Macedonia Baptist Church (Burlington, Ohio)

The Macedonia Baptist Church is a historic former Baptist church building near the community of Burlington at the southern point of the U.S. state of Ohio. Constructed in the middle of the nineteenth century, it held a significant place in the culture of the local black population, and it has been named a historic site. Situated at Ohio's southernmost point, the Burlington vicinity saw large numbers of runaway slaves and free black people in the decades before the Civil War. Into such a context, a group of Baptists settled and founded a church at some point between 1811 and 1813; after a period of worshipping in their homes, the congregation constructed a small and primitive church building. Late 1849 was the church's watershed moment: Virginia landowner James Twyman freed many of his slaves at his death and provided for them to be given land near Burlington, and thirty-seven of them settled near the church on land that they officially owned, beginning at the end of October. Joining with the existing Baptist congregation, they helped build a replacement church building on Macedonia Ridge, from which the congregation took its name of "Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church". With such a large group of black immigrants, the church began to occupy a prominent place for local black people, both religious and cultural, and as the years passed, numerous groups of members were sent

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