Brown Fellowship Society

The Brown Fellowship Society was founded in Charleston, South Carolina in 1790 with the motto “Charity and Benevolence”. It was founded by five free non-whites who attended St. Philip’s Episcopal Church. It was founded “to provide benefits which the white church denied them like a proper burial ground, widow and orphan care, and assistance in times of sickness” The group’s cemetery was an important part of its function. Those who joined the club considered themselves “brown”, mulattoes, an important distinction at the time when society in Charleston recognized three races: White, Mulatto, and Negro.

Unlike some mutual self-help organization in the African-American community, the Brown Society was not linked to any church, even banning discussion of religion. Many of the members of the Brown Fellowship Society had their own businesses and some were prosperous. In 1843, another group was formed by African American men in Charleston, the Humane Brotherhood, modeled after the Brown Fellowship Society, but less class conscious.

"After the Civil War, the Brown Fellowship Society expanded to include more African Americans, including women and those of darker skin". The Society was renamed the “Century Fellowship Society” about 100 years after its founding. It sold the original BFS cemetery in 1945 when the land was sold to a developing Catholic school, and the Society was officially dissolved.

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