Charles H. Pearce (1817–1887) was a religious and political leader in Florida. An African Methodist Episcopal (AME) minister, he was dispatched to Florida in 1865, after the American Civil War. He had previously been a missionary in Canada after moving from Maryland to Connecticut. He helped bring the AME Church, the first independent black denomination in the United States, to Florida and worked to build its congregation during and after the Reconstruction era. In 1868 Pearce was elected as a delegate to the Florida Constitutional Convention of 1868. Later that year he was elected to the state legislature as a state senator from Leon County, Florida. He served numerous terms in the legislature, working to gain support for civil rights and public education for Floridians. Pearce was born into slavery in Maryland and bought his freedom then moved North to New Haven, Connecticut, where he was ordained, and later to Canada, where he served as a preacher and became a British citizen. Early life, education and career as minister Pearce was born into slavery in 1817 in Queen Anne's County, Maryland. As a young man, he purchased his freedom by saving his portion of earnings from being "hired out." He moved to New Haven, Connecticut, where he studied and was ordained as a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. Founded in 1816 by free blacks in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, this was the first independent black denomination in the United States. Pearce later moved to Canada and became a British citizen, as it was still a colony. An estimated 20,000 to 30,000 refugee African Americans from the United States had settled there to gain freedom from slavery. He preached there until 1865. AME missionary to the South In 1865, after the Civil War, Pearce moved to Florida as an AME missionary. Based in the North, the church sent numerous missionaries to the South to aid the freedmen and plant new churches. Pearce settled in the state capitol Tallahassee in Leon County, Florida. Political career Pearce said, "A man in this State, cannot do his whole duty as a minister except he looks out for the political interests of his people." Pearce became a prominent black officeholder in the Reconstruction era, a time when threats and white animosity to freedmen was high. White insurgents formed paramilitary groups including the KKK to disrupt elections, intimidate black voters, and assassinate Republican Party leaders