BARK CAMP BAPTIST CHURCH
Bark Camp Baptist Church was founded on April 12, 1788, only five years after the end of the Revolutionary War. Twenty-nine members were on the original roll, among them the first pastor (Miles Scarboro).* The other twenty-eight were as follows: Silas Scarboro, Zebulon Cocks, John Allen, Jonathan Coleman, William Parker, William Wood, Francis Spivey, Jonathan Coleman, Stephen Powel, Henry Summerlin, Jonathan Holley, George Hendry, John Holly, McCain Belcher, Lydia Wood, Sarah Cocks, Christian Fitzgerald, Sarah Summerlin, Patience Hutchins, Rachel Scarboro, Sarah Parker, Esther Wood, Susannah Stephens, Mary Holley, Chloe Snell, Sythe Barker, Martha Hinson, and Sarah Belcher.
According to Albert Hillhouse’s history of Burke County, the Bark Camp community was an early settlement that developed around “an original camp site for itinerant cattlemen. . . . A ‘bark camp’ was a crude, bark-covered lean-to which Indians taught early settlers to make.” A nearby creek carried the same name. Available land and fertile soil attracted settlers to the area and eventually led to the creation of a number of prosperous plantations in the area. Bark Camp Baptist Church became a plantation district church as a result. This church and the district in which it lies are central to the family histories of many people not only in Burke County but in Jenkins and Emanuel Counties, as well. In addition, this church and its members helped found a number of other churches in the area—Rosier, Summertown, Hines Chapel, Hale’s Well, and Midville, for example. The irony is that although the mother church is no longer active, many of its daughter churches remain so.
So who were the people who came to the Bark Camp community and from where did they come? Let’s look at the background. Georgia as an established colony dates from Oglethorpe’s landing on Yammacraw Bluff on the Savannah River in 1733. Of course, what became Georgia had seen Spanish, French, and even English explorers and settlers prior to that date. Well before Oglethorpe came to Georgia, English traders from the Carolinas had crossed the Savannah River as they traded with the Creeks and Cherokees who dominated the interior. Ultimately, when Augusta was founded in 1735, it benefited from this trade as it became the center of the English-Indian backcountry trade, primarily in deer hides and furs.
Although early Georgia was most heavily settled along the Atlantic coast to Savannah and then up the Savannah River to Augusta, even before the Revolution people were moving into the backcountry west of the Savannah River north of the Ogeechee River and into the Broad River valley.
What became Burke County was originally part of what was referred to as the Halifax District of Georgia. In 1758, Georgia was divided into parishes, and what became Burke County was then called St. George Parish. Although the initial settlers who had come to Georgia with Oglethorpe were from Europe, most of the immigrants to the Georgia backcountry were from other colonies. They came with high hopes. Some had failed elsewhere and wanted to start over. Others were running from the law. All were trying to better themselves by moving to new land. Georgia had ended the ban on slavery in 1749, and that made St. George Parish very attractive to people who wanted to bring their slaves with them. The largest percentage of the people moving into the backcountry were migrants from Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina—rather than native Georgians. Families crossing the Savannah River and moving into the backcountry were part of what was a slow, multi-generational move from those states. Many descendents of those families can, therefore, trace their American ancestry back to Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina origins. The eastern boundary of Georgia, the Savannah River, was very permeable. One did not have to cross mountains through difficult passes and hostile Indian tribes to get here. A simple ferry crossing was all it took. Whatever their reasons for coming to Georgia, these migrants were of an independent mold and did not take easily to outside authority, either from the colonial capital in Savannah or from the authorities in London. The area that became known as Bark Camp early on attracted settlers. In 1764, a group of sixteen families and their slaves moved to Bark Camp from South Carolina. The group was headed by Drury Dunn and had received a grant of 8,550 acres. They numbered seventy-one whites and one hundred and twenty-five blacks. Francis Jones, the first of the Birdsville family in Georgia may have been a member of this group. Most, however, did not come in large groups but instead arrived as individuals and in families. Some of the early, pre-Revolutionary family names in St. George Parish were Walker, Duhart, Byne, Carter, Davis, Green, Gresham, Jones, Reynolds, Scales, Emanuel (Pennsylvania), Whitehead, Twiggs (Maryland), Lord, Irwin, Lively, Gray, Lambert, Brown, Clements, and Carswell. In addition, there were some who came directly from Europe. As many as 700 Scotch-Irish settlers were attracted to the plan of the backcountry township, Queensborough. Although the settlement failed prior to the Revolution because of Indian troubles, many of these immigrants remained in the area. Another example of an early settler to the area is found in the story of William Lee, a British immigrant to America. Before he came to Georgia in 1780, had traveled widely throughout the colonies and had worked as a school teacher, farmer, merchant, seaman trader, and even buffalo hunter. Let me read from his autobiography about his sojourn here:
[Leaving Pensacola], I bought six horses, three to carry my family, the other three to carry our provisions and bedding. I agreed with an Indian trader, wo was going to an Indian to be our pilot or guide as we had an Indian nation to go through. We arrived in Georgia about the middle of October, 1780, where I found the country peaceable, according to my expectations. I purchased a plantation or farm, upon Bark Camp Creek, nigh to Buckhead, about 100 miles from Savannah. Georgia is a fine country, and healthy in the back parts: it produceth extraordinary good crops of all sorts of corn, the same as in England . . . the country is in general very fertile, growing great quantities of all kinds of fruits; there are very great stocks [of livestock], so that some farmers have a thousand a piece, some more, others less: and they have nothing to provide for them, as they live in the woods both winter and summer. The winter is very mild here, as snow seldom or ever lies on the ground twenty-four hours.
The people here are American born of English descent; and have been in a very thriving way before the war. But are very much reduced since, by having their slaves and horses stolen, their houses plundered, and many of the men killed. Yet they were in peace for the present, although it did not continue long: for, upon Lord Cornwallis’ army leaving the south provinces and going to the northward, it gave the rebels an opportunity of returning amongst us again. The loyal inhabitants were now called together to oppose them, but the rebels were victorious, and soon conquered the country: they also committed great depredations upon the loyalists, by plundering their houses, and very frequently killing them. [Lee, a loyalist, ultimately had to flee the Bark Camp area. He returned to St. George Parrish in 1782, and settled in what became Richmond County.]
How did these people acquire land? In this golden age of land acquisition there were several ways: Headright system—100 acres for the head of a family, 50 acres for each additional family member, 50 acres for each slave; special Crown grant; entrance as a squatter on Indian lands (Once the land was ceded one could claim squatter’s rights.); direct acquisition from Indian tribes—George Galphin and the German settlers of New Goettingen, for example; squatting on unclaimed Crown land; purchase of land from original grantee; and purchase of Crown land at auction
How did the early settlers make a living? They engaged in several livelihoods, one of which was timber. The region was covered with expanses of pine trees as well as hardwoods. One needed to be near a large river—Ogeechee, Savannah—for floating the logs to market. Thjis bisiness was a natural byproduct of land clearing. Another way of making a living was raising livestock. In this case, cattle, hogs, and some sheep were raised. Typically they were allowed to graze on an open-range basis. Branding and ear marking were used to differentiate owners. Private and commercial cowpens dotted the region and were used for milking, marking and branding, calves, selling, and collecting. Farming in the region originally involved growing corn, sweet potatoes, wheat, and some cotton. In fact, Eli Whitney established one of his early commercial ginning operations in Burke County. Cotton production, though, was not to become a major enterprise in the Bark Camp Area until after the Revolution.
At the start of the Revolutionary War in 1775, about 38,000 lived in Georgia; between 5,000 and 7,000 lived in St. George Parrish. The war in St. George Parish was particularly brutal as both British and American regular troops as well as Rebel and Tory militias crossed and re-crossed the area. The account of William Lee that I just read reflects that reality. The war in the back country also took on the characteristic of a civil war in which attempts were sometimes made to settle old scores under the pretense of military operations.
Now, let’s look at the church. As I mentioned earlier, Bark Camp Baptist Church was founded just five years after the end of the American Revolution. The first church building was a rude structure of unhewn logs. Some believe that it was the bark on the logs of this building that gave the church its name, but the district had already been called Bark Camp for some time. As the membership grew in number and prosperity, larger and better buildings replaced the original. The next sanctuary was constructed of hewn logs. This was followed by a frame building that cost $500. Finally, in 1848, the current building was constructed at a cost of $2000. Following the then popular Greek Revival style, it was unusually large, and some claimed that it could seat 500 people.
By 1811, the Hephzibah Baptist Association, to which Bark Camp belonged, listed the church as having 111 members. During the eighteen teens, twenties, and thirties, Bark Camp’s membership fluctuated as people moved in and out of the area, as new churches were organized in the area, and as controversies raged within the Baptist movement. However, by 1844, Bark Camp was again on the rise as association reports credited it with 144 members that year. Things were expanding in a secular sense, as well. By 1837, the Bark Camp community had a post office. When the Civil War began in 1861, the church had grown to 255 members. Interestingly, since Bark Camp served the families in what had become a plantation district, it had both white and black members. For example, the 1861 membership of 255 included 72 whites and 183 blacks. This ratio, by the way, was comparable to the ratio of whites to blacks in Burke County as a whole at the time.
Before the Civil War, Bark Camp Church, along with other Baptist congregations in the area had to deal with several issues. The most explosive issue had to do with missions. From 1815 to 1836, this controversy raged within the area churches. The conflict was over how to promote and fund evangelism locally and mission work abroad. Without going into a long and laborious discussion of the issue, suffice it to say that churches and congregations within churches divided into “missionary” and “anti-missionary” factions. Among other things the conflict specifically involved whether or not to support the Foreign Mission Board and whether or not to join the Georgia Baptist Convention. Ultimately, there was a schism, and some churches left existing Baptist associations and formed new ones. This was the origin of the division between those churches that have been called “Primitive” Baptists and those who are termed “Missionary” or “Free Will” Baptists. Bark Camp threw in its lot with the “missionary” faction, remained with the Hephzibah Baptist Association, joined the Georgia Baptist Convention, and raised money for missions.
The second issue in which Bark Camp was involved was the temperance movement. The only real issue among Baptists was whether for them temperance meant moderation or prohibition. The answer was prohibition, and a temperance society was formed at Bark Camp in 1844.
The third movement in which Bark Camp Church participated was education. In the ante-bellum era Georgia did not have a well-developed or well-funded system of public schools. State-supported poor schools were not well attended nor did they have a good reputation. Field schools were organized and funded by farming families but were not open to those who could not afford them. Of course, wealthy families often hired tutors to educate their children. Thus, many children went without formal education. To fill the resulting gap, churches sometimes sponsored schools. In 1834, a state school charter was obtained and Bark Camp Academy was formed. In 1835, 40 students were enrolled at the school, and the pupils ranged in age from 7 to 21. Another educational movement of the time was the formation of “Sabbath Schools” for religious instruction. Bark Camp established a Sabbath School in 1844. Although controversial to some at the time, Sunday School is an accepted part of Christian education today.
When reading the church minutes, one finds not only details of church business but also mention of the broader historical events of the times. Here is one example, found in the church minutes for Saturday, December 10, 1864:
“This was the regular day for conference but owing to General William T. Sherman’s Yankee Raid there was no meeting of pastors or members. We as members of Bark Camp Church do hereby place on record our solemn protest; also our thorough contempt for the vandals who desecrated our church. We are willing to leave the issue in God’s hands and fervently pray that the time will come when we can worship our God under our own fig tree and have none to make us afraid.” W.H. Davis, Moderator
Following the Civil War, the issue of the status of the newly freed slaves in the church came to the fore. In 1866, the minutes show colored conferences along with church (white) conferences, as well as a discussion of the appointment of a black preacher, deacons, and the request of the freedmen for a general letter of dismissal so they could form their own church. On December 8, 1867, the church took up the request of the freedmen:
By request a conference was called this day to take into consideration the petition of the colored brethren to withdraw their membership in a body from this church for the purpose of forming a church of their own. Upon a full hearing of the case, the petition was unanimously granted and the clerk was authorized to give a general letter of dismissal . . .
Sunday the 22nd Dec. 1867 was set apart for the ordaining of Bro. Daniel Rosier to the ministry and the necessary deacons so as to fully organize the Church.
At the time of the split, the church membership was 615—91 whites and 524 blacks! The next year, following the withdrawal of the freedmen, Bark Camp Baptist Church had a membership of only 96. As late as 1876, the church had 104 members, but after 1900 the membership trend was down. By 1959, Bark Camp Baptist Church was listed in the Hephzibah Association minutes as “defunct.”
What had happened? At least part of the answer lies in the passage of history. Things were changing in this part of Georgia following the Civil War. The plantation system and the labor system that had supported it had been destroyed. Some of the large landholding continued to exist, but the planters never recovered their pre-war prosperity. Tenant farming and sharecropping were common. New ways of making a living and the development of communities along new railroad lines led to the growth of churches in the burgeoning villages and towns. These churches began to replace the country churches as the major places of worship. Also, the country churches began to lose out as centers of community life. People “went to town” to meet and socialize and trade. These things ultimately negatively affected Bark Camp Baptist Church and led to its demise. The last church membership report, that of 1958, listed only 58 members, of whom only a small percentage were active.
So, why is it important to remember Bark Camp Baptist Church? Its significance lies in several areas. It was one of the major churches in an important plantation district in Georgia and served both the free and slave population. It was a focus of the educational, spiritual, and social activities in the community. Many of the prominent people in the early history of Burke County attended here. Its cemetery holds a veritable catalog of the names of the early settlers in this area, as well as the ancestors of our current population. Veterans of virtually every major American war, beginning with Jonathan Coleman of the Revolutionary War continuing with several Civil War veterans and going on to W.W.I and W.W. II participants, lie buried here. Bark Camp Church was a major player in the Hephzibah Baptist Association, and that association met at Bark Camp Church seven times over the years. Bark Camp Baptist Church participated in all of the major nineteenth-century developments in the Georgia Baptist movement. It spawned several new churches in the area. So, really, the church is not dead; it lives on through its spiritual offspring. Perhaps, the most interesting of those is the black Bark Camp Baptist Church which continues to thrive not far from here.
But, the most significant accomplishment of this church, the thing before which all else pales, is that for 171 years it served as a platform for the Word of God to be broadcast to its congregation, both white and black, and that will remain its undying glory.
John K. Derden
*One copy of the original roll lists 27 original members.
Dr. John K. Derden, Professor Emeritus of History, was a member of the initial faculty cadre when East Georgia College, then Emanuel County Junior College, opened in the fall of 1973. Initially appointed as instructor in history, he has held the ranks of assistant, associate, and professor of history. He chaired the Social Science Division from 1990 to 2004, and he also served as interim vice president for academic affairs in the 1999-2000 academic year. His institutional service has been extensive, ranging from teaching to committee work to grant writing to continuing education involvement to leadership in the Post-secondary Readiness Enrichment Program (PREP). He retired from full-time service in July of 2004, but has continued to work at the college on a part-time basis. Currently, he chairs the Vision Series, is responsible for Heritage Center development, and teaches history. For the academic year 2006-2007, he served as interim chair of the Humanities Division at the college.
He holds the A.A. (1967) from Reinhardt College and the B.S.Ed. (1969), M.A. (1973), and Ph.D. (1981) degrees from the University of Georgia. He has done additional study and/or attended seminars at Georgia Perimeter College, St. Joseph’s University, Cornell University, Ohio State University, and City University of New York.
Dr. Derden has authored or co-authored several books on local history, written several articles and numerous book reviews for professional journals, and presented papers at professional meetings. In addition, he is in demand as a speaker at local historical societies and civic clubs.
Dr. Derden has been active in the community, serving as president of the Emanuel County Historic Preservation Society, a member of the Board of Grantors of the Mill Creek Foundation, a member of the Exchange Club, a founding member of the Emanuel Arts Center, and in numerous capacities at Swainsboro First United Methodist Church.
On the state level, he served a term on the Georgia National Register Review Board and was elected to three terms as the treasurer of the Georgia Association of Historians.
Bark Camp Baptist Church was founded on April 12, 1788, only five years after the end of the Revolutionary War. Twenty-nine members were on the original roll, among them the first pastor (Miles Scarboro).* The other twenty-eight were as follows: Silas Scarboro, Zebulon Cocks, John Allen, Jonathan Coleman, William Parker, William Wood, Francis Spivey, Jonathan Coleman, Stephen Powel, Henry Summerlin, Jonathan Holley, George Hendry, John Holly, McCain Belcher, Lydia Wood, Sarah Cocks, Christian Fitzgerald, Sarah Summerlin, Patience Hutchins, Rachel Scarboro, Sarah Parker, Esther Wood, Susannah Stephens, Mary Holley, Chloe Snell, Sythe Barker, Martha Hinson, and Sarah Belcher.
According to Albert Hillhouse’s history of Burke County, the Bark Camp community was an early settlement that developed around “an original camp site for itinerant cattlemen. . . . A ‘bark camp’ was a crude, bark-covered lean-to which Indians taught early settlers to make.” A nearby creek carried the same name. Available land and fertile soil attracted settlers to the area and eventually led to the creation of a number of prosperous plantations in the area. Bark Camp Baptist Church became a plantation district church as a result. This church and the district in which it lies are central to the family histories of many people not only in Burke County but in Jenkins and Emanuel Counties, as well. In addition, this church and its members helped found a number of other churches in the area—Rosier, Summertown, Hines Chapel, Hale’s Well, and Midville, for example. The irony is that although the mother church is no longer active, many of its daughter churches remain so.
So who were the people who came to the Bark Camp community and from where did they come? Let’s look at the background. Georgia as an established colony dates from Oglethorpe’s landing on Yammacraw Bluff on the Savannah River in 1733. Of course, what became Georgia had seen Spanish, French, and even English explorers and settlers prior to that date. Well before Oglethorpe came to Georgia, English traders from the Carolinas had crossed the Savannah River as they traded with the Creeks and Cherokees who dominated the interior. Ultimately, when Augusta was founded in 1735, it benefited from this trade as it became the center of the English-Indian backcountry trade, primarily in deer hides and furs.
Although early Georgia was most heavily settled along the Atlantic coast to Savannah and then up the Savannah River to Augusta, even before the Revolution people were moving into the backcountry west of the Savannah River north of the Ogeechee River and into the Broad River valley.
What became Burke County was originally part of what was referred to as the Halifax District of Georgia. In 1758, Georgia was divided into parishes, and what became Burke County was then called St. George Parish. Although the initial settlers who had come to Georgia with Oglethorpe were from Europe, most of the immigrants to the Georgia backcountry were from other colonies. They came with high hopes. Some had failed elsewhere and wanted to start over. Others were running from the law. All were trying to better themselves by moving to new land. Georgia had ended the ban on slavery in 1749, and that made St. George Parish very attractive to people who wanted to bring their slaves with them. The largest percentage of the people moving into the backcountry were migrants from Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina—rather than native Georgians. Families crossing the Savannah River and moving into the backcountry were part of what was a slow, multi-generational move from those states. Many descendents of those families can, therefore, trace their American ancestry back to Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina origins. The eastern boundary of Georgia, the Savannah River, was very permeable. One did not have to cross mountains through difficult passes and hostile Indian tribes to get here. A simple ferry crossing was all it took. Whatever their reasons for coming to Georgia, these migrants were of an independent mold and did not take easily to outside authority, either from the colonial capital in Savannah or from the authorities in London. The area that became known as Bark Camp early on attracted settlers. In 1764, a group of sixteen families and their slaves moved to Bark Camp from South Carolina. The group was headed by Drury Dunn and had received a grant of 8,550 acres. They numbered seventy-one whites and one hundred and twenty-five blacks. Francis Jones, the first of the Birdsville family in Georgia may have been a member of this group. Most, however, did not come in large groups but instead arrived as individuals and in families. Some of the early, pre-Revolutionary family names in St. George Parish were Walker, Duhart, Byne, Carter, Davis, Green, Gresham, Jones, Reynolds, Scales, Emanuel (Pennsylvania), Whitehead, Twiggs (Maryland), Lord, Irwin, Lively, Gray, Lambert, Brown, Clements, and Carswell. In addition, there were some who came directly from Europe. As many as 700 Scotch-Irish settlers were attracted to the plan of the backcountry township, Queensborough. Although the settlement failed prior to the Revolution because of Indian troubles, many of these immigrants remained in the area. Another example of an early settler to the area is found in the story of William Lee, a British immigrant to America. Before he came to Georgia in 1780, had traveled widely throughout the colonies and had worked as a school teacher, farmer, merchant, seaman trader, and even buffalo hunter. Let me read from his autobiography about his sojourn here:
[Leaving Pensacola], I bought six horses, three to carry my family, the other three to carry our provisions and bedding. I agreed with an Indian trader, wo was going to an Indian to be our pilot or guide as we had an Indian nation to go through. We arrived in Georgia about the middle of October, 1780, where I found the country peaceable, according to my expectations. I purchased a plantation or farm, upon Bark Camp Creek, nigh to Buckhead, about 100 miles from Savannah. Georgia is a fine country, and healthy in the back parts: it produceth extraordinary good crops of all sorts of corn, the same as in England . . . the country is in general very fertile, growing great quantities of all kinds of fruits; there are very great stocks [of livestock], so that some farmers have a thousand a piece, some more, others less: and they have nothing to provide for them, as they live in the woods both winter and summer. The winter is very mild here, as snow seldom or ever lies on the ground twenty-four hours.
The people here are American born of English descent; and have been in a very thriving way before the war. But are very much reduced since, by having their slaves and horses stolen, their houses plundered, and many of the men killed. Yet they were in peace for the present, although it did not continue long: for, upon Lord Cornwallis’ army leaving the south provinces and going to the northward, it gave the rebels an opportunity of returning amongst us again. The loyal inhabitants were now called together to oppose them, but the rebels were victorious, and soon conquered the country: they also committed great depredations upon the loyalists, by plundering their houses, and very frequently killing them. [Lee, a loyalist, ultimately had to flee the Bark Camp area. He returned to St. George Parrish in 1782, and settled in what became Richmond County.]
How did these people acquire land? In this golden age of land acquisition there were several ways: Headright system—100 acres for the head of a family, 50 acres for each additional family member, 50 acres for each slave; special Crown grant; entrance as a squatter on Indian lands (Once the land was ceded one could claim squatter’s rights.); direct acquisition from Indian tribes—George Galphin and the German settlers of New Goettingen, for example; squatting on unclaimed Crown land; purchase of land from original grantee; and purchase of Crown land at auction
How did the early settlers make a living? They engaged in several livelihoods, one of which was timber. The region was covered with expanses of pine trees as well as hardwoods. One needed to be near a large river—Ogeechee, Savannah—for floating the logs to market. Thjis bisiness was a natural byproduct of land clearing. Another way of making a living was raising livestock. In this case, cattle, hogs, and some sheep were raised. Typically they were allowed to graze on an open-range basis. Branding and ear marking were used to differentiate owners. Private and commercial cowpens dotted the region and were used for milking, marking and branding, calves, selling, and collecting. Farming in the region originally involved growing corn, sweet potatoes, wheat, and some cotton. In fact, Eli Whitney established one of his early commercial ginning operations in Burke County. Cotton production, though, was not to become a major enterprise in the Bark Camp Area until after the Revolution.
At the start of the Revolutionary War in 1775, about 38,000 lived in Georgia; between 5,000 and 7,000 lived in St. George Parrish. The war in St. George Parish was particularly brutal as both British and American regular troops as well as Rebel and Tory militias crossed and re-crossed the area. The account of William Lee that I just read reflects that reality. The war in the back country also took on the characteristic of a civil war in which attempts were sometimes made to settle old scores under the pretense of military operations.
Now, let’s look at the church. As I mentioned earlier, Bark Camp Baptist Church was founded just five years after the end of the American Revolution. The first church building was a rude structure of unhewn logs. Some believe that it was the bark on the logs of this building that gave the church its name, but the district had already been called Bark Camp for some time. As the membership grew in number and prosperity, larger and better buildings replaced the original. The next sanctuary was constructed of hewn logs. This was followed by a frame building that cost $500. Finally, in 1848, the current building was constructed at a cost of $2000. Following the then popular Greek Revival style, it was unusually large, and some claimed that it could seat 500 people.
By 1811, the Hephzibah Baptist Association, to which Bark Camp belonged, listed the church as having 111 members. During the eighteen teens, twenties, and thirties, Bark Camp’s membership fluctuated as people moved in and out of the area, as new churches were organized in the area, and as controversies raged within the Baptist movement. However, by 1844, Bark Camp was again on the rise as association reports credited it with 144 members that year. Things were expanding in a secular sense, as well. By 1837, the Bark Camp community had a post office. When the Civil War began in 1861, the church had grown to 255 members. Interestingly, since Bark Camp served the families in what had become a plantation district, it had both white and black members. For example, the 1861 membership of 255 included 72 whites and 183 blacks. This ratio, by the way, was comparable to the ratio of whites to blacks in Burke County as a whole at the time.
Before the Civil War, Bark Camp Church, along with other Baptist congregations in the area had to deal with several issues. The most explosive issue had to do with missions. From 1815 to 1836, this controversy raged within the area churches. The conflict was over how to promote and fund evangelism locally and mission work abroad. Without going into a long and laborious discussion of the issue, suffice it to say that churches and congregations within churches divided into “missionary” and “anti-missionary” factions. Among other things the conflict specifically involved whether or not to support the Foreign Mission Board and whether or not to join the Georgia Baptist Convention. Ultimately, there was a schism, and some churches left existing Baptist associations and formed new ones. This was the origin of the division between those churches that have been called “Primitive” Baptists and those who are termed “Missionary” or “Free Will” Baptists. Bark Camp threw in its lot with the “missionary” faction, remained with the Hephzibah Baptist Association, joined the Georgia Baptist Convention, and raised money for missions.
The second issue in which Bark Camp was involved was the temperance movement. The only real issue among Baptists was whether for them temperance meant moderation or prohibition. The answer was prohibition, and a temperance society was formed at Bark Camp in 1844.
The third movement in which Bark Camp Church participated was education. In the ante-bellum era Georgia did not have a well-developed or well-funded system of public schools. State-supported poor schools were not well attended nor did they have a good reputation. Field schools were organized and funded by farming families but were not open to those who could not afford them. Of course, wealthy families often hired tutors to educate their children. Thus, many children went without formal education. To fill the resulting gap, churches sometimes sponsored schools. In 1834, a state school charter was obtained and Bark Camp Academy was formed. In 1835, 40 students were enrolled at the school, and the pupils ranged in age from 7 to 21. Another educational movement of the time was the formation of “Sabbath Schools” for religious instruction. Bark Camp established a Sabbath School in 1844. Although controversial to some at the time, Sunday School is an accepted part of Christian education today.
When reading the church minutes, one finds not only details of church business but also mention of the broader historical events of the times. Here is one example, found in the church minutes for Saturday, December 10, 1864:
“This was the regular day for conference but owing to General William T. Sherman’s Yankee Raid there was no meeting of pastors or members. We as members of Bark Camp Church do hereby place on record our solemn protest; also our thorough contempt for the vandals who desecrated our church. We are willing to leave the issue in God’s hands and fervently pray that the time will come when we can worship our God under our own fig tree and have none to make us afraid.” W.H. Davis, Moderator
Following the Civil War, the issue of the status of the newly freed slaves in the church came to the fore. In 1866, the minutes show colored conferences along with church (white) conferences, as well as a discussion of the appointment of a black preacher, deacons, and the request of the freedmen for a general letter of dismissal so they could form their own church. On December 8, 1867, the church took up the request of the freedmen:
By request a conference was called this day to take into consideration the petition of the colored brethren to withdraw their membership in a body from this church for the purpose of forming a church of their own. Upon a full hearing of the case, the petition was unanimously granted and the clerk was authorized to give a general letter of dismissal . . .
Sunday the 22nd Dec. 1867 was set apart for the ordaining of Bro. Daniel Rosier to the ministry and the necessary deacons so as to fully organize the Church.
At the time of the split, the church membership was 615—91 whites and 524 blacks! The next year, following the withdrawal of the freedmen, Bark Camp Baptist Church had a membership of only 96. As late as 1876, the church had 104 members, but after 1900 the membership trend was down. By 1959, Bark Camp Baptist Church was listed in the Hephzibah Association minutes as “defunct.”
What had happened? At least part of the answer lies in the passage of history. Things were changing in this part of Georgia following the Civil War. The plantation system and the labor system that had supported it had been destroyed. Some of the large landholding continued to exist, but the planters never recovered their pre-war prosperity. Tenant farming and sharecropping were common. New ways of making a living and the development of communities along new railroad lines led to the growth of churches in the burgeoning villages and towns. These churches began to replace the country churches as the major places of worship. Also, the country churches began to lose out as centers of community life. People “went to town” to meet and socialize and trade. These things ultimately negatively affected Bark Camp Baptist Church and led to its demise. The last church membership report, that of 1958, listed only 58 members, of whom only a small percentage were active.
So, why is it important to remember Bark Camp Baptist Church? Its significance lies in several areas. It was one of the major churches in an important plantation district in Georgia and served both the free and slave population. It was a focus of the educational, spiritual, and social activities in the community. Many of the prominent people in the early history of Burke County attended here. Its cemetery holds a veritable catalog of the names of the early settlers in this area, as well as the ancestors of our current population. Veterans of virtually every major American war, beginning with Jonathan Coleman of the Revolutionary War continuing with several Civil War veterans and going on to W.W.I and W.W. II participants, lie buried here. Bark Camp Church was a major player in the Hephzibah Baptist Association, and that association met at Bark Camp Church seven times over the years. Bark Camp Baptist Church participated in all of the major nineteenth-century developments in the Georgia Baptist movement. It spawned several new churches in the area. So, really, the church is not dead; it lives on through its spiritual offspring. Perhaps, the most interesting of those is the black Bark Camp Baptist Church which continues to thrive not far from here.
But, the most significant accomplishment of this church, the thing before which all else pales, is that for 171 years it served as a platform for the Word of God to be broadcast to its congregation, both white and black, and that will remain its undying glory.
John K. Derden
*One copy of the original roll lists 27 original members.
Dr. John K. Derden, Professor Emeritus of History, was a member of the initial faculty cadre when East Georgia College, then Emanuel County Junior College, opened in the fall of 1973. Initially appointed as instructor in history, he has held the ranks of assistant, associate, and professor of history. He chaired the Social Science Division from 1990 to 2004, and he also served as interim vice president for academic affairs in the 1999-2000 academic year. His institutional service has been extensive, ranging from teaching to committee work to grant writing to continuing education involvement to leadership in the Post-secondary Readiness Enrichment Program (PREP). He retired from full-time service in July of 2004, but has continued to work at the college on a part-time basis. Currently, he chairs the Vision Series, is responsible for Heritage Center development, and teaches history. For the academic year 2006-2007, he served as interim chair of the Humanities Division at the college.
He holds the A.A. (1967) from Reinhardt College and the B.S.Ed. (1969), M.A. (1973), and Ph.D. (1981) degrees from the University of Georgia. He has done additional study and/or attended seminars at Georgia Perimeter College, St. Joseph’s University, Cornell University, Ohio State University, and City University of New York.
Dr. Derden has authored or co-authored several books on local history, written several articles and numerous book reviews for professional journals, and presented papers at professional meetings. In addition, he is in demand as a speaker at local historical societies and civic clubs.
Dr. Derden has been active in the community, serving as president of the Emanuel County Historic Preservation Society, a member of the Board of Grantors of the Mill Creek Foundation, a member of the Exchange Club, a founding member of the Emanuel Arts Center, and in numerous capacities at Swainsboro First United Methodist Church.
On the state level, he served a term on the Georgia National Register Review Board and was elected to three terms as the treasurer of the Georgia Association of Historians.
