The First African Baptist Church on Sapelo Island is a remarkable treasure of Georgia’s coastal history. Founded in 1866 by freed slaves in the Hanging Bull settlement, the congregation began as a symbol of resilience and independence in the post-Civil War era. The original church was destroyed in the hurricane of 1898, but the congregation rebuilt two years later at its present site in Raccoon Bluff.
By the late 20th century, the sanctuary had been abandoned for decades and had fallen into ruin. Beginning in 2000, a partnership between the Sapelo Island Cultural and Revitalization Society, the State of Georgia, and students from the Savannah College of Art & Design undertook a painstaking restoration. Thanks to their efforts, the church—listed today on the National Register of Historic Places—stands as both a sacred space and a cornerstone of the Geechee-Gullah culture that endures along the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina.
Sapelo’s layered history stretches back centuries. Spanish missionaries first arrived in the 17th century, establishing outposts like San José de Zápala, from which the island’s name is derived. Before that, the island was home to the Guale people. In 1736, Highland Scots from Inverness, brought by General James Oglethorpe, founded nearby Darien to guard Georgia’s southern frontier. Later, the McIntosh family, of Scottish Highland descent, became central figures in Georgia’s history, including Revolutionary War hero General Lachlan McIntosh.
Slavery arrived on Sapelo in 1762, when Patrick Mackay purchased the island and brought enslaved Africans to work cotton and cattle operations. Ownership changed hands several times until Thomas Spalding, an innovative planter, consolidated power in the early 1800s. Spalding became one of Georgia’s most influential slaveholders, relying on enslaved labor to cultivate Sea Island cotton, rice, and sugar. On the eve of the Civil War, the Spalding estate counted 252 enslaved people living in 50 houses.
After emancipation, freedmen established self-sustaining communities across Sapelo. At Hog Hammock and Raccoon Bluff, they built churches, farmed, and maintained African traditions that shaped the unique Geechee-Gullah culture. Hog Hammock remains an active community today, the last African American settlement on Georgia’s fourth-largest barrier island. Of Sapelo’s 16,500 acres, all but 434 are state-owned and managed, but the church at Raccoon Bluff continues to testify to the faith and endurance of Sapelo’s freedmen and their descendants. The First African Baptist Church is more than an architectural landmark—it is a living emblem of freedom, resilience, and cultural survival.