Pastor: 1864-1870

The ground on which the Shaw community now stands had been open farmland until shortly before the Civil War. During the war, several barracks were built on the site. The barracks also were used as contraband camps,” sheltering former slaves who had either escaped from nearby Virginia and Maryland or had been “confiscated” by the Union Army, along with other destitute freedmen. From 1862 to 1863, approximately 4,000 freedmen were housed at Camp Barker, directly across the street from the former site of Metropolitan Baptist Church on R Street, NW, in Washington, DC. Reverend Bailey ministered to them and their families as he began our journey truly from Hell’s Bottom.