Silver Bluff Baptist Church
Encyclopedia
The Silver Bluff Baptist Church in Aiken County, South Carolina
Aiken County, South Carolina
Aiken County is a county located in the U.S. state of South Carolina. In 2000, its population was 142,552; in 2010, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that its population had reached 160,099...

, was founded by several enslaved African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

s who organized under elder David George
David George (Baptist)
David George was an African-American Baptist preacher and a Black Loyalist from the American South who escaped to British lines, accepted transport to Nova Scotia and eventually resettled in Freetown, Sierra Leone....

 in 1773-1775.

The historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...

 Albert Raboteau has identified it as the first separate black congregation in the nation, although others contend for that distinction. After the British occupied Savannah in 1778 during the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...

, George and his congregation of 30 slaves went to the city for freedom behind their lines. The British had promised freedom to slaves who escaped from rebel masters. Those members who stayed in Savannah after the end of the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...

 evolved into the First African Baptist Church.

George was highly influential in the early black Baptist movement. Resettling with his family and Black Loyalists in Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...

, he founded a congregation there. George also founded a congregation and Baptist church in Freetown
Freetown
Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone, a country in West Africa. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean located in the Western Area of the country, and had a city proper population of 772,873 at the 2004 census. The city is the economic, financial, and cultural center of...

, Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...

, where he and his family migrated in 1792.

History

In the Great Awakening
First Great Awakening
The First Awakening was a Christian revitalization movement that swept Protestant Europe and British America, and especially the American colonies in the 1730s and 1740s, leaving a permanent impact on American religion. It resulted from powerful preaching that gave listeners a sense of personal...

, northern Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...

 and Methodist preachers traveled around the South
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...

, converting both whites and enslaved and free blacks. The Baptists especially offered roles in congregations and churches to blacks, and some men were licensed as preachers and elders.

The founders of Silver Bluff Baptist Church were enslaved African Americans who were converted by the preaching of a white Baptist minister named Wait Palmer, and perhaps a slave preacher named George Leile. There were eight original founders: David George
David George (Baptist)
David George was an African-American Baptist preacher and a Black Loyalist from the American South who escaped to British lines, accepted transport to Nova Scotia and eventually resettled in Freetown, Sierra Leone....

 and his wife, Jesse Peter (aka Jesse Galphin), and five others. Palmer was so impressed by George's preaching that he appointed him elder of the group. They brought in other members and started meeting about 1774-1775 at Galphin's Mill, owned by George's master George Galphin.

When the British in 1778 occupied Savannah across the river, the church was disrupted. A Patriot, George Galphin fled his plantation. David George and the 30 enslaved members of Silver Bluff Baptist Church went to Savannah to seek promised freedom behind the British lines. They joined with preacher George Leile and his group there.

Along with thousands of other blacks, David George and his family evacuated with the British in 1782 after the end of the war. They were transported to freedom in Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...

, where he preached in Shelburne and planted another Baptist congregation. George Leile went to Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...

 with the British, where he founded a Baptist church in Kingston
Kingston, Jamaica
Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal and the Norman Manley International Airport to the rest of the island...

.

In 1792 the George family migrated from Nova Scotia to the colony of Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...

, assisted by British abolitionists. David George was one of the founders of Freetown
Freetown
Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone, a country in West Africa. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean located in the Western Area of the country, and had a city proper population of 772,873 at the 2004 census. The city is the economic, financial, and cultural center of...

 and its first Baptist Church.

Andrew Bryan, converted in 1782, was the only one of the three early black Baptist preachers in Georgia to stay in Savannah. He later purchased his freedom and that of his wife. He continued preaching and converting, and in 1788 organized the First African Baptist Church of Savannah. In 1793 he bought land for a structure, which the congregation built in 1794. The church grew to have more than 400 members before Bryan's death.

After the war in 1783, Jesse Peter Galphin (the name he took after he gained his freedom) led other Baptist congregants from the Silver Bluff congregation to Augusta, Georgia
Augusta, Georgia
Augusta is a consolidated city in the U.S. state of Georgia, located along the Savannah River. As of the 2010 census, the Augusta–Richmond County population was 195,844 not counting the unconsolidated cities of Hephzibah and Blythe.Augusta is the principal city of the Augusta-Richmond County...

. They founded the first African Baptist church of that city. It later was known as Springfield Baptist Church. Because Jesse Peter Galphin was linked to the original Silver Bluff congregation, in 1922 the historian Walter Brooks identified Springfield Baptist Church
Springfield Baptist Church (Augusta, Georgia)
Springfield Baptist Church in Augusta, Georgia was built in 1801 by a Methodist congregation. It is the oldest church building extant in Augusta and one of the oldest in the state...

(as they were then known in Augusta) as the oldest black Baptist church in the nation.

Additional reading

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