The First Colored Baptist Church in North America
The First Colored Baptist Church in North America, frontispiece
from book by the same title by Reverend James M. Simms, Philadelphia,
1888.
Courtesy of Schomburg Center, Manuscripts, Archives and
Rare Books Division.
Many Africans transformed or adapted their traditional religions to their American settings. Frequently they integrated their religious forms into European institutional forms. The First Colored Baptist Church in North America was established in Savannah, Georgia, on January 20, 1788.