Black and white men and women worked to build Bristol Hill Church, where local families worshipped together despite most congregations being segregated by race. The congregation formed in 1812 and began raising funds to build the church in 1331. African-American Andrew Slater, Isaac Lawson, Amos Mason and his wife donated money, grain, lumber, and labor to pay the preacher, build the church and parsonage, and erect a steeple. Members protested against the entire system of American slavery, signed antislavery petitions, and joined antislavery societies. Five families were also active in the Underground Railroad, including two African American families and three European-American families. On a trip south, African American congregant James Watkins Seward was kidnapped and enslaved in Louisiana in 1839. This incident led to the passage of a New York law requiring the state to recover free black residents who had been illegally captured into slavery.