Rural black worship of the era happened in bare log churches with open fires

Evidence

Religion was no less important to these poor families, but their churches, particularly in the rural areas, were shockingly different from the edifices familiar to most northern white women. Rural southern blacks gathered together in one-room log churches. Joanna Moore, who often worshipped and held missionary meetings with blacks in these areas, described the stark conditions to her sisters in the North: “Oftentimes we meet in old sheds or cabins, in the sides of which there are holes large enough to put the fist. Of course in cold rainy weather this:is not very comfortable. Again, we hold meetings in houses where there can be no fire, so a large log fire is built just outside the door. We stay in the house until we get so cold that we must go out and get warm, then we come in and go on with our meeting.” — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 507