.JPG)
Read aloud by your device's voice. It sounds different on each device.
1773
The church claims descent from the first Black Baptist congregation
First African Baptist Church claims to be derived from the first Black Baptist congregation in North America. It grew from members who founded a congregation in 1773 and was not officially organized until 1788. The claim of first is contested by the Silver Bluff Baptist Church in Aiken County, South Carolina, and by the First Baptist Church of Petersburg, Virginia.
George Leile
George Leile, licensed to preach in 1773, sailed for Jamaica in 1782
George Leile, a slave who in 1773 became the first African American licensed by the Baptists to preach in Georgia, had been freed by his master, a Baptist deacon, before the Revolutionary War. In 1778 he went to British-occupied Savannah, where the British offered freedom to slaves who escaped their rebel masters. In 1782 Leile and his family sailed with the British to Jamaica.
Andrew Bryan
Andrew Bryan stayed and led the church to recognition in 1788
Bryan, who had bought his and his wife's freedom, was the only one of the three early Black Baptist preachers to stay in Savannah. He kept preaching despite persecution from local Episcopal authorities. On January 20, 1788, he led the church to official recognition with 67 members, at their regular meeting place, Brampton's barn, about three miles west of Savannah.
A split
By 1830 the congregation had 2,417 members, and in 1832 it split
Bryan lived to see the church grow to over 400 members, and in 1800 it had 700. On July 26, 1826, it organized the first Sunday School for African Americans. By 1830 under Andrew C. Marshall it had 2,417 members. A serious split over doctrine in 1832 took years to resolve. Marshall and more than 2,600 members left to found a congregation that kept the name First African Baptist.
The floor
Free and enslaved builders made the bricks for the 1859 sanctuary
The sanctuary was built in the 1850s and completed in 1859 by both free African Americans and slaves. The builders made the bricks and built the church after the slaves had labored in the fields. It was the first brick building owned by African Americans in Georgia. During the Civil War the church housed runaway slaves in a 4-foot space beneath the sanctuary floor. The holes in the floor were air holes.
In this plan
It is one of the stops on this plan.
More stories from this trip idea
The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article First African Baptist Church (Savannah, Georgia), and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.