North Pamunkey Baptist Church

Baptist ministers Elijah Craig and Aaron Bledsoe organized this congregation in 1774 as their denomination grew in VA. Both men had earlier been imprisoned for preaching without permission from the established Church of England. They and others in the community petitioned for religious freedom during the Revolutionary War while also providing support for the patriot cause. Bledsoe, pastor here for 32 years, was one of several prominent local Baptists whose political support James Madison won in the 1780s by promising to secure religious liberty. The present sanctuary was completed in the 1850s. Many enslaved people were members of the church before the Civil War but departed after Emancipation.