Today the First Baptist Church Capitol Hill in Nashville, Tennessee, gains independence. In 1824 the First Baptist Church of Nashville was established, and ten years afterward the white-led congregation was half white and half black. As in other Southern, white-led, biracial congregations prior to the war, slave members were constantly reminded from the pulpit that…
With Wilmington under Union control, Federal forces are advancing inland in North Carolina. Today in the Battle of Wyse Fork, Union forces attack Confederate General Braxton Bragg’s forces near Kinston. Control of roads and a railroad is at stake. For four days the battle rages. For much of the time the Confederates appear to have…
In the midst of secession fever in January 1861, the (white) First Baptist Church of Nashville, Tennessee established a “Second Colored Baptist Mission” in Edgefield, east of Nashville’s downtown, on Fatherland Street. The mission church was supervised by a white committee and pastored by George Dardis, a free black preacher. Nelson G. Merry, free black…