The Silver Bluff Church

Brooks's history claims that the Silver Bluff Church of Aiken, South Carolina, was the first African American Baptist Church in America, established in 1774 or 1775 by the Rev. Wait Palmer of Stonington, Ct. With the advent of the Revolutionary War, the owner of the land on which the church stood abandoned the plantation, and the Rev. George Brooks and 50 slaves fled to the protection of the British in Savannah. Brooks details the subsequent career of George Brooks in Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone, then tells of the end of the Silver Bluff Church. It flourished until 1793, when much of the congregation was absorbed into the First African Baptist Church of Savannah, Georgia, whose power and influence grew over time, eventually leading to the disintegration of the Silver Bluff Church.