Williamsburg Find Will Help 'Erase Historical Amnesia'

Archaeologists uncover foundation of one of country's oldest Black churches
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 7, 2021 12:42 PM CDT
Foundation of One of America's Oldest Black Churches Found
Pastor Reginald F. Davis, Connie Matthews Harshaw, a member of First Baptist, and Jack Gary, Colonial Williamsburg's director of archaeology, stand at the brick-and-mortar foundation of one the oldest Black churches in the US on Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2021, in Williamsburg, Va.   (AP Photo/Ben Finley)

The foundation of one of America's oldest Black churches has been found at a Colonial Williamsburg site that had been under a parking lot since 1956. Archaeologists believe the brick foundation is the remains of the first permanent home of the First Baptist Church. It was first organized in 1776 by Black residents of the former Virginia capital, both free and enslaved, who defied laws against Black people congregating, the Virginia Gazette reports. It's not clear exactly when the church's first building went up, though it is mentioned in tax records from 1818, reports the AP. It was destroyed by a tornado in 1834, and a replacement that went up in 1856 was removed to make space for the parking lot a century later.

Jack Gary, Colonial Williamsburg's director of archaeology, says an excavation that began last year has also detected around 25 graves. The age of the foundation was confirmed by artifacts including a coin from 1817. The project, which aims to eventually reconstruct the historic church, is part of a wider effort to tell the long overlooked stories of Williamsburg's Black residents, reports the AP. The find "helps to erase the historical and social amnesia that has afflicted this country for so many years," says First Baptist Pastor Reginald F. Davis.

"The early history of our congregation, beginning with enslaved and free Blacks gathering outdoors in secret in 1776, has always been a part of who we are as a community,” says Davis, per WY Daily. "To see it unearthed—to see the actual bricks of that original foundation and the outline of the place our ancestors worshipped—brings that history to life and makes that piece of our identity tangible." The find was confirmed just days before the church, which now has a building elsewhere in Williamsburg, is set to celebrate its 245th anniversary. (More Williamsburg stories.)

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