First African Baptist was founded in 1865 — the year the Civil War ended — by freed members of Beaufort's Baptist congregation who broke off to form their own church. The current building, completed in 1894, is a tall white frame structure with Gothic Revival windows, recognisable from blocks away by its slender belfry.
The church remains an active congregation. It is also a stop on most Gullah-Geechee heritage tours of Beaufort, partly for its founding history and partly because so many notable Black Beaufortians worshipped here, including Robert Smalls. Visitors are welcome at Sunday services; the congregation is friendly to outsiders.