About
For more than a decade, archaeologist Dr. Cheryl LaRoche has been researching and physically exploring the landscapes of 18th and 19th century free Black communities, their churches, cemeteries and institutions, and their relationship to the Underground Railroad.
She is a historical and archaeological consultant who combines law, history, oral history, archaeology, geography, and material culture to define nineteenth century African American cultural landscapes and its relationship to escape from slavery. She often works at the sometimes contentious interface between the public and scholars, professionals and municipalities.
She has physically walked historic landscapes from New Hampshire to Missouri to Canada. Her latest book, Apostle of Liberation: AME Bishop Paul Quinn and the Underground Railroad, published by Rowman & Littlefield, traces Quinn's life from his birth in Belize in Honduras to his Underground Railroad journeys across the United States and Canada. Her first book Free Black Communities and the Underground Railroad: The Geography of Resistance, published by the University of Illinois Press, looked at Black communities and their relationship to the Underground Railroad. In 2023, The Maryland Historical Trust awarded LaRoche The Calvert Prize for her outstanding work in Historical Preservation. In 2011, The Society for Historical Archaeology awarded LaRoche the John L. Cotter Award for her exemplary work in bringing a multidisciplinary approach to the study of African American archaeology.
Dr. LaRoche is an associate research professor in Historic Preservation in the School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at the University of Maryland, College Park. She lectures on a wide range of historical topics; her work has taken her across the country, from New England to the banks of the Mississippi River and beyond. She has consulted for the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, the National Park Service, the National Forest Service, the African Meeting House in Boston and Nantucket, and a number of other historical sites and projects. She worked as an archaeological conservator for the African Burial Ground Project in New York City where she was responsible for conserving the grave goods from the burials.
Apostle of Liberation: AME Bishop Paul Quinn and the Underground Railroad
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William Paul Quinn's untold story is a missing piece of American history. His deep but little-known involvement with the Underground Railroad is one of the most fascinating subplots of a remarkable life. More than any other prelate of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, or AME Church, Quinn (1788-1873) guided the faithful throughout the perilous pre-Civil War years, sanctioning escape from slavery while avoiding suspicion and, by all appearances, upholding the law. Quinn helped his followers navigate the hardships of slavery, as well as the demands of freedom in the post-Civil War world.
Apostle of Liberation illuminates Quinn’s significance, demonstrating why his life and courageous efforts deserve more attention—and more appreciation. It also explores, in depth and for the first time, the eight and a half years Quinn spent in New York City. It was during this time that Quinn experienced the major conflict of his life with AME founder Bishop Richard Allen over Quinn’s independent activities in New York. Much to Bishop Allen’s frustration, Quinn—one of the AME Church’s “Four Horsemen” along with Allen—associated with ministers of other denominations, collaborated with the city’s African American civic leaders, rescued freedom seekers, and operated beyond Allen’s reach. Quinn later established a 150-member independent church in the city, earning Allen’s wrath and a five-year exile from the church.
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This remarkable missionary’s life embodies the struggles and challenges that shaped the lives of nineteenth-century Black leaders, and those who followed them. Apostle of Liberation explores the historical figure as well as the man of God—his spiritual gifts, his character and uniqueness, as well as his many strengths and failings. The book carefully lays out his trials and triumphs, and the magnitude of his accomplishments in the face of legally sanctioned national opposition, denominational fights and schisms, and devastating Supreme Court decisions. Combining AME Church history, the story of the Underground Railroad, the origins of African American educational efforts, and inspiring anecdotes of westward migration and community engagement, Apostle of Liberation offers an original and distinctive contribution to American religious history.​
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