This year, in the wake of the Emancipation Proclamation, the founding of African Baptist churches proliferates. Unfortunately, the details of the formation of many of these congregations are nebulous. According to one early source, the Fourth Baptist Church, African (later Metropolitan Baptist Church) is formed this month in the District of Columbia “by a few holding…
Anticipation grows ever greater among free blacks of the North and Union-controlled South, as well as among many enslaved blacks in the Confederacy. The Emancipation Proclamation is only two days away. Salvation from physical bondage is near, if only on paper for enslaved blacks within the Confederacy. Salvation of another kind is also on the…
Baptist African American residents of Washington, D.C.’s Georgetown neighborhood have been holding religious services in private homes for about five years. Today, finally, the meetings lead to the foundation of the First Baptist Church of Georgetown, thanks to the leadership of the Rev. Sandy Alexander, a former slave. Originally from Virginia, Alexander’s master brought him…