Site of First Baptist Church

In the last quarter of the eighteenth century, two black preachers, first Moses and then Gowan Pamphlet, began holding outdoor religious services for free blacks and slaves in the Williamsburg area. Identified as an organized Baptist church by 1781, the earliest in Williamsburg, the congregation's official acceptance by the regional Baptist association was postponed until 1793 because of reluctance to recognize an all black congregation. By 1818, and perhaps earlier, the African Church met here in a wooden building on land given by Jesse Cole. Shortly before the Civil War, that structure was replaced by a brick church that remained in use until 1955. By then known as the First Baptist Church, the congregation moved to new facilities on Scotland Street, where it continues today.

Williamsburg, Virginia · United States