History and Organization of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South

Methodist Episcopal Church, South. History and Organization of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Nashville, Tennessee: South-Western Christian Advocate, 1845. Stanley F. Horn Book Collection. 

The History and Organization of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South: Comprehending all the Official Proceedings of the General Conference; The Southern Annual Conferences; with such Other Matters as are Necessary to a right Understanding of the Case was published in 1845 by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. It is the foundational document the Methodist Episcopal Church, South (MECS). It documents the formal schism over slavery that divided American Methodism in the mid-19th century.

The split began at the 1844 General Conference in New York, where abolitionist sentiments in the North clashed with Southern interests. The immediate breaking point was Bishop James O. Andrew of Georgia, who came into ownership of enslaved people through marriage. Prior to that time, the Methodist Church did not sanction bishops or ministers from owning enslaved people, though it did not look favorably upon the practice.

Recognizing that the split was irreparable, the 1844 Conference adopted a “Plan of Separation” in which an agreement was established a dividing line for the church, allowing Southern annual conferences to separate and form their own distinct jurisdictions without losing their claim to Methodist property or assets.

In May 1845, 12 Southern annual conferences met in Louisville, Kentucky, where they formally declared themselves as separate from the original Methodist Episcopal Church.