129 Congaree Church Road
Congaree Baptist Church
Episcopal and Baptist churches were the earliest and most common religious denominations in Richland County and all across the South. African Americans gravitated most toward the Baptist religion, especially after the Civil War when they were free to choose their own faith practice. Only a handful of rural churches existed in the early nineteenth century, primarily because of population density, therefore, churches served as important cultural and social centers for the surrounding towns. Congaree Baptist Church is a connection to this antebellum era and was the first organized Baptist church in Lower Richland as it was established in 1765.
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Congaree Baptist Church, February 1993. Image courtesy South Carolina Department of Archives and History, State Historic Preservation Office
