This dissertation analyzes the significance of race in the practice of piety among free nineteenth-century northern black Methodists. Its focus is Gouldtown, a community of mulattoes whose lives were woven into the social fabric of the Delaware Valley — the birthplace of the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) church. By bringing into focus the racial politics of the region in which black Methodists forged their religious identity, Gouldtown provides a window into the role of piety in constructions of racial identity among free people of color. Their story richly illustrates how Methodists transposed concerns about racial identity into religious practice. Their lives form a moving picture of the ways in which Methodist piety functioned in peoples’ lives as a segue to a meaningful racial identity. An analysis of their story will contribute to a broadened understanding of the role of Protestantism in America culture by accounting for the ways in which competing conceptions of race shaped the religious lives of black Americans. It will thereby provide greater insight into the complex sources of American religious identity.