Liberty Baptist—A church for the freedmen
Liberty Baptist—A church for the freedmen
The neighborhood church
Liberty Baptist Church, established in 1869, is typical of many Charles City County churches founded by freedmen after the Civil War. Like many other churches it was organized under the sponsorship of Elam Baptist Church. Most of the worshippers at these new churches did not own horses, mules or carts. Thus, every three or four miles, the limit of comfortable walking distance, a church was likely to be established. Photo courtesy John Bragg.
Liberty Baptist—A church for the freedmen
The neighborhood church
Services were not held in each church every Sunday. Instead, they often met only once a month for worship and once a month for conference, the church’s business meeting. This was often because churches in a neighborhood might share a pastor who preached a different Sunday at each church. John Woodley, seated outside Mt. Sterling Baptist Church courtesy Charles City County Richard M. Bowman Center for Local History.
Liberty Baptist—A church for the freedmen
The neighborhood church
Services did not follow any set schedule. The length of the service might depend on how long it took a sinner at the mourner’s bench to find his or her way to conversion. Deacons and their wives sat at the front of the church and often participated in the service by offering prayers and passing the collection plate. Doris Ulman, “The Mourner’s Bench,” ca 1924-30.
Liberty Baptist—A church for the freedmen
The neighborhood church
Church budgets were modest, not allowing the purchase of hymnals; in any event most of the members of the congregation were illiterate. Thus, music often was supplied by a song leader who would sing out a line of a hymn for the congregation to repeat. Time was kept by the tapping of feet, and the singing was referred to as “patty foot” singing. Liberty has kept alive this tradition by hosting patty foot singing services. Photo courtesy Judy Ledbetter.
Liberty Baptist—A church for the freedmen
Patty foot singing at Liberty Baptist
Revivals generally were held in September after the crops were in and men had time to spend at church. These meetings were often called “tract” or “attractive meetings,” probably a derivation from the more commonly known “protracted meetings.” By any name, revivals were high points of the year. “Shouters outside Williamsburg, Va.” courtesy Charles City County Richard M. Bowman Center for Local History.
Liberty Baptist—A church for the freedmen
Patty foot singing at Liberty Baptist
A revival might last a week and generally began on a Sunday with three services. The morning service would be followed by “dinner on the ground.” Families brought food from home and ate their meals on plank tables or blankets spread out on the ground. The evening service followed dinner. Members then went home for supper but returned later for a night service to conclude the day’s worship activities. Malvin Gray Johnson, “All Day Meetin’ — Dinner on the Ground” (1934).
Liberty Baptist—A church for the freedmen
Patty foot singing at Liberty Baptist
Baptist churches like Liberty practiced immersion baptism, either at one of the rivers or in a “baptizing” hole in a nearby stream or swamp. On a particular Sunday the congregation would assemble and would march together to the place of baptism, with the candidates for baptism at the head of the line. As they marched, members of the congregation would sing an anthem such as “Going to the Water to be Baptized.” Baptism in Virginia, ca 1910, Cook Collection, courtesy The Valentine, Richmond, Va.
Liberty Baptist—A church for the freedmen
Patty foot singing at Liberty Baptist
Marriages most commonly were conducted at the minister’s home or at the house of a family member. Occasionally they were performed at church, but they were not elaborate ceremonies. Photo courtesy Charles City County Richard M. Bowman Center for Local History.
Liberty Baptist—A church for the freedmen
Patty foot singing at Liberty Baptist
Funerals, on the other hand, were more likely to be major gatherings of the congregation and the community. Only converted Christians were afforded church burials; and their lives were the subject of searching examination. If the decedent’s life did not measure up as a Christian, the minister might describe where his soul was likely to find a resting place, and where those in attendance might find themselves in the afterlife if they did not mend their ways. A Negro Funeral in Virginia, Harper’s Weekly (Feb. 21, 1880), p. 124 in Slavery Images: A Visual Record of the African Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Early African Diaspora, www.slaveryimages.org.
Liberty Baptist—A church for the freedmen
Schools and fraternal orders
Liberty’s first log cabin building did dual service as a school and a house of worship. Liberty Public School was one of two schools for colored children first established in the Chickahominy Township. When a school building was built, classes were no longer held in the church; but the close identification between the neighborhood church and neighborhood school continued until county schools were consolidated. “Primary Class Colored School Newport News School” in Louise Smith Squire, Sketches of Southern Scenes, (New York:1885) courtesy Charles City County Richard M. Bowman Center for Local History.
Liberty Baptist—A church for the freedmen
Schools and fraternal orders
Liberty, like many other churches in the county, was also connected to a fraternal organization. In 1920 an International Order of St. Luke society was established under the name Liberty Honor Lodge Council No. 1292. The St. Luke society was built into a large organization by the prosperous banker Maggie Walker. Organizations like St. Luke grew out of earlier burial societies, which were the earliest African-American insurance organizations. Members of the Liberty Honor Lodge paid monthly dues and drew sick and death benefits. They built a fine two-story hall which was rented out to members of the community both to raise revenue and also to provide a place for social gatherings. Photo courtesy Judy Ledbetter.
Liberty Baptist—A church for the freedmen
Prominent freedmen
Two freedmen who were important post-war leaders in this section of the county are buried in the cemetery at Liberty. Rev. George Washington Marrow, who lies in an unmarked grave, was born a slave on the 10th of December, 1848. The 1870 census described him as 21 years old and able to read and write. At that time only one in eleven black males in Virginia was literate. Photo courtesy Charles City County Richard M. Bowman Center for Local History.
Liberty Baptist—A church for the freedmen
Prominent freedmen
Like most Charles City ministers of the time period, Rev. Marrow did not earn a living as a minister. Indeed, his family Bible contains a notation that he preached 35 years at three cents per year. His livelihood came instead from work as a carpenter, shoe maker, laborer and farmer. When he was ordained as a Baptist minister in 1884, three men of the community posted a $500 bond so that he could receive a license to perform marriages. According to Charles City marriage records, Rev. Marrow performed marriage services for 213 Charles City couples.
Liberty Baptist—A church for the freedmen
Prominent freedmen
William Page, also buried in the Liberty Cemetery, is another freedman who was a pillar of the community. Page was born a slave in about 1827. In this photograph he appears to be Caucasian, and his father probably was a white man. But under the laws of slavery, any child born of a slave was a slave. Photo courtesy Charles City County Richard M. Bowman Center for Local History.
Liberty Baptist—A church for the freedmen
Prominent freedmen
According to oral tradition Page was employed as an overseer or “foreman” by his owner, O.P. Binns, pictured here with his wife. Page was almost forty when the war ended, and he died in 1893 of malaria at the age of 66. In his 26 years of freedom Page succeeded in amassing a personal fortune that is almost incomprehensible. He ran timber crews, sold cord wood and bought land. In 26 years, he purchased more than 2,400 acres of land, either by himself or in combination with others, for which he alone or in combination with his partners paid a total of more than $6,000. Photo courtesy Charles City County Richard M. Bowman Center for Local History.
Liberty Baptist—A church for the freedmen
Prominent freedmen
At his death William Page owned almost 900 acres of land in Charles City, as well as tenements in Richmond. His personal estate (not including real property) was valued at more than $4,000. His daughter, Mary Williams, who was also born a slave, inherited his farm known as Soldiers Rest. Photo courtesy Charles City County Richard M. Bowman Center for Local History.
Liberty Baptist—A church for the freedmen
Prominent freedmen
In any period of history and for a man of any race, Page’s rags to riches story would be remarkable. But as a man who spent the first 40 years of his life in servitude, the story is the stuff of legend. Descendants of the family who owned William Page are known to have said that death was the only thing that stopped William Page from owning all the land in the county. His grave lies in the old section of Liberty cemetery and is surrounded by a chain. Photo courtesy Nancy Phaup.