Togolese Americans (French: Américains togolais) are Americans of Togolese descent. According to answers provided to an open-ended question included in the 2000 census, 1,716 people said that their ancestry or ethnic origin was Togolese.[1] An unofficial estimate in 2008 of the Togolese American population was more than 2,500.[4]
The first people from present-day Togo arrived in the United States enslaved. Most of these slaves shipped to the United States were disembarked at the Gulf Coast. The Gulf Coast includes the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Most of the slaves belonged to the Ewe people which inhabit the south-eastern part of Ghana, Togo, Benin, and south-western Nigeria. This lasted until 1859, when Togolese-descended Cudjo Lewis arrived to Mobile from Dahomey.[5] After the abolition of slavery, few Togolese came to the United States.
Most Togolese who live in the United States are in the country legally and have received diversity immigrant visas,[4] which require them to show that they were not likely to become public charges before receiving the visas.[6] Many Togolese emigrated to the U.S. to further their education.[4]
^"Question of the Month: Cudjo Lewis: Last African Slave in the U.S.?", by David Pilgrim, Curator, Jim Crow Museum, July 2005, webpage:Ferris-ClotildeArchived 2017-05-25 at the Wayback Machine.
^Those are traditions and denominations that trace their history back to the Protestant Reformation or otherwise heavily borrow from the practices and beliefs of the Protestant Reformers.
^ abcdefThis is more of a movement then an institutionalized denomination.
^Denominations that don't fit in the subsets mentioned above.
^Those are traditions and denominations that trace their origin back to the Great Awakenings and/or are joined together by a common belief that Christianity should be restored along the lines of what is known about the apostolic early church.
^The Holiness movement is an interdenominational movement that spreads over multiple traditions (Methodist, Quakers, Anabaptist, Baptist, etc.). However, here are mentioned only those denominations that are part of Restorationism as well as the Holiness movement, but are not part of any other Protestant tradition.