Tag Archives: Briar Patch Community

-Georgia, Black History, Houses

Reverend Nathan Palmer House-Briar Patch Community, Georgia

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Reverend Nathan Palmer (1900-2003) was a founder and community leader of the Briar Patch community, which has ties to the Gullah Geechee people and is located between Eulonia and Crescent.

Outside of serving as a minister to several churches in McIntosh County, Georgia, Palmer is one of the founders of the McIntosh Ring Shouters, a Gullah Geechee music group whose music illustrates the connection of West Africa to the enslaved population that lived along the coast together via music.


The ring shout is the genesis of African American music as it precedes spirituals, gospel, R&B, soul, hip-hop, and rap. 

From the McIntosh Ring Shouters’s website

According to one of his great-grandsons I met the day I visited the Briar Patch community, his great-grandfather was one of the elders who helped build the Bolden Lodge. He told me his house was still standing. While it is overgrown and the details are hard to distinguish, tax records indicate it is the oldest home in the community, built in 1920. This date is close to the date of the Bolden Lodge, which highlights the importance of these structures to the creation of a historic community.

Reverend Palmer’s name lives on in the community he helped build with one of the roads being named after him.

-Georgia, Black History, Churches and Temples

Bolden Home Lodge-A Praise House in McIntosh County, Georgia

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Halfway between Eulonia and Crescent, Georgia, is the Briar Patch Community. You will find one of the few remaining praise houses left along the coast.

Praise houses were small structures on plantations where enslaved people worshipped. They are associated with the Gullah-Geechee culture. Ty Moody (2023) writes on the South Carolina ETV website, “Praise houses were erected as a place of worship on the plantation, but the real intentions were to keep enslaved Africans from mingling with others on different plantations. Despite the controlled measures, the praise house become the center of the community for enslaved Africans and where freedom was most experienced.”

Praise houses were erected as a place of worship on the plantation, but the real intentions were to keep enslaved Africans from mingling with others on different plantations. Despite the controlled measures, the praise house become the center of the community for enslaved Africans and where freedom was most experienced.-Ty Moody

Worshippers often participated in “ring shouts,” a shuffling or stomping movement in a circle while praying and clapping hands. The McIntosh Ring Shouters was founded by community members in Briar Patch. It was believed that the practice of ring shouting was lost until the group was discovered in 1980.

Tied to the Mt Calvary Baptist Church, the Bolden Home Lodge was built in the 1920s. When my friends and I arrived to photograph the praise hoise, we met someone who shared that his great grandfather, Reverend Nathan Palmer, helped build it. Reverend Palmer was an integral member of creating the community of Briar Patch.

Library of Congress video of a 2010 performance

Recommended reading:

The McIntosh Shouters’ website

A write-up by the Smithsonian Institute with photos of the Bolden Home Lodge