Born on the Galphin Plantation near Beech Island, S.C., Jesse Peters Galphin was freed by his slave-master father, became an ordained minister, and co-founded Silver Bluff Baptist Church in 1773. When he moved to Augusta in 1783, he dropped the Galphin name. For 27 years, he held Springfield together while working well with all facets of the community, helping the church leave its distinguished legacy. Generally regarded as the oldest black church in America, Springfield was where the Georgia Republican Party began, where the first Sunday School for blacks began in 1859, and where Morehouse College was founded in 1867.