Cultural movement · 1773–2025
The Black Church
The oldest and most powerful independent Black institution in America began in the slavery era — and became the seedbed of education, mutual aid, and civil rights.
Denied equal worship in white congregations, Black Americans built their own. The Silver Bluff Baptist Church in South Carolina (c. 1773) is often called the first Black church in America; the First African Baptist Church of Savannah followed soon after, led by preachers like George Liele and Andrew Bryan. In the North, the Free African Society grew into Richard Allen's African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church.
From the start the Black church was more than a place of worship: it was a school when literacy was banned, a bank and insurer through mutual aid, a meeting hall, and a training ground for leadership. Its line runs unbroken to the Civil Rights Movement and beyond.
On the timeline
- c. 1758· debatedOne of the first Black congregations
Enslaved and free Black Baptists worship at the Bluestone (African) Baptist Church in Virginia — among the earliest Black congregations.
- c. 1773· debatedSilver Bluff Baptist — the first Black church
Enslaved and free Black Baptists found Silver Bluff Baptist Church in South Carolina, often called the first Black church in America.
- 1777First African Baptist Church, Savannah
George Liele and Andrew Bryan help establish one of the oldest continuous Black congregations in the nation.
- April 12, 1787The Free African Society
Richard Allen and Absalom Jones found a Philadelphia mutual-aid society that seeds the independent Black church movement.
- 1819Jarena Lee, first authorized AME woman preacher
Richard Allen authorizes Jarena Lee to preach — making her the first woman sanctioned to preach in the AME Church.
Resources
The web
Connections to other moments, systems, and investigations — the links rarely drawn together.
- part of (incoming)·EventThe Free African Society
The Free African Society grew directly into the independent Black church movement.