PATRON + Trials of members were held at the oldest Baptist Church in Pickens County, Alabama

How would one find out if ancestors are buried there? Is this cemetery listed on findagrave.com?

Mark Yarbrough

I have been doing research on Civil War soldiers buried in Pickens County and have been to this cemetery several times. Took a friend there two weeks ago because she wanted to see the old cemetery. Four confederate soldiers is buried there. Two cemeteries side by side with different names , one was for the whites and other for blacks. Someone has been taking care of both cemeteries. Wasn’t grown up like the picture except where The Big Creek stone across the road is located.

I want to visit that cemetery

There’s a old cemetery in Brecon subdivision in Talladega. Dating back to the 1880s

Such an interesting article written back in 1940. My husband was born in Pickens county in 1932 and is presumably related to the Sherrod name that was mentioned. Love that area and all the beautiful old churches. My husband’s cousin, Bobbye Craft Winston, did extensive, well researched genealogy on this area, its families and churches. We are eternally grateful for all that she accomplished for all of us.

Be nice to read if not for the damn pop up!

As an amateur genealogist who explores old cemeteries in AL and TN, including church and private ones, the comments to this article are so good to see and especially to read.

I want to add an additional note regarding the referenced history of some Baptist Churches and more specifically the religious approach towards black folks, as mentioned in the several paragraphs in the article. My note is just for additional clarification.

Following the Nat Turner slave rebellion in Southampton County, VA, in 1831, there was a far-reaching change in how white leaders across the South handled religion for black folks. Church leaders were included. Some changes were self-generated, and others were imposed, as the reference article says, “as far as the law tolerates”. For example, after the rebellion, new state laws were passed in slave states that prohibited an assembly of more than 3 blacks, even for religious purposes. Stricter laws were passed to prohibit teaching blacks to read and write. Any black male who possessed preacher-like talents, as Nat Turner did, was restricted from doing so. Black congregations were allowed to sit in white churches only if they met outside the church on Sunday afternoon and only if the white preacher was preaching. It became almost impossible for blacks to self-learn anything about religion. I got my first glimpse into this “other side of church history” after readying a diary of a Baptist preacher from Virginia who rode a circuit around “The Fork” area in Alabama and the personal struggles of his soul as the Civil War approached. The general situation of that day is ably documented in more scholarly books on the complex subject of race and religion across the South. Knowing about it helped me understand the conflict a genealogist of any skill level feels when looking back on Southern slave history, even as it relates to the history of church cemeteries.

Danny Hicks