A Will to Choose traces the history of African-American Methodism
beginning with their emergence in the fledgling American Methodist
movement in the 1760s. Responding to Methodism's anti-slavery stance,
African-Americans joined the new movement in large numbers and by the
end of the eighteenth century, had made up the largest minority in the
Methodist church, filling positions of authority as class leaders,
exhorters, and preachers. Through the first half of the nineteenth
century, African Americans used the resources of the church in their
struggle for liberation from slavery and racism in the secular culture.