Henry Cowan, Father of Black Baptist Churches

The cornerstone of this church honors a foundational figure in North Carolina. Known as the “Father of Black Baptist Churches,” Reverend Harry Cowan created the Mount Zion Baptist Church congregation in 1867. It is one of 57 churches Cowan organized over his 66-year ministry. Over half that time, he was enslaved.

Cowan was born on the plantation of Thomas Cowan in 1810. At the age of 15, his enslaver heard him lead a funeral and granted him a license to preach, baptize and perform marriages. By 1831, Cowan was an ordained minister who had organized five churches. He reflected that “considerable liberty was granted to me.” Thomas Cowan gave him a horse, saddle and bridle to preach the gospel over a 40-mile radius.

Not everyone valued his preaching. Cowan recalled one overseer “was hostile to me, mocked my baptizing’s, clubbed me, and fed me on half rations.” A subsequent enslaver curbed Cowan’s preaching.

During the Civil War, Cowan served Confederate General Joseph Johnston. Cowan did not win his freedom until the general surrendered in 1865. Soon after, Cowan began organizing local churches and moderated the first meeting of the Rowan Baptist Association in 1877. Reverend Cowan continued preaching at Mount Zion Baptist Church until his retirement in 1891. He performed over 8,500 baptisms, 1,000 funerals and 1,000 weddings. Cowan established the religious, educational, and social foundation of the local Black community.

Cowan’s original church site is unknown, but historians have speculated they “worshiped under brush arbors.” Mount Zion purchased this site two years after Cowan retired. They completed the building in 1907, three years after Harry Cowan died. Its cornerstone is a testament to him and the permanence of the Black Baptist tradition in the region. The congregation moved to another building as of 2004.