Ebenezer Baptist Church

Ebenezer Baptist Church. Pillar of the African American Community. Following the end of the Civil War in 1865, Willis Madden, a free black man of color, built the African Ebenezer Church. The building had a half acre around it, and it was to be "Devoted to the preaching of the Gospel, as long as the colored people will maintain said building to said purpose, in the event of discontinuance, the same to return to my Estate.", Church records indicate the building was 24 x 30 feet, and doubled as a school for 15 years before it burned in 1884. The founders of the first church included: Willis Madden, Maria Madden, Jack Davis, Robert Web, Elizabeth Taylor, Thomas Fields, and Henry Gillis. People rode on horseback from the surrounding region including Fauquier and Orange counties to attend one of the first post-Civil War black churches in Culpeper County>, After the first church burned, Thomas Obed Madden Sr., grandson of Willis Madden, helped plan the construction of the second church in 1886. It stood just a few yards from where the first church and the modern church is located., Ebenezer Baptist Church has long been a pillar of the African American community. In the early years, it was a common practice for rural churches to hold services once a month with one community, and then travel to neighboring communities to support fellow churches. Similarly, pastors of rural churches traveled throughout the county pastoring multiple churches each Sunday of the month. Reverend Willis Madden was instrumental in growing the early relthe igious community in Culpeper County as he pastored Ebenezer in Lignum, Free Union in Batna, and Antioch Baptist in Culpeper, all among the first African American churches established in the county., (sidebar) , Laws Regulating African American Gatherings Prior to the Civil War , Virginia General Assembly, March 1832: , "Be it enacted by the general assembly, That no slave, free negro, or mulatto, whether he shall have been ordained or licensed or otherwise, shall hereafter undertake to preach, exhort or conduct, or hold any assembly or meeting for religious or other purposes, either in day time, or at night; and any slave, free negro or mulatto, so offending, shall for every such offence, be punished with striped, at the discretion of any justice of the peace, not exceeding thirty-nine lashes; and any person desiring so to do, shall have authority, without any previous written precept or otherwise, to apprhend any such offender, and cary him before such justeic.", (captions) , Ebenezer Baptist Church The Virginia Star, ca. 1952 , Reverend Douglas T. Greene Courtesy Ebenezer Baptist Church , Ebenezer Baptist Church Choir The Virginia Star, ca. 1952