The First African Baptist Church of Beaufort was built in 1865 by freed slaves after the American Civil War. A local white Baptist congregation built an earlier church on the property that was used as a praise house for slaves. After the war, the property was purchased an this church was built. Among the church’s earliest members was Robert Smalls, an African-American hero of the Civil War and a US congressman during Reconstruction.

Location: Beaufort, South Carolina