h
Carolinians, in defense of the American cause, some time later, and
General Griffith Rutherford, with 2,400 men, reinforced him,
September, 1776.

In view of all these statements in regard to the time when the
Revolutionary War began to make itself manifest in Georgia and South
Carolina, we conclude that when George Liele says he was converted to
Christianity about two years before the Revolutionary War, he refers
to the year 1773, and his visits to Silver Bluff were at an end by the
summer of 1775. We are, therefore, driven back to our first
affirmation, namely, that the Negro Baptist Church at Silver Bluff,
South Carolina, was organized not earlier than 1773, nor later than
1775.

The writers who have insisted that Mr. Liele united with Matthew
Moore's church in 1778, and terminated that membership in 1782, have
followed what is undoubtedly an erroneous inference. Liele said, "I
continued in this church about four years till the 'vacuation.'" But
as the expression seemed to Dr. Rippon indefinite in some particulars,
he sought information from persons who were supposed to be capable of
guiding him, and added five words to the statement of Liele, which
made it read as follows: "I continued in this church about four years,
'till the 'vacuation'--_of Savannah by the British_."[20] Dr. Rippon
carefully states that "Brother George's words are distinguished by
inverted commas, and what is not so marked, is either matter
compressed, or information received from such persons to whom
application had been made for it."

It is easy enough to see how the inference was drawn, for in one of
his letters Liele says, "Our beloved Sister Hannah Williams, during
the time she was a member of the church at Savannah, until the
'vacuation, did walk as a faithful, well-beloved Christian."[21] Here
there is no room for doubt. Liele speaks in this case of the
evacuation of Savannah by the British, July, 1782, but in the former
instance the only evacuation of Savannah which harmonizes with the
story of his own life, the events and circumstances of his time, and
those of his associates, is the evacuation of Savannah by the
Americans, December 29, 1778.

GEORGE GALPHIN--PATRON OF THE SILVER BLUFF CHURCH

The planter and merchant on whose estate the Silver Bluff Church was
constituted is deserving of special mention in connection with the
story of that people. We learn from White's _History of Georgia_, that
George Galphin was "a native