Bishop Francis Asbury was responsible for the establishment of Methodism in America, and in 1789 (the same year that President George Washington was inaugurated), he purchased a lot at the Corner of Third and Walnut Streets in Wilmington Delaware. Asbury Methodist Episcopal Church was built on that lot, housing a congregation of forty-three white members and nineteen black members.

 Peter Spencer was born a slave in Kent County MD in 1782, and he was set free when his master died. During the early 1800s, Spencer laid down roots in Wilmington, where he received a basic education and found some financial success as a mechanic. Soon after his arrival in Wilmington, he connected with the Asbury Methodist Episcopal Church. Although Spencer distinguished himself as an astute businessman, educator, and mechanic, he is best known for his work as a church founder and organizer. He contended for more religious liberty for himself and his people in their worship and service to God, but this was denied to them. "In the year 1805 we, the colored members of the Methodist Church in Wilmington, thought that we might have more satisfaction of mind than we then had if we were to unite together and build a house for ourselves, which we did the same year. The Lord gave us the favor and the good will of all religious denominations, and they all freely did lend us help and by their good graces we got a house to worship the Lord in."

On September 18,1813, after rejecting white clerical domination and control they purchased a lot and built a church at Eighth and French Streets. Rev Spencer established in Wilmington the first independent black church denomination, the Union Church of Africans , with the following Incorporate Trustees: Rev. Peter Spencer, Scotland Hill, David Smith, Jacob March, Benjamin Webb John Simmons and John Kelly. While often overshadowed by Richard Allen and the beginning of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, the independent church movement of the Spencer Union Church of Africans predates the AME church by three years. Rev. Peter Spencer organized thirty-one churches and erected a schoolhouse for each one. He entered into rest on July 25, 1843 and is buried in a plaza in the Central section of Wilmington, Delaware.  Union American Methodist Episcopal Church’s Founder’s Day is observed yearly at this site.

 In 1865 there was a denominational split and the Union Church of Africans became two separate bodies, the AUMP Church (African Union Methodist Protestant Church) and the UAME Church (Union American Methodist Episcopal Church) Currently there are Five (5) Episcopal Districts and Fifty-Three (53) Churches connected to The Union American Methodist Episcopal Church located in Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Liberia West Africa. St. Paul UAME Church New Haven is a member of this historical connection.