Charles Colcock Jones Gravesite

Charles Colcock Jones (1804–1863) was a Presbyterian minister, missionary, and planter from Georgia, remembered as a deeply influential yet paradoxical figure of the antebellum South. Born into a wealthy plantation family in Liberty County, Georgia, he grew up within the Southern elite but devoted much of his life to religious work. Jones became known as the “Apostle to the Blacks” for his efforts to evangelize enslaved African Americans, establishing Sunday schools, promoting religious instruction, and writing extensively about his mission. His most notable work, The Religious Instruction of the Negroes in the United States (1842), outlined his vision of bringing Christianity to enslaved people. However, his legacy is complicated: while he was sincere in spreading the Christian faith, he was also a slaveholder who defended slavery as compatible with Christianity, reflecting the moral contradictions of his time. His influence shaped African American Christianity in the South for generations, even as his views reinforced the institution of slavery. Jones died in 1863 and was laid to rest in the historic Midway Cemetery in Liberty County, Georgia, a site tied to the Midway Congregational Church where many members of his prominent family are buried.