Betsy Crissman who was enslaved in Virginia, Mississippi and Tennessee as a field hand states in her 1866 interview at age seventy-six that just then the churches were needed, and I set in to help put all I could into their treasuries, until every house was finished, five in number. Now, instead of our own people having a place to worship God, we had to take boards for seats and go to the graveyard, rain or shine, cold or wind. It was the only place we could meet, but there, on our humble seats, we met and praised God, until one of my boarders, who had been traveling through the State, said the colored folds had churches in other places, and I determined we would have one also, and set to work immediately. I first counted how many brothers and sisters could each pay one dollar toward the work. I next got a white gentleman to write a paper for me, and I carried it around to all that I knew could pay. And, by the Lord’s help, we soon raised enough money to start the work; and it went on so fast, that in three weeks from the time we commenced building, our first service was held and three souls converted to the Lord, who live until this day as a seal that the work is the Savior’s, and I say bless the Lord.