Editing Columbia County, Georgia (section)

===Prehistory and the colonial era===
This area along the Savannah River had been inhabited for thousands of years by various cultures of [[indigenous peoples]]. The area had been home to the historic [[Muskogean languages|Muscogee]]-speaking [[Creek people|Creek]]; [[Yuchi]], people speaking a language isolate; and [[Iroquoian]]-speaking [[Cherokee]] for years prior to European colonization. The Yuchi had moved south from [[Tennessee]] because of pressure from the Cherokee, who continued to move into the Piedmont and soon dominated the Native American tribes. One of the oldest [[archaeological]] sites in the nation to contain pottery can be found on [[Stallings Island]].

During the Colonial era, settlement of what would become Columbia County occurred primarily due to colonists settling at the second city in Georgia, [[Augusta, Georgia|Augusta]], located on the [[Atlantic Seaboard fall line|Fall Line]]. When the [[British Empire|British]] [[Province of Georgia]] became a [[crown colony]] in 1755 and was divided into parishes, the area around Augusta became St. Paul's Parish. The primary areas of settlement were Augusta; [[Wrightsboro, Georgia|Wrightsboro]] (a [[Quaker]] settlement named for [[James Wright (governor)|James Wright]], the royal governor); and Brownsborough, which was near the present-day location of North Columbia Elementary School.

Because the [[Church of England]] was the established church in the province, it was against the law for anyone to preach contrary to its doctrines. Influenced by the [[Great Awakening]] in [[New England]], in 1772 [[Daniel Marshall]] established [[Kiokee Baptist Church]], the first [[Baptist]] church in Georgia. The church was located below Brownsborough along the Kiokee Creek in present-day Appling. Born in [[Connecticut Colony|Connecticut]], Marshall had been raised as a [[Presbyterianism|Presbyterian]]. He had become a Baptist and preached in [[the Carolinas]] before coming to Georgia, where he was arrested. Baptist preachers and their converts continued to flourish, and in Virginia their influence helped shape the young [[James Madison]]'s ideas on religious freedom, which he incorporated into the new Constitution. Marshall later served in the militia during the [[American Revolutionary War]]. During the 19th century and the [[Second Great Awakening]], the Baptists became well established in Georgia and other southern states. The Baptists offered congregational participation to slaves and approved them and free blacks as preachers, leading to the growth in black membership in the church.