A new chapter in Baptist life has been unfolding this month as freedmen on St. Helena Island off the coast of South Carolina, under the protection and with the assistance of the United States Army, form an autonomous Baptist congregation and establish a Baptist-related school, the Penn School. The school teaches reading, writing, agricultural and…
From the swelling ranks of freedmen, African Baptist churches are now forming in Union-controlled areas of coastal South Carolina. This month freed slaves form the First African Baptist Church of Bluffton, a community just across the inland waterway from Hilton Head Island. The new congregation is the first Baptist church formed in the community. The…
In the Deep South town of Savannah, Georgia, blacks — enslaved and free — increasingly seek autonomy as the war rages on. Not allowed to gather except for religious purposes, some turn to the Masons, creating the Eureka Lodge. Eureka Lodge has the proud distinction of being the first Black secret organization to be formed…