Built in 1845, the handsome Tabernacle Baptist Church (911 Craven St., 843/524-0376) had a congregation of over 3,000 before the Civil War. Slaves made up most of the congregation, though the vast majority of slaves generally worshipped separately on plantation ground. During the war, freed slaves purchased the church for their own use.
A congregant was the war hero Robert Smalls, who kidnapped the Confederate steamer he was forced to serve on and delivered it to Union forces. He is buried in the church cemetery and has a nice memorial dedicated to him there, proudly facing the street.