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Located on the Virginia Civil Rights in Education Heritage Trail (which can be located at www. varetreat.com/civilRights.asp), Farmville Baptist Church is an important part of Civil Rights history in Virginia.
* Inside the cache you will find a small token; please do not take it as it is a representation of Longwood University, and the students who placed it.
Farmville Baptist Church, located in the heart of downtown Farmville, is a historically significant site because of its rich history. Located on the Virginia Civil Rights in Education Heritage Trail (which can be located at www. varetreat.com/civilRights.asp), Farmville Baptist Church is an important part of Civil Rights history in Virginia. The involvement of free blacks in the creation of the church helped to distinguish them as equals among their white counterparts.
The original structure of Farmville Baptist Church was not built until 1836; however, the congregation formed several years prior. The records of Farmville Baptist Church list free blacks Phil and Sam White as being among the first members of the church. This emphasizes that both blacks and whites together formed the congregation (even though this did not remain true when it split in 1856). The congregation that the Whites helped form met in private houses before it erected a church building. All congregations in Prince Edward were majority white, but the Baptist faith attracted hundreds of blacks. Professor John O’Brien states that at a nearby church, First Baptist Church of Richmond, 1,000 members out of 1,300 were black (522). Some slaves, like free blacks, were allowed to choose their place of worship, and many of those owned by a Presbyterian master in Cumberland County, Virginia chose to worship at Sharon Baptist Church. Some congregants from this church founded Farmville Baptist Church on the corner of 4th and Main Street in 1836.
Even though the whites were in control of these congregations and blacks were seated separately during worship, some churches, such as First Baptist of Richmond, did allow black deacons; O’Brien states that “Baptist churches had regularly licensed black preachers and exhorters prior to the [Virginia] legislative ban on black preaching [in 1831]” (522). The Baptists were treated equally in terms of their spiritual journey and moral standards. In the book Israel on the Appomattox, Melvin Ely points out that “the church was the one institution in Southern life that applied essentially the same rules to whites and blacks alike” (320). It was not unusual for both blacks and whites to be baptized in their thirties, or even later in their adulthood, due to the commitment and self-professed faith required. Blacks and whites were both received in the church under the same circumstances and allowed to share their personal testimonies with the congregation. The Baptist congregation also treated blacks and whites equally in terms of sin. They were punished the same way and for the same offenses; some of the most common included drunkenness, nonattendance at church, and “immoral conduct.” The church held trials and pressured the guilty to repent publicly. For the first time, blacks saw the faults and weaknesses of whites exposed on the same level and in the same manner as themselves. O’Brien states that in the view of the Baptist Church “slaves were not mere property. They were, instead, persons whose souls God prized, and who, therefore, ought to be sober, properly married, taught Christian truths, and treated humanely by their Christian masters” (523).
According to Charles Burrell in his book on the history of Prince Edward County, the Farmville Baptist Church officially split and became two separate congregations in 1856 (221). The white portion of the congregation moved further down Main Street and kept the name “Farmville Baptist Church.” The remaining black congregation took the name “First Baptist Church” and stayed at the church on the corner of Fourth and Main. John O’Brien describes a similar occurrence in Richmond when “the white congregation of First Baptist Church decided to build a new church for themselves and sell the old one to the blacks” (524). During the Civil War, the now black First Baptist congregation offered its facility as a hospital for Union soldiers.
White and blacks not only were seen on a more equal footing through their shared religion, but also began to interact and support one another. Noah Davis, a black slave from Virginia, wrote in his autobiography about being converted during his youth and how he felt called by God to become a minister. Not having enough money to purchase his freedom, Davis was not able to fulfill his calling. The Baptist church he was then a part of, which included both whites and blacks at the time, joined together and helped to raise the money in order to purchase his freedom (31). Ely points out in Israel on the Appomattox that “the feeling of trust that developed among black and white Baptist men of affairs radiated outward” (322). One instance of this is the relationship between white Farmville Baptist charter member, C.E. Chappell and black charter members Sam and Phil White. Chappell took the task of drawing up bonds for the debts owed to the Whites.
Although Farmville Baptist Church brought black and white believers together, it also had the capability to divide nonbelievers within racial boundaries due to the stricter moral standards that the Baptist faith required of its members. In the book Israel on the Appomattox, Ely states that “The churches of Prince Edward County rigorously promoted moral standards that could united what and black and alienate a person from others of his or her own race” (318). Ely is trying to demonstrate that the Baptists as a congregation came together and formed their own relationships regardless of race. Even though the church did result in a divide among the races, the foundations of its creation proved that blacks were able to work alongside of whites and form relationships that increased their status and respectability within their community.
Even though the church sometimes resulted in a divide among the races, the foundations of its creation proved that blacks were able to work alongside whites and form relationships that increased their status and respectability within their community. Melvin Ely’s main point in Israel on the Appomattox was how blacks were treated equal to whites within the Baptist community and were held to the same expectations. They were also able to see the flaws of their white counterparts and this would lead to their realization that every man is created equal and deserves the same civil rights.
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