One of America’s First Black Churches is Being Excavated in Virginia

The First Baptist Church was a spiritual home for free and enslaved African Americans.

BY ISAAC SCHULTZ OCTOBER 15 , 2020

The First Baptist Church was torn down in 1957 and replaced by a parking lot. C O U R T E S Y C O L O N I A L W I L L I A MS B U R G

FOR TH E P AST TWO M ON THS in Colonial Williamsburg, the living history

museum in Virginia, Gowan Pamphlet has stood outside an archaeological

excavation, jovially saying hello to passersby. He’s not the original Pamphlet:

That one died in 1809, and was the first ordained African American in the

United States. This Pamphlet—one of two “actor interpreters” who portray the

enslaved Black man who helped found Williamsburg’s First Baptist Church—

has reason to be happy. Behind him, archaeologists are slowly revealing the

foundation of a historic church. Near this site, nearly 250 years ago, Pamphlet

led a mixed congregation of free and enslaved African Americans who once

worshipped in secrecy, with no permanent home.

“As people walk by, not only do they get to see the archaeology, they get to hear

firsthand from Gowan Pamphlet about the history of the church,” says Jack

Gary, director of archaeology for Colonial Williamsburg. “It’s a really nice

marriage between our research and our interpretation to our guests.”

The ongoing excavation, which is slated to complete its first phase by early

November, is one of two current digs in Colonial Williamsburg. (The other, on

the nearby four-acre plot of Custis Square, has been going on for five years.) So

far, the foundations of the 1856 church have been revealed, as well as an older

brick foundation which may be part of the original 1818 meeting house. A

posthole (which is exactly what it sounds like) was also found, along with a

number of nails and glass, ceramic, and brick pieces.

Archaeology is part of everyday life in Colonial Williamsburg, and it has the

power to change the story that the town tells about itself. As the past is

performed aboveground, more of the reality of that past—as it was actually

lived—is coming out of the ground. The First Baptist Church’s excavation is a

unique reminder of how recent and palpable that history is: People who once

worshipped there are still alive.

“These descendants are getting to the age where they’re not going to be here

much longer. And every day, I think about the fact that we owe it to them,” says

Connie Matthews Harshaw, president of the Let Freedom Ring Foundation,

which preserves the history and cultural heritage of the First Baptist Church.

“Their grandchildren and their children who probably moved away, are going to

be able to come back and say, ‘You know what, this matters.’”

Archaeologists work through finds on the site of the original permanent home of the First Baptist Church in Williamsburg. C O U R T E S Y C O L O N I A L W I L L I A MS B U R G

The first meeting house on the site was completed more than two centuries ago,

and the first church was erected at the intersection of Duke of Gloucester and

Nassau Streets in 1856. But a century later, it was torn down. (Black

worshippers weren’t even allowed to be present where white residents voted on

its destruction, according to Harshaw.) The First Baptist Church was moved to

Scotland Street, and where the congregation once gathered, they put up a

parking lot.

“You had one segment of the African-American community that were educated

land owners, free blacks. And then you have the others that are enslaved.

However, because of the melanin—the color of their skin—they were all

recognized as one,” says Harshaw. “They had a common bond, and that was

their belief in the God that they believed one day would free everybody.”

This isn’t the first time the old church has been sought out. In 1957, before the

site was paved, a small crew of Black laborers, all but one of whom are

unidentified to this day, dug into the site and found some of the brick perimeters

of the historical structures. Though the work was catalogued, the work wasn’t

seen as compelling enough to stand in the way of a car park. The efforts were

lost to time until now, when documents from the dig 60 years ago helped Gary’s

team figure out the locations of the buildings on the site. “That story wasn’t one

that was as of much interest as it is to us today,” Gary says. “As 2020 has

progressed … it’s more important now for us to turn to these types of sites.”

The church excavations are the culmination of discussions that began in early

2020 between Colonial Williamsburg and the current First Baptist Church

community. A candlelight vigil on the site, which kicked off the digs, was

attended by at least two individuals who were baptized in the old church before

its destruction.

After the coronavirus pandemic escalated in March, new protocols were put in

place on the dig—archaeologists now wear masks and maintain a minimum six-

foot distance from pit to pit. The two Gowan Pamphlets, along with the rest of

the actor interpreters at Colonial Williamsburg, have era-appropriate cloth

masks made by the site’s costume-design center.

Despite the social distancing measures, Gary says, the excavation is a testament

to how archaeology can be done in a way that brings communities together. The

most important thing, he says, is doing archaeology that’s in keeping with the

wishes of the church’s contemporary congregation. “It’s using the

archaeological resource to be able to help to spark conversations and to

collaborate with the community,” he says, “and to really be a servant to the

community, to help you help understand their history and to convey that history

appropriately.”

Gowan Pamphlet, who helped found the First Baptist Church in the 19th century, is played in Colonial Williamsburg by the actor interpreters Joseph Feaster (pictured) and James Ingram. C O U R T E S Y C O L O N I A L W I L L I A MS B U R G

The site had been excavated once before, in 1957, but after some brick foundations were found, the site was filled in and paved over. C O U R T E S Y C O L O N I A L W I L L I A M S B U R G