List of African-American Firsts - 18th Century

18th Century

• 1760

First known African-American published author: Jupiter Hammon (poem "An Evening Thought: Salvation by Christ with Penitential Cries", published as a broadside)

• 1773

First known African-American woman to publish a book: Phillis Wheatley (Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral)

First separate African American church: Silver Bluff Baptist Church, Aiken County, South Carolina

• 1778

First African-American U.S. military regiment: the 1st Rhode Island Regiment

• 1783

First African American to formally practice medicine in the U.S.: James Derham, who did not hold an M.D. degree (See also: 1847)

• 1792

First major African-American Back-to-Africa movement: 1,200 slaves who escaped to settle in Settler Town, Sierra Leone

• 1793

First African Methodist Episcopal Church established: Richard Allen founded Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

• 1794

First African Episcopal Church established: Absalom Jones founded African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania