Gullah Geechee & Black History: 1773 First African Baptist Church & Pin Point Heritage Museum

From its earliest decades through the Civil War and Civil Rights Movement, African Americans and the Gullah Geechee people (descendants of West and Central Africans enslaved on the isolated rice, indigo and Sea Island cotton plantations of the Georgia and South Carolina coast, who preserved a creole language, sweetgrass basketry and maritime culture) shaped the architecture, music and cuisine of Savannah. Do not miss these three historic sites.

1. First African Baptist Church (23 Montgomery St on Franklin Square)

Constituted in 1773 under Rev. George Leile and Rev. Andrew Bryan, First African Baptist Church is the oldest continuously operating Black congregation in North America. Its 1859 sanctuary on Franklin Square was constructed by enslaved and free African American brickmakers and carpenters after their 12-hour days of plantation labour, using handmade Savannah Grey bricks:

• What You See Inside on the Guided Tour: look up at the original 1832 solid-oak balcony pews carved by enslaved Africans (bearing signatures in West African Arabic script) and the 9-patch quilt ceiling motif associated with the Underground Railroad, and look down at the wooden floorboards in the lower auditorium, pierced by ventilation holes arranged in a traditional Congolese Cosmogram (Yowa diamond cross) that provided air to freedom-seekers hidden in a sub-floor tunnel underneath. Across town on Greene Square stands 1802 Second African Baptist Church, where General Sherman read Special Field Orders No. 15 in January 1865 and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered an early version of his 'I Have a Dream' sermon in 1961.

2. The Pin Point Heritage Museum (9924 Pin Point Ave, Near Wormsloe)

When visiting Wormsloe Historic Site, drive five minutes south to the banks of the Moon River at Pin Point, a Gullah Geechee enclave founded in 1896 by formerly enslaved families from Ossabaw and Green Islands (and birthplace of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas). Until 1985, the community worked inside the A.S. Varn & Son Oyster and Crab Factory. Today, its white wooden docks house the Pin Point Heritage Museum (check the Coastal Heritage Society website for seasonal hours), sharing Gullah Geechee language, spirituals and crab-picking history. Downtown, also visit the 1867 Beach Institute, the first school built in Savannah for newly freed African Americans.