Our Place in History
Jacob's Chapel
Cemetery
"The cemetery was inaugurated about 1849. In the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, the growing congregation, then led by Jacob Mitchell, an A.M.E minister known for his success in helping other black churches build their own sanctuaries, led the effort to build the present Jacob's Chapel in 1866-67."
National Parks Service
Part of our efforts to preserve our past include supporting the Colemantown Foundation in providing Underground Railroad Tours and Reenactments to schools and groups.
Preserving Our Past
Jacob's Chapel
Property
"The Jacob's Chapel A.M.E Church property, which includes the Colemantown Meeting House, the Chapel itself, and their associated cemetery, possesses local significance under Criterion A in African American ethnic heritage as the last remaining resources that mark the emergence, growth, and decline of Colemantown, an antebellum African American settlement established in 1828 that flourished into the 20th century. The emergence of Colemantown was an important event within Burlington County history."
National Parks Service
Colemantown
Meeting House
"The Colemantown Meeting House, evidently placed in the settlement in 1840 and moved to its current location in 1965, served as both the first worship sanctuary in Colemantown and as a schoolhouse for the hamlet's children. It is one of the oldest all-black schoolhouses still extant in New Jersey, a remarkable survival. It is likewise remarkable that this survival was a re-purposed building adapted to become the congregation's first sanctuary. Before about 1840, African American congregations in New Jersey worshipped exclusively in re-used buildings, before the first purpose-built black churches appeared. The Colemantown Meeting House is the only known survivor of this early group of black churches."
National Parks Service
Our Past
Jacob's Chapel is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and it was used as a safe place for runaway slaves on the Underground Railroad.