WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (AP) — The rebuilding of one of the nation’s oldest Black churches, whose congregants first gathered ...

First Baptist Church was founded in 1776 by free and enslaved Black people in Williamsburg, Virginia’s colonial capital. Members secretly gathered under trees at a plantation to engage in song ...

Archaeologists in Colonial Williamsburg uncovered the foundations of First Baptist Church, founded in 1776 by free and enslaved Blacks. Using ground-penetrating radar, they found 62 historic ...

The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation first began archaeological work on the First Baptist Church project in 2020. In the last three years, archaeologists have located the church’s original ...

FILE - From left, Reginald F. Davis, pastor of First Baptist Church, Connie Matthews Harshaw, a member of First Baptist, and Jack Gary, Colonial Williamsburg's director of archaeology, stand at ...

FILE - Reginald F. Davis, from left, pastor of First Baptist Church, Connie Matthews Harshaw, a member of First Baptist, and Jack Gary, Colonial Williamsburg's director of archaeology, stand at ...

First Baptist Church didn't fit that vision, and the building was demolished, paved over for a bus depot. The congregation relocated yet again to nearby Scotland Street in 1956.

FILE - From left, Reginald F. Davis, pastor of First Baptist Church, Connie Matthews Harshaw, a member of First Baptist, and Jack Gary, Colonial Williamsburg's director of archaeology, stand at ...

The church was later admitted into the Dover Baptist Association in 1793, the same year Pamphlet gained his freedom. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation first began archaeological work on the ...

The First Baptist Church was formed in 1776 by free and enslaved Black people in Williamsburg, the colonial capital of Virginia.

If Archaeologists find human remains in the 3 suspected graves that are being targeted, DNA tests and analysis of bones will be conducted.