Suggs Creek Church

What the 1814 synod adopted was a middle road. The Cumberland Presbyterians had split from the larger church after revivals on the Tennessee-Kentucky frontier, when Kentucky's synod dissolved their presbytery in 1806. Their 1814 Confession revised the Westminster Confession into a medium theology between Calvinism and Arminianism, rejecting strict predestination and keeping a role for human choice. Membership grew fivefold between 1835 and 1860. In 1869, about 30,000 Black members of the denomination petitioned for presbyteries of their own.

What the plaque says

Suggs Creek Church Sugg's Creek Church, founded in 1800, became Cumberland Presbyterian in 1810. The first Constitution of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in the United States of America containing the Confession of Faith, Catechism, Government and Discipline, and Directory for Worship was ratified and adopted by the Synod of Cumberland, held at Sugg's Creek April 5-9, 1814.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Andrew Jackson's Hermitage — 9.5 mi
  Andrew Jackson's cotton plantation east of Nashville, where visitors can walk to the quarters, Alfred's Cabin and the Enslaved Cemetery as well as the mansion.
• Fort Negley — 16 mi
  The largest inland stone fort of the Civil War, built in 1862 on St. Cloud Hill by more than 2,700 conscripted Black laborers, hundreds of whom died.
• Ryman Auditorium — 16 mi
  The 1892 brick tabernacle in downtown Nashville that was the Grand Ole Opry's home from 1943 to 1974, now a National Historic Landmark and working concert hall.
• National Museum of African American Music — 16 mi
  A downtown Nashville museum, opened in 2021, tracing gospel, blues, jazz, rhythm and blues and hip-hop through Black history from 1619 to 2016.

More markers nearby

• Sherrod Bryant — 3.2 mi
• Benjamin Hooker / John Rice — 4.2 mi
• Cloyd's Cumberland Presbyterian Church — 6.4 mi
• Mt. Olivet Baptist Church — 6.7 mi