Tabernacle Baptist Church

Front: Tabernacle Church was formed by black members of Beaufort Baptist Church after other members evacuated the area due to Federal occupation in 1861. The Beaufort church's lecture room was used for services during the war. In 1867 the black congregation bought this property from the Beaufort Baptist Church. Its present building was dedicated in 1894. Many new churches have grown from Tabernacle. Reverse: Born a slave in Beaufort in 1839, Robert Smalls lived to serve as a Congressman of the United States. In 1862 he commandeered and delivered to Union forces the Confederate gunboat "Planter," on which he was a crewman. His career as a freedman included service as a delegate to the 1868 and 1895 State Constitutional Conventions, election to the S.C. House and Senate, and 9 years in Congress. He died in 1915 and is buried here.