Originally named First Colored Baptist Church and located in Savannah, Georgia, First African Baptist Church traces its roots to December 1777 and is officially designated the oldest African American church in the United States.  The roots of the black Baptist tradition can be traced to three men: George Leile, David George, and Andrew Bryan.  Ordained May 20, 1775, George Leile is recognized as the first ordained black Baptist pastor in Georgia. He converted to Christianity in 1773.

It is believed that the first black Baptist congregation was formed in 1773 in Silver Bluff, South Carolina on the Galphin Plantation, 14 miles northwest of Savannah, Georgia, through the efforts of Rev. Wait Palmer (white founder of the First Baptist Church of Stonington, Connecticut) and George Leile.  Galphin allowed his enslaved population to worship under the leadership of his slave, David George, in an empty barn on the plantation.  David George was baptized and trained under the tutelage of Leile, who was evangelizing up and down the Savannah River between present-day Augusta and Savannah, Georgia.  Under George's leadership, the congregation’s number gradually increased to more than 30. In 1778, when their Patriot master abandoned the plantation under British advance, the whole Silver Bluff group fled to British lines in Savannah.

In 1802, the First Colored Baptist Church spawned two other congregations: Second Colored Church and the Ogeechee Baptist Church.  In 1822, the First Colored Baptist Church and the Second Colored Baptist Church recombined and changed its name to First African Baptist Church, which it retains to this day.  The first black Sunday school in North America was established in 1826 at this church.

Sources:
Africans in America, PBS Online, July 22, 2006; Walter H. Brooks, D.D., A History of Negro Baptist Churches in America (Washington, D.C.: Press of R. L. Pendelton, 1910) © 2004 University Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Online July 22, 2005, http://docsouth.unc.edu/church/brooks/brooks.html .  New York Public Library Digital Library Collections Records, First African Baptist Church Records, 1873-1977, http://digilib.nypl.org/dynaweb/ead/scm/scmgfabc/@Generic__BookTextView/136;pt=114

Contributor(s):
Lowe, Turkiya
University of Washington

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