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Fulton Street in New York City is said by most be the beginning of the Prayer Meeting Revival which
eventually swept down from the north eastern states all the way into Athens, Georgia and Beaufort, South Carolina. As many
as 1 million people were born again within a years time. Denominations of all kinds, especially Baptist and Methodists exploded
exponentially. But there were others in the South who were earnestly seeking the Lord, many months before businessman Jeremiah
Lanphier initiated the prayer meeting that is now recognized as the beginning of the 1858 outpouring. African American slaves
in the South were already seeking and encountering the Lord's manifest presence and seeding the heavenlies with their
prayers in what would become the greatest outpouring of God's Spirit within the last 200 years. The first rumblings of
what would be called the 1858 Awakening had actually already begun in Charleston South Carolina in the middle of 1857 at Anson
Street Presbyterian Church. Before the Civil War many black slaves attended services with mostly white leaders. One of these
many congregations was found in Charleston with Dr. John Lafayette Girardeau as its minister. Anson Street Presbyterian church
had 48 black members and 12 white members. In 1857 they began a series of prayer meetings seeking God and petitioning Him
to send a spiritual awakening. They sought, inquired the Lord, and sought some more. Dr. Girardeau had made a decision not
to preach until the Spirit of the Lord had made Himself known. So the prayer meetings continued and the congregation of believers,
most of whom were under the yoke of slavery, continued to patiently seek and wait for the Spirit of the Lord. And then it
happened! One evening while seeking the Lord in prayer, Girardeau instinctively sensed in his Spirit that something was different
about tonight. And then at once he felt as if a surge of electricity struck his head and had gone through his entire body.
Immediately aware that he was not alone, he began to sing a hymn of worship. Following the hymn he softly stated, "The
Holy Spirit has come, preaching begins tomorrow," and then dismissed the congregation, but no one would leave. Looking
around the sanctuary Girardeau witnessed that the Lord's presence had also rested on the congregation. They were worshiping,
praying, and weeping for unbelieving loved ones and friends, and immediately Girardeau began exhorting anyone who was lost
to accept the Gospel. By the time he was able to dismiss the congregation it was after midnight and every night for the next
eight weeks Girardeau preached to crowds of 2,000. The presence of the Lord had descended on the very city which He would
soon use to bring judgment on the institution of slavery, both socially and spiritually. Thousands of Charlestonians, both
black and white, came and were saved. Congregations of all denominations throughout the city were having to add to their numbers
daily. Word of what the Lord was doing reached all the way up the coast into New York, where only a few months later at a
local church on Fulton Street six men gathered together to pray. In ultimately what would turn out to be the 1858 Awakening,
in which so many people came to know the Lord. Girardeau went on to be known for many things in the ministry, but his life
will best be remembered for those few days, when at the age of 30, along with the hearts of a few African American slaves
gave everything he had to find the manifest presence of the Lord and spiritually trigger one of the greatest moves of the
Spirit of God in American history. It all happened when a few people set out to find the Lord, no matter what.
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