"James Varick" [October 1,1750-July 22,1827]

He was born to a slave mama in Newburgh in New York,who was a slave of the Varicks or Van Varcks.She was later freed.His daddy,Richard,was born in Hackensack New Jersey,where he was baptized in the Dutch Church.The family lived in New York City James was young.He acquired an elementary education in New York schools.By
trade James was a shoemaker.Later he also worked as a tobacco cutter.Since the church which he was associated did not pay its preachers for many years,for many years he worked his trade to support himself and his his family.About 1790,James married Aurelia Jones.They had four sons & thee daughters.
The important events in his life were associated with his religious avocation.James joined the John Street Methodist Church in New York at an early date,possibly in 1766,the year after the
church held its first meeting.James seems to have been licensed to preach by this group he does not appear among the licensed preachers
 of the early Zion church as given by Christopher Rush,
the second supervisor or bishop,in is 1844 history of the denomination.As early as as 1780,African-American members of the John Street Church were holding separate class and prayer meetings.In 1796,James was among those African American leaders who established separate meetings on a firmer footings.
 The group met for prayer on Sunday afternoons and heard preachers and exorters on Wednesday evenings in a house on Cross Street,which they remodeded to hold these meetings.Then in 1799,the
group decided to erect a building and form a separate church.In October of 1800,the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church,a wooden building at the corner of Church & Leonard Streets,
was dedicated.The name of the mother church Zion,was officially added to the denomination's name
in 1848.In March of 1801 the church was formally incorporated under New York law.This incorporation placed the church and its property firmly under the control of the trustees,who were
required to be of African descent.
Since the church had preachers   no ordained minister,white ministers preached on Sunday
Afternoons and Wednesday evenings and supplied a morning communion service on the second Sunday of Every month.The church thrived.It acquired a burying ground in 1807 and laid plans to buy
the lots it had leased along with another adjacent one and to erect  a new brick church to replace the original building.In 1820,as Zion was engaged in erecting its new church,which had effect of scattering the congregation among the number of temporary meeting places,a competing African American denomination appeared in a leadership role in the Zion church.
In Christopher's account,the trustees met at Jame's house in July of 1820 and decided to pursue the ordination of African American ministers,allowing Zion to dispense with white ministers,James must have been coming to the church affairs earlier than this,but his name does not appear on early
documents.A general meeting o the church on August 11,1820,resulted in two decisions:a refusal to join Richard,and a refusal to return to white control.The problem of elders for the separate church
now became crucial.On September 13,1820,Abraham Thompson & James Varick were selected by the congregation to become elders and they began immediately,holding communion services.A book of discipline for the new church was ready for printing by November 1.The demonation acquired churches outside of New York City,but its growth did not match of Richard Allen's group.
At the first convention of the new demonation in June of 1821,James was appointed district chairman,an interim supervisory position for the whole demonation Finally on June 27,1822,white Methodist elders ordained Abraham Thompson,James Varick,and Leven Smith.James then officially became supervisor of the church on July 30,1822,and was reelected again in 1824.(the title bishop was not adopted until later.)In addition to his purely ministerial duties,James ran a school first in his home and then in the church building.He was the first chaplain of the New York Society for Mutual Relief (1810) and a vice-president of the African Bible Society (1817).
In 1821,he was a member of the group of African Americans who petitioned he state constitutional convention
for the right to vote.He supported the establishment of Freedom's Journal,the first African American newspapers,in 1827.On July 4,1827,the Thanksgiven service for the final abolition of slavery in New York was held in Zion church.James died in his home.Originally he was buried in the Colored Union Cemetery (now woodlawn).His remains now repose in the crypt of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Harlem.