Silver Bluff Baptist Church facts for kids
The Silver Bluff Baptist Church is a very important church in American history. It was started a long time ago, between 1773 and 1775, in a place called Beech Island, South Carolina. It was founded by several African Americans who were enslaved at the time. They gathered together under the leadership of an elder named David George.
Many historians believe Silver Bluff Baptist Church was the very first separate church for Black people in the United States. However, some others think the First Baptist Church in Petersburg, Virginia, might have been first.
When the British army took over Savannah in 1778 during the American Revolutionary War, David George and about 30 members of his church went there. The British had promised freedom to enslaved people who escaped from masters who supported the American side. The church members who stayed in Savannah after the war eventually became the First African Baptist Church.
David George was a very important leader in the early black Baptist movement. After the war, the British helped him and other Black Loyalists (Black people who supported the British) move to Nova Scotia in Canada. There, he started another church. In 1792, David George and his family moved again to Freetown, Sierra Leone, in West Africa. This new colony was started by the British. He also founded a church there.
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History of Silver Bluff Baptist Church
How the Church Started
During a time called the First Great Awakening, many preachers traveled around the South. These preachers, especially Baptists and Methodists, shared their faith with both white people and enslaved or free Black people. Baptist churches often allowed Black people to take on important roles. Some Black men even became licensed preachers and elders.
The people who started Silver Bluff Baptist Church were enslaved African Americans. They were inspired by a white Baptist minister named Wait Palmer. Another enslaved preacher, George Leile, might have also influenced them. There were eight founders, including David George and his wife, and Jesse Peter (also known as Jesse Galphin). Wait Palmer was so impressed by David George's preaching that he made him the elder of the group.
Around 1774–1775, the group started meeting at Galphin's Mill. This mill was owned by George Galphin, who was David George's master. More people joined the group, and it grew into a church.
The Revolutionary War and New Beginnings
In 1778, the British army took control of Savannah, Georgia, which was across the river from the church. This caused problems for the church. George Galphin, David George's master, supported the American side and moved away from his plantation.
David George and about 30 enslaved members of Silver Bluff Baptist Church went to Savannah. They were looking for the freedom the British had promised. In Savannah, they joined with another preacher, George Leile, and his group.
After the war ended in 1782, David George and his family, along with thousands of other freed enslaved people, left with the British. The British kept their promise and took them to freedom in Nova Scotia. David George preached in Shelburne and started another Baptist church there. George Leile went to Jamaica with the British, where he founded a Baptist church in Kingston.
In 1792, the George family moved from Nova Scotia to the new colony of Sierra Leone. British people who were against slavery helped them. David George was one of the people who helped start Freetown and its first Baptist church.
Churches Founded by Early Leaders
Andrew Bryan was another important Black Baptist preacher in Georgia. He became a Christian in 1782 and was the only one of the three earliest Black Baptist preachers in Georgia to stay in Savannah. Later, he bought his own freedom and his wife's freedom. He continued to preach and inspire many people.
In 1788, Andrew Bryan organized the First African Baptist Church of Savannah. In 1793, he bought land for the church building, which the members built in 1794. The church grew very large, with over 400 members before Andrew Bryan passed away.
After the war in 1783, Jesse Peter Galphin (the name he took after he became free) led other members of the Silver Bluff congregation to Augusta, Georgia. There, they started the first African Baptist church in that city. This church later became known as Springfield Baptist Church. Because Jesse Peter Galphin was connected to the original Silver Bluff church, a historian named Walter Brooks said in 1922 that Springfield Baptist Church in Augusta was the oldest Black Baptist church in the nation.
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