on the book instead — possession of Uncle Tom's Cabin, illegal for a Black man in Maryland, ten years in prison. He served five before the 1862 pardon that sent him to Canada. The church that Sarah Young deeded the land for is Faith Community UMC now — the congregation still active, the second structure on the site where Green was trustee.
The file keeps the church: Green's freedom and his family's enslavement, the Underground Railroad work, the Uncle Tom's Cabin conviction, and the congregation that continues.
The Reverend Samuel Green church is the archive's Dorchester file — the preacher jailed for the book.
Why this file matters
The church is the archive's Underground Railroad file — the congregation where Samuel Green was trustee.
A church keeps its preacher — the file's suggestion being that the congregation's hold is Green himself: the man who freed himself and his wife but not his children, who beat the Underground Railroad charge and went to prison for the novel, and whose church still stands.
Two accounts on file
NPS-listed historic site associated with the Underground Railroad.
The Green church—where the imprisoned minister preached.
Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite.
National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom listing
NPS Network to Freedom
Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite.
Government-registry discovery record, unique ID 31MD01, source row 543. Inclusion concerns slavery, freedom-seeking and resistance history; no haunting is inferred. City, coordinates and detailed history are not inferred from the name. The source Year Established field is not treated as year built/opened.
UGRR enrichment wave 4; VERIFY task auto-queued.
Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite.
Documented history
NPS includes this site in the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. Reverend Samuel Green and the Original Colored People’s Methodist Episcopal Church's past is on record — the entry belongs to the verified layer the museum itself interprets. The fact is historically verified — the part of the file that doesn't need hedging. The detail is preserved in 'Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01'. It anchors the timeline the rest of the file hangs from.
Verified historyNational Park ServiceReverend Samuel Green and the Original Colored People’s Methodist Episcopal Church is documented on the National Park Service Network to Freedom for its role in the Underground Railroad. Reverend Samuel Green and the Original Colored People’s Methodist Episcopal Church's past is on record — the entry belongs to the verified layer the museum itself interprets. The record holds it as fact — documented, not retold. The record appears in 'NPS Network to Freedom listing'. It's the sort of fact that gives the haunting reports their context.
Verified historyNational Park ServiceGreen’s imprisonment is documented. A documented site gives the file real substance; this entry is part of that record. It's verified history: the dossier's load-bearing detail. 'NPS Network to Freedom listing' documents the entry. The date is part of the site's documented spine. The claim holds its place in the ledger.
Verified historyNational Park ServiceReverend Samuel Green and the Original Colored People's Methodist Episcopal Church is documented on the National Park Service Network to Freedom for its role in the Underground Railroad. The site's documented history is the record the rest of the file stands on. The record holds it as fact — documented, not retold. 'NPS Network to Freedom listing' documents the entry. Documented ground is what separates this file from pure legend — this is part of it.
Verified historyNational Park Service
Sources on file
- 01Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01National Park Service · government · A1
- 02NPS Network to Freedom listingNational Park Service · government · A1
- 03Underground RailroadWikipedia · encyclopedia · A4
Field notes & open questions
UGRR enrichment wave 1; VERIFY task auto-queued.