The third stop on the tour is the marker for First African Church of Manchester.
Around the year 1821, a group of free African Americans began to gather for worship in a private house near what later became its first meetinghouse in 1823. At the time, local whites were suspicious of free blacks and the property was held in trust in their name by white trustees. Free blacks could not own property. In 1806, Virginia passed a law requiring formerly enslaved blacks to leave Virginia within one year after being freed or face reenslavement. Virginia did not want a large free black population. After Nat Turner’s rebellion in Southampton County in 1831, Virginia law mandated that black congregations be led by white ministers.
In 1858, the congregation built its first sanctuary near Perry and Seventh Streets. The church moved to its present location in the 1890s. The first white pastor of the church was the reverend Levi Horner, who later served in the Confederate army. The first black pastor was the reverend Richard E. Wells, who served from 1865-1870. Five men have served as pastor, some for fifty years or more. After Richmond and Manchester consolidated in 1910, the church adopted its current name, the First Baptist Church of South Richmond.
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