White Church, also known as The Brick Church, and formally as St. Thomas Episcopal Church and St. Thomas and St. Dennis Parish Church, is a historic church north of Cainhoy in

Berkeley County, South Carolina Berkeley County is a county in the U.S. state of South Carolina. As of the 2020 census, its population was 229,861. Its county seat is Moncks Corner. After two previous incarnations of Berkeley County, the current county was created in 1882. B ...

. It was built in 1819 as the parish church for St. Thomas and St. Dennis Parish and added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1972, together with its vestry building and cemetery.

Reconstruction era

In October 1876 the church was the site of a planned Republican meeting, attended mostly by freedmen, which was interrupted by a large party of more than 150 white men, Democrats from Charleston who arrived by steamboat and demanded equal time. As this followed the

massacre A massacre is the killing of a large number of people or animals, especially those who are not involved in any fighting or have no way of defending themselves. A massacre is generally considered to be morally unacceptable, especially when per ...

by whites of seven

freedmen A freedman or freedwoman is a formerly enslaved person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, enslaved people were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their captor-owners), emancipation (granted freedom a ...

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in Aiken County from July 4 to July 8, tensions were high. While efforts were made to have both sides lay down their arms, the tensions broke out into shooting, which resulted in the deaths of one African-American man and three to six whites. It "represented a rare instance during Reconstruction where the African American combatants got the better of their opponents."Ehren K. Foley, "Sites of Violence: Cainhoy Riot"
''South Carolina during Reconstruction,'' 2010-2012, accessed 26 October 2014 It was one of several events during the campaign season in South Carolina in which violence was used to disrupt Republican meetings and suppress black voting, particularly in Edgefield County, which had a Republican/black majority. Typical of the times was a plan for

Edgefield County Edgefield County is a county located on the western border of the U.S. state of South Carolina. As of the 2020 census, its population was 25,657. Its county seat and largest municipality is Edgefield. The county was established on March 12, 17 ...

by veteran General Martin W. Gary, who listed numerous activities to take place over several months by rifle clubs to disrupt Republican voting.Ehlen K. Foley, "Sites of Violence: Cainhoy Riot," Citations: "Plan of the Campaign of 1876"
Papers of Martin Witherspoon Gary, South Caroliniana Library, Columbia, South Carolina, accessed 26 October 2014

References

External links

Robert Shelton Converse, '' St. Thomas and St. Denis Parish Church: An Anglo-Franco Alliance in the Lowcountry''
May 2011, a thesis project submitted to Clemson University and the College of Charleston Episcopal churches in South Carolina Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in South Carolina Churches completed in 1819 19th-century Episcopal church buildings Churches in Berkeley County, South Carolina National Register of Historic Places in Berkeley County, South Carolina {{SouthCarolina-church-stub