Minutes of the Eleventh Session of the South Carolina Annual Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church Held at Abbeville, S.C. include statistics that reveal the significant role that African American religious institutions played in providing basic education to persons of color as Reconstruction era advances disappeared. A chart for the Charleston District quantified the work of local churches. For example, Emanuel Station had 600 pupils in its Sunday school with 25 teachers providing instruction. The church library had 240 books in it.
