A CHRONOLOGY

1839
THE AMISTAD INCIDENT
• August 29 -- La Amistad captured by United States Navy
• September 3 -- Christian abolitionists formed committee to seek freedom for the captured Africans
• The Committee employed defense team

1841
MARCH 9 -- AFRICANS FREED BY US SUPREME COURT

MAY 10 -- UNION MISSIONARY SOCIETY FORMED
• On a call from the Rev. James W. C. Pennington, forty-three persons from five states, "chiefly people of color," including five of the Amistad Africans, met in Pennington's church, the Colored Congregational Church of Hartford, Connecticut, to establish the society

1842
SEPTEMBER -- AMISTAD COMMITTEE MERGES WITH UNION MISSIONARY SOCIETY

1846
SEPTEMBER 3 -- AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION FOUNDED
• Union Missionary Society merges with A.M.A.
• A.M.A. Assumes support for missions among the Mendi people in Sierra Leone, liberated slaves in Jamaica, fugitive slaves in Canada, and Native Americans in Minnesota and Michigan and also sends missionaries to Hawaii, Siam, and Egypt.
• Between 1847 and 1865, the A.M.A.founded and/or supported 285 antislavery churches and commissioned 45 abolitionists as itinerant ministers in the United States

1852
A.M.A. BEGINS WORK AMONG CHINESE IMMIGRANTS IN CALIFORNIA

1854
A.M.A. MISSIONARIES JOHN GREGG FEE AND JOHN A. R. ROGERS FOUND BEREA COLLEGE IN KENTUCKY

1859
A.M.A. MISSIONARIES EXPELLED FROM KENTUCKY AND NORTH CAROLINA

1861
SEPTEMBER -- A.M.A. FOUNDS ITS FIRST SCHOOL FOR FREEDMEN AT FORTRESS MONROE IN VIRGINIA

1865
NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES PLEDGES $250,000 TO SUPPORT A.M.A. WORK AMONG THE FREEDMEN
• A.M.A. founded over five hundred schools for the Freedmen during the Civil War and Reconstruction period

1866
A.M.A. BEGINS NORMAL SCHOOL AND COLLEGE WORK, INCLUDING:
• Fisk University, 1866
• Atlanta University, 1866
• Hampton University, 1866
• Talladega College, 1866
• Straight University (Dillard), 1869
• Tougaloo College, 1869
• LeMoyne College (LeMoyne-Owen), 1870
• Tillotson College (Huston-Tillotson), 1877

1942
RACE RELATIONS DEPARTMENT ESTABLISHED BY A.M.A.

1944
FIRST OF TWENTY-SIX ANNUAL RACE RELATIONS INSTITUTES HELD AT FISK UNIVERSITY

1966
SEPTEMBER 1 -- AMISTAD RESEARCH CENTER FOUNDED BY A.M.A.
• The mission is to collect, preserve, and make accessible to research scholars and other students original sources on the histories and cultures of America's ethnic minorities, particularly African Americans, Native Americans, Latinos and Asian Americans.

1969
NOVEMBER -- AMISTAD RESEARCH CENTER INCORPORATED
• The United Church Board for Homeland Ministries and the Council of A.M.A. College Presidents each shall name two members of the board of directors