Fodor's Expert Review First African Baptist Church

Enslaved people constructed this church at night by lamplight after having worked the plantations during the day, finishing it in 1859. It is one of the first organized black Baptist churches on the continent, constituted in 1777. The basement floor still shows signs of its time as a stop on the Underground Railroad. Designs drilled in the floor are rumored to actually have been air holes for slaves hiding underneath, waiting to be transported to the Savannah River for their trip to freedom. It was also an important meeting place during the civil rights era.