SILVER BLUFF BAPTIST CHURCH, SILVER BLUFF, SOUTH CAROLINA (1773- )

The first black Baptist congregation in South Carolina was formed in 1773 on the Galphin Plantation near Silver Bluff, 14 miles northwest of Savannah, Georgia.

The church was founded jointly by Rev.

Wait Palmer, a white Connecticut minister, and African American pastor, George Liele.

The first ordained, black minister in Georgia, Liele in turn baptized and trained David George, an enslaved trader owned by George Galphin.

Despite his enslaved status George evangelized among slaves on plantations all along the Savannah River between present-day Augusta and Savannah.

With David George as pastor, Galphin allowed his enslaved population to use an empty barn to worship.

That congregation that met in the barn eventually became the Silver Bluff Baptist Church.