Official Website of Historic Campbell Chapel!
About Us
The Historic Chapel Bell
Campbell Chapel Nine:
Renty Fields,
Jacob Chisolm,
William Ferguson,
Jeffrey Buncombre,
William Smily,
David Heyward,
Christopher Bryan,
Theodore Wilson,
William Lightburn!
The nine former slaves, who purchased the church, are reverently known as the Campbell Chapel Nine. They, along with members of the Historic Chapel, created what is now known as the existing Campbell Chapel A.M.E. Church.
OUR HISTORY
The history of the Historic Campbell Chapel began in 1787 with the founding of the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church. This predominantly African-American Methodist denomination was the first independent Protestant denomination to be founded by black people.
The Historic Campbell Chapel was built in 1853, making it one of the oldest standing churches in Old Town Bluffton and possibly the oldest standing A.M.E. Church in the entire Gullah Geechee Corridor. Originally built to serve wealthy landowners, the Historic Chapel survived a fire during the Civil War before being sold in 1874 to nine former slaves, reverently known as the Campbell Chapel Nine.
The founders and members of the Historic Chapel later established Campbell Chapel A.M.E. Church, named after the 8th presiding A.M.E. Bishop, Jabez Pitt Campbell.
More recently, the current edifice for Campbell was completed in 2004, and the remaining mortgage retired in May 2018 by an anonymous donor. In 2015, a 501 (c) 3 named “A Call to Action” was established to restore the Historic Chapel. The Historic Chapel was also entered in the National Register Of Historic Places on April 26, 2019, with the SC Department of Archives and History approving a final inspection for a SC Historical Marker on July 28, 2020.
EMANUEL NINE
The Rev. Clementa C. Pinkney served as Senior Pastor of Campbell from 2009-2010 before being called to serve as Senior Pastor at Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, SC. On June 17, 2015, Rev. Pinkney was murdered, along with eight other members, during a Bible study by a white supremacist in a racially motivated terrorist shooting. They are forever remembered as the Emanuel Nine.
