The Oldest Black Church in America

The Oldest Black Church in America. . , "Old Springfield, the grand old mother of all churches, is the only colored church in Georgia that has one hundred years of undisputed existence. More churches have spring from her than from any other church in the State. Mount Zion in South Carolina, Thankful, Ebenezer, Shiloh, Sharon, Cumming Grove, Central, Harmony churches of Augusta and surrounding country are children of Springfield. Her sons and daughters are scattered all over the country, and to Liberia she has given some of their best men and women." , William Jefferson White, March 23, 1890., "The oldest Negro Baptist Church in this country, however, was that of the Silver Bluff Church which...became established in Augusta, having existed from the year 1773 to 1793 before the time of Andrew Bryan's organized efforts in Savannah." , Dr. Carter G. Woodson, 1921., "The oldest Negro Baptist Church in this country today is that at Augusta, Georgia, having existed at Silver Bluff, South Carolina from the period 1774-1775 to the year 1793, before becoming a Georgia institution." , W.H. Brooks, 1922., "Thus Springfield is not only the oldest black Baptist Church in America, it is the oldest black church of any denomination." , Dr. Edward J. Cashin, 1995., Springfield Baptist Church, St. John Building , Credit: Donna Whaley , Date: July 1994