Archaeologists have begun digging in Colonial Williamsburg for the remains of one of the country’s oldest African American congregations

by Michael E Ruane on September 17, 2020

Notes

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — The earth where Deshondra Dandridge was digging with her pick and trowel was packed hard and filled with stones where she knelt, searching for the bones of the old church.

Buried here in the orange clay of a former parking lot on Nassau Street are the remains of a vanished history — the story of a Black congregation that didn’t fit the Williamsburg narrative, whose people once worshiped, and may be buried, on this spot, and whose roots are as old as those of the United States.

 

Dandridge and other archaeologists from Colonial Williamsburg last week began excavating the site of the old First Baptist Church, one of the oldest such churches in the country, which had buildings there in 1856, though perhaps as early as 1818, and was organized in 1776.

The 1856 church — whose bell was used to dedicate the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington four years ago — was torn down in the 1950s. But its foundation and that of two earlier structures, one possibly a privy, have been detected underground.

About the Author

Michael E Ruane