Daniel Coker

1780-1846

Name: Given Name---Isaac Wright Later---Daniel Coker

Birthplace: Baltimore County MD

Status: Free Person of Color

Occupation/Training: Minister, Teacher

Residence:

Abolitionist Involvement: Though born free, his father was a slave, and mother was a white indentured servant. He was still treated as a slave though his mother was not a slave. As a youth, he escaped and went to New York, and changed his name to Daniel Coker. He returned secretly to Maryland and became a preacher. He was able to have assistance from friend who helped him purchase his freedom. Once free he began openly to speak out against the institution of slavery. He taught in the African School of the Sharp Street Methodist Church, and later he taught at the African School of the Bethel African School in Baltimore. He was leader in the black Methodist community, and advocated the establishment of the AME Church, and attended the 1816 conference in Philadelphia which resulted in the establishment of the AME denomination. He was elected the first bishop of the AME church, but declined, and Richard Allen emerged as the first bishop instead.

He was a spokesperson and leader of the Free Black community in Maryland, and had influence in public and church affiliated sectors. For one year, he was expelled from the Church for unknown reasons. He was restored to his ministerial position a year later. He left America partly funded by the Maryland Colonization Society, moving to Liberia, then later Sierra Leone. He died in Sierra Leone in 1816

Family: Mother--Susan Coker. Gather Edward Wright

Place of Death: Sierra Leone, West Africa

Publications: A Dialogue Between a Virginian and an African Minister 1810, Journal of Daniel Coker....1820

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