By 1831, over 10,000 enslaved people and over 17,000 free people of color lived in Baltimore. Nat Turner’s rebellion in August that year made the churches even more important to the Maritime Underground Railroad. An integral part of its function in Baltimore was the African Methodist Bethel Society, founded in 1815. It incorporated the Bethel AME Church in 1816 for the Black community. The enslaved could attend, but could not become members under Maryland law.