ountry 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.

THE FIRST AFRICAN BAPTIST CHURCH OF SAVANNAH, GEORGIA

The story of the Silver Bluff Baptist Church would not be complete
without reference to the Negro Baptist Church at Savannah, Georgia,
which existed before Andrew Bryan became a Christian. Neither E. K.
Love, a recent pastor of the First African Baptist Church, nor James
M. Simms, of the Bryan Church, have intimated, in their respective
histories, that Savannah had a Negro Baptist church before the 20th of
January, 1788. Nevertheless, the fact remains that during the British
occupancy--that is, from the year 1779 to the year 1782--there was at
Savannah, Georgia, an African Baptist church.

If the Negroes of Savannah had been without a Baptist church from 1779
to 1782, it would have been strange indeed. For David George led a
company of fifty or more fugitive slaves from Galphinton, South
Carolina, into that city at the close of the year 1778, and this
company, it is reasonable to infer, included a considerable part, if
not nearly all, of the members of the Silver Bluff Church. Devout
Christians who had enjoyed such privileges as slaves, and that for
years, in South Carolina, would scarcely be satisfied without them in
Georgia, as free men, when they had with them three preachers of the
Gospel, David George, George Liele, and Jesse Peter, men of their own
race and denomination, men from the vicinity of Augusta, who had
figured in the planting and growth of the Silver Bluff Church.

We are glad that we have historical data which establish the fact that
there was a Negro Baptist church in Savannah from 1779 to 1782, and
that the Negro Baptist ministry, which had made itself felt at Silver
Bluff for the centuries to come, was now embraced in the church at
Savannah. But in this church, it will be seen, George Liele, the
eldest of the trio, was the pastor, and not David George. George
Liele, as servant of the British officer, who had given him his
freedom, could secure for the church recognition and influence, at the
hands of the military government then in possession of Savannah, which
neither David George, nor Jesse Peter, could obtain. Liele was with a
man who had influence with the British government. David George and
Jesse Peter, as strangers and fugitives, were unknown to that
government,