A COMPENDIUM
OF
HISTORICAL FACTS
OF THE
Early African
Baptist Churches
THIRD EDITION
BY
REV. J. J. JACKSON, D.D.
BELLEF0NTA1NE, OHIO
COPYRIGHTED 1922
REV. J. J. JACKSON, D. D.
A COMPENDIUM
or
HISTORICAL FACTS
OF THE
EARLY AFRICAN
BAPTIST CHURCHES
THIRD EDITION
BY
REV. J. J. JACKSON, D. D.
BELLEFONTAINE, OHIO
Copyrighted 1922
PREFACE
We send this little book forth as a com¬
pendium of historical facts, and the organization
of the early African Baptist churches of the
United States of America and its territories,
Canada, the West Indies and Africa, and the
modern African Baptist Church, in her activity
and work; to our Sunday Schools, Baptist Young
People's Unions, and to all with the earnest hope
that they may profit by this little book, though
humble at best.
If God commanded the great legislator of
the Hebrew nation, (namely Moses,) to keep the
passover from time to time, that when succeed¬
ing generations of their children should ask
them why this passover was observed, they
could tell them of the wonderful deliverance
God had wrought for them in Egypt. They
were also commanded to write them upon their
door posts, and as frontlets between their eyes,
and to talk of them as they walked in the way,
and to tell it to their children, that God's great
favor to them might not be forgotten.
So if the great principles as held by the
Baptists, according as they understand Christ,
the Apostles, and the New Testament to teach,
and for which good men and women, through all
ages of the church, have suffered imprisonments
4 EARLY HISTORICAL FACTS OF
and martyrdoms, and which to us are so great
and precious, are they not worthy to be trans¬
mitted to our children as a precious legacy; and
to all succeeding generations?
A Dutchman, in the fourteenth or fifteenth
century, discovered, or compounded, the Hol¬
land Oil. He left it, in his will, as a legacy to
his heirs, that the receipt of this compound
should remain in the hands of his heirs from
generation to generation. Everybody who
handles that oil is helping to enrich the heirs of
that Dutchman.
So if the young people of our Sunday
Schools, and of our Baptist Young People's
Unions, and mankind at large, can be more en¬
lightened by these few facts we send forth, and
made wiser unto salvation, and be led to glorify
Him who gave His life as a ransom for the world
of mankind, the writer will feel that he has not
lived or labored in vain; for the highest mission
of man is to live to the glory of God, and for
the uplift of humanity.
THE AFRICAN BAPTIST CHURCHES 5
CHAPTER I
Why Am I a Baptist?
This should be the query of every man who
engages in anything of importance, or that is
worth doing in life. Every man should ask him¬
self the question, "Am I able to give a good rea¬
son for engaging in this or that pursuit?" If
this be true in regard to these perishable and
mundane affairs of ours, how much more should
we stand ready to give a reason why we accept
certain doctrines or teachings, or give our alle¬
giance to certain religious or Christian denom¬
inations, knowing that eternal consequences are
to grow out of such relations.
I Peter, 3:15, reads as follows: "Be ready
always to give an answer to every man that ask-
eth you a reason of the hope that is in you, with
meekness and fear."
We are very anxious that our young people,
both of the Sunday Schools and the Baptist
Young People's Uhions, be able to give a better
reason to any one who should ask, "Why are you
6 EARLY HISTORICAL FACTS OF
a Bapist?" than that "My father and mother,
and all my people are Baptists."
We regard this as a very poor reason and a
flimsy answer. One might, for the same reason,
claim disbelief in God, or reject his or her soul's
salvation, for many parents are stained with just
such a sin of unbelief.
When our young people understand what
the name "Baptist" stands for, and what this
great denomination of ours has accomplished
wherever it has flourished, and how it has stood
the fiery tests, and survived the wreck and ruin
of Empires and Kingdoms, and what it has ac¬
complished in the past, and is still doing for the
glory of God, and uplifet of mankind, they will
have naught to be ashamed of, but all reasons to
be proud of their denomination.
In the first place, Why am I a Baptist? The
Baptist Church is predicated upon the teachings
of Christ and the Apostles, and all the inspired
writers; note Ephesians 2:20-22:
20. "And are built upon the foundation of
the Apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himselt
being the chief corner stone;
21. "In whom all the building fitly framed
together groweth unto an holy temple in the
Lord;
22. uIn whom ye also are builded together
THE AFRICAN BAPTIST CHURCHES 7
for an habitation of God through the Spirit."
Who builded together? Why, all the be¬
lievers in Christ. Each believer is regarded as
a lively stone in the spiritual building.
1st. Baptists acknowledge no head but
Christ. 2d. They acknowledge no law-giver
but Him. 3d. They accept no rule but His
word. 4th. They point to no man as their
founder as other denominations do. We have
here mentioned a few of the distinctive prin¬
ciples of the Baptists.
Some say that Roger Williams founded the
first Baptist Church in America, but we have
proof positive that when Roger Williams broke
with the powers at Salem in 1635, he joined the
Baptist. The church he founded at Providence
continued but four months, and he himself soon
ceased to be a Baptist. So no man can boast of
having founded the Baptist Church.
The Baptists also hold that each church is
an independent organization; a little Republic
in itself; transacts its own business without in¬
terference of any other church, popes, bishops,
conferences, councils, synods, or other civic rul¬
ers. They hold that anyone applying for mem¬
bership must give evidence of a regenerated
heart. No one is allowed to enjoy the privileges
of membership until they have been immersed
according to the commands of Christ, Matt. 28:
8 EARLY HISTORICAL FACTS OF
19, 20; Mark 16:15, 16. They further hold
that all members are equal in privilege; there
are no lords over God's heritage.
Thomas Jefferson, the writer of the Declar¬
ation of Independence, got his idea of a Republi¬
can form of government, from a little Baptist
church near his home in Monticello, Virginia.
The Baptists have always consulted the
word of God, as authority in all matters of fiiith
and religion. "Thus saith the Lord" has always
been their watchword.
In brief, I have given a few of the leading
facts why I am a Baptist. We do not mean to
write a history of the Baptists, but to give a com¬
pendium of facts relative to the African Bap¬
tists of this country and its territories, Canada,
the West Indies, and Africa, for these foreign
churches were founded by the African Baptists
of the United States of America, which we will
show subsequently.
THE AFRICAN BAPTIST CHURCHES 9
CHAPTER II.
Negro Baptist, the Oldest Independent Organ¬
ization of Negroes in the United States
of America.
The lamented Bishop Benjamin Arnett,
who, in his life-time, was the historian of the
great African Methodist Church, said "the Af¬
rican Methodist Church is the oldest independ¬
ent religious Negro organization in the United
States of America." All honor to the memory
of Benjamin Arnett as a historian, for he had
few equals and fewer superiors; all honor to his
usefulness and great scholarship; but if ever he
made a historic mistake he did certainly err
when he made such a declaration that, "The
great African Methodist Church is the oldest in¬
dependent religious Negro organization in the
United States of America."
This historic error has found its way into
histories and into encyclopedias. And it is all
the more strange that it has been allowed to
stand uncorrected or refuted. Even the ex-
10 EARLY HISTORICAL FACTS OF
President of the United States, namely, Hon.
Theodore Roosevelt, reiterated the same error
a few years ago during his presidency in one of
his speeches.
History in its strictest sense is a true and
faithful account of men and things, either oral
or written; outside of that it is a misnomer and
unworthy of the name history.
Now we will give the facts, as they are, rel¬
ative to the great African Methodist Church and
ihe great African Baptist Church in the United
States of America. We do this in a dispassion¬
ate and unprejudiced manner. Not as a Bap¬
tist, not swayed by my feelings, with no inten¬
tion to rob any one .of any justly earned honors,
but that the people may know the truth and
nothing but the truth; for this error has been
liouted around at commencements of colleges,
conferences and lectures, until so many people,
not only the illiterate, but people of scholarly at¬
tainments, have been misled by it.
First place Richard Allen was the first
Bishop and founder of the great African Metho¬
dist Church in this country. Allen did not or¬
ganize his class while the African Methodists
were with the White Methodists until 1787, 13
years after the first African Baptist Church was
organized. Rev. W. H. Moses, D. D., a Baptist
minister and historian, says it was fourteen
THE AFRICAN BAPTIST CHURCHES 11
years, but with careful research I find the differ¬
ence to be 13 years.
The first African Baptist Church that we
have any record of was organized in 1774, in
Aikin County, South Carolina, in George Gol-
pin's mill, one year before the first gun of free¬
dom was fired at Lexington and Concord.
This Church was called the Silver Bluff
Baptist Church, and was organized by David
George, a Negro Baptist preacher.
Mark, Allen and his class remained with
the White Methodists twenty-nine years after
his class was organized. It was 1816 before the
convention was called to organize the great Af¬
rican Methodist Church, so you see by the above
figures that David George, a Negro Baptist
preacher, organized the Silver Bluff Baptist
Church forty-two years before the above named
convention was called to organize the great Af¬
rican Methodist Church. Therefore, the Negro
Baptist Church, according to the above figures
and facts is forty-two years older than the great
African Methodist Church. These are cold
facts that cannot be denied or refuted; and these
churches exist to this day as witnesses of this
truth. We give these figures and it does not
take much of a mathematician to decide on
which side the truth falls.
Instead of the great African Methodist
12
EARLY HISTORICAL FACTS OF
Church being- the first independent religious
Negro organization in the United States of
America, we are presumptuous enough to say-
that apart from the insults, they, namely, Allen
and the African Methodists, received from the
White Methodists, at Philadelphia, they re¬
ceived their incentive from the African Baptists
to be independent. After all the African
Baptist Denomination is the daddy of all sep¬
arate and independent organizations of Negroes
in the United States of America.
More anon.
THE AFRICAN BAPTIST CHURCHES 13
CHAPTER III.
In the preceding chapter we changed the
word church from the singular to the plural,
churches; that is, when we spoke of the organ¬
ization of the Silver Bluff Baptist Church as the
oldest, separate independent Negro organization
m the United States of America. We said these
churches stand as witnesses to this truth. Our
reason for making use of this term—these
churches stand as witnesses to this truth—be¬
cause the same David George who organized the
Silver Bluff Baptist Church took fifty members
from the said church four years later, namely,
1778, on account of the Revolutionary War, to
Savannah, Georgia, and organized them into the
First Baptist Church of that place, which still
exists and is one of the largest churches in the
United States of America. Therefore, we use
the term, these churches stand as witnesses to
this truth.
As we said in the preceding chapter it was
thought for a long time by some people that the
African Methodist Episcopal Denomination was
14
EARLY HISTORICAL FACTS OF
the first denomination in modern times to organ¬
ize independent Negro churches. The reason
this error is of so long standing and was left un¬
corrected, as Rev. W. H. Moses. D. D., says,
"Our extreme modesty and indifference about
the matter permitted the error to find its way
into history without protest;" and as he further
t.aid,"While we do not wish to give the facts in
a spirit of boasting nor make any unfavorable
comparison, it is a fact that there were several
large historic independent African Baptist
Churches in this country a generation before the
African Methodist Church was organized."
What is called the heroic period of the Af¬
rican Methodist Episcopal Church is reckoned
from 1778 to 1816. During that time Allen's
class of forty Negroes was under the St. George
Methodist Episcopal Church (white) at Phila¬
delphia. As we said above, the convention was
not called to organize the African Methodist
I' piscapal Church until 1816.
To be more specific the Silver Bluff Baptist
Church of South Carolina was located just
twelve miles from Augusta, Georgia. We still
hold the plural idea of witnesses.
The Springfield Baptist Church of Augusta,
Georgia, is forty-two years older than the Afri¬
can Methodist Church.
The First African Baptist Church of Savan-
THE AFRICAN BAPTIST CHURCHES 15
nah is thirty-seven years older than the A. M. E.
Church; the First African Baptist Church of
Kingston, that is, in Jamaica, West India, is
thirty-two years older; the Second Baptist-
Church of Savannah, Georgia, is twenty-two
years older; the First African Baptist Church ot
New Providence, is twenty-five years older and
had eight hundred members when Bethel was
born; the First African Baptist Church of Shel-
bourne, or Shelby, Nova Scotia, is thirty-four
years older; the First Baptist Church of Sierra
Leone, British Central Africa, is twenty-four
years older; the Independent Church of Boston,
Mass., the Butt Street Church of Norfolk, Va.,
the Harrison Street Church of Petersburg, are
eleven years older than Bethel; the Abyssinian
Baptist Church of New York is eight years
older; the First African Baptist Church of Phil¬
adelphia is seven years older than the African
Methodist Episcopal Church.
And many others we could name of less
prominence, but we do not wish to make this
chapter too lengthy. But in all probability the
fact that there were so many separate and inde¬
pendent Negro Baptist Churches was a great
spur to the African Methodist to pull out and
set up for themselves.
We give this number of churches to
sustain our declaration of plurality of witnesses
16
EARLY HISTORICAL FACTS OF
that we made above. This is proof positive
which cannot be successfully denied. The
Great African Methodist Denomination is only
eight years older than the First African Baptist
Church at Chillicothe, Ohio, and the Middlerun
Baptist Church at Xenia, Ohio. I must not for¬
get to mention my spiritual grandmother,
namely, the First African Baptist Church, of
St. Louis, Mo.
There are few people, white or black, east
of the Mississippi River, after we leave Illinois,
that know that this church is the oldest church
of any Christian denomination west of the Mis¬
sissippi River. Baptists, Protestants and Catho¬
lics concede this fact and acknowledge her ,all
alike, as their mother. This is not only Church
History but it is a part of the history of Missouri.
There is not a State or Territory of the United
States of America that the influence of this
church has not been felt in. I do not believe
that any church has ordained and sent out more
ministers than this church in question. I have
known this church to have eight men ordained
at a time, all of whom made able pastors and
ministers of Christ.
One of this eight, thirty-nine years ago,
when I was but a beardless youth, baptized me
into the faith of the gospel (that is September.
1881, thirty-nine years ago). Many churches on
THE AFRICAN BAPTIST CHURCHES 17
both sides of the Mississippi, east and west, and
also west of the Rocky Mountains, have grown
out of this church.
As I called her my spiritual grandmother,
for the church I was baptized into sprang from
her. Verily her branches have reached to the
ends of the earth. I should say for this church
that she has had only about seven, regular pas¬
tors, not more than eight at most, in all of her
existence. Her present place of worship is at
the corner of fourteenth and Clark Ave., St.
Louis, Mo.
18 EARLY HISTORICAL FACTS OF
CHAPTER IV.
Some of the Early Prominent Ministers of the
African Baptist Church, and What They
Accomplished.
David George, the father of the African
Baptist Church in this country, as early as 1780
was preaching the gospel in Charleston, South
Carolina. We have already referred to his hav¬
ing founded the church at Savannah, Ga., in
1778.
In 1782 he sailed to Nova Scotia and
founded the church at Shelbourne, or Shelby.
Ten years later, namely, 1792, he sailed with
12,000 of our race to Sierra Leone, British Cen¬
tral Africa, and founded the First Baptist
Church there.
This great and good man is father of the
African Baptist Church in the United States of
America, Canada and Sierra Leone, Africa.
Authority, "The Story of Baptist Missions."
The estimation in which he was and is held by
historians: "Bill," in his history enrolls him
THE AFRICAN BAPTIST CHURCHES 19
among the pioneer preachers of Canada. Dr.
Brooks said, "If the Silver Bluff Baptist Church
had done nothing more than to give the world
this earnest Christian man, this faithful
preacher of Christ, this potent factor in found¬
ing a colony under the British flag, she had not
existed in vain." Rev. W. H. Moses, D. D.
Rev. J. W. Robinson, A. M., historian, of
St. Albans, W. Va., a Baptist said of Rev.
Richard Allen, founder of the A. M. E. church,
perhaps was the most distinguished of all Negro
preachers of ante-bellum days. I like Brother
Robinson's fairmindedness, though he himself a
Baptist that he could give credit to men of merit
i|n other denominations But I was thinking, and
would like to know whether Brother Robin¬
son knew of David George and George Liele (or
Lisle), Negro Baptist preachers.
He that reads the life of these two men and
compares their extensive labors and sufferings,
with that of Richard Allon, then let him decide
who has the right to be called the most distin¬
guished, if usefulness and service are to be ac¬
counted anything.
Another prominent Baptist preacher of
early times, Rev. George Liele (or Lisle), a Ne¬
gro Baptist minister, a native of Virginia. He
was licensed to preach in 1777, and labored
among the people of his own race. His master
20 EARLY HISTORICAL FACTS OF
was a Royalist, and on the evacuation of Savan-
i ah by the British troops, at the close of the
Revolutionary War, Liele was obliged to leave.
He went to Jamaica and began to preach at
Kingston and the vicinity in the year 1783,
and formed a church, consisting of four Ne¬
groes, who like himself, were refugees from the
United States of America.
By 1791 he had baptized four hundred per¬
sons; two years later upwards of a hundred
more had been baptized. His public meetings
were sometimes entered and disturbed. A gen¬
tleman, so called, once road his horse into the
chapel and said, "Now, old Liele, give my
horse the sacrament." Rev. Liele replied with
quiet dignity, "No sir, you are not fit yourself to
receive it." He was repeatedly arrested and
imprisoned, but the church prospered, and after
his death had a constant succession of pastors.
In 1841 is numbered 3,700 members. And
all of this was accomplished in fifty-eight or
fifty-nine years of that church's existence.
The White Baptist did not send a mission¬
ary to the West Indies until 1813. Rev. John
Rowe was sent by the English Missionary So¬
ciety of London. Liele had been working there
thirty years. Cook was right when he said in his¬
tory "That the first Baptist preacher in Jamaica
was a black man, who though a slave, had been
THE AFRICAN BAPTIST CHURCHES 21
l»astor of the Baptist Church in Savannah,
Georgia." Moses says "That the Silver Bluff
Baptist Church gave the world George Liele."
I do not quite agree with Rev. W. H. Moses,
D. D,, because George Liele began his career
as a preacher in Virginia in 1777. The Silver
Bluff Baptist Church might have had a great
deal to do with bringng him into prominence,
but I o'o not think he was a child of that church.
"The Story of Baptist Missions," (chapter 48,
beginning on page 611-612).
Another leading light among the early
African Baptist preachers, the Rev. Jesse Peter,
whom the Silver Blulf Baptist Church gave to
the world, who revived the Silver Bluff Baptist
Church after the Revolutionary War, and trans¬
ferred its place of meeting, on account of perse¬
cutions, into Augusta, Georgia, where it became
the Springfield congregation, the oldest Negro
congregation of any kind on the American con¬
tinent.
Benedict in his history of the Baptists
speaks of him in very complimentary terms.
The Silver Bluff Baptist Church gave to the
world another gifted preacher in the person of
Henry Francis, the founder of the Ogche Bap¬
tist Church on the Ogche River, fourteen miles
from Savannah in 1803.
Lot Carey, of Richmond, Virginia, a slave
22
EARLY HISTORICAL FACTS OF
who purchased himself and sailed for Africa in
1821 in company with Rev. Collins Teague as
voluntary missionary to Liberia. We would like
to have Rev. J. W. Robinson to draw a compari¬
son between Lot Carey (who was not only mis¬
sionary to but governor of Liberia) and Rev.
Richard Allen.
Time would fail us to speak further of the
early heroes of the African Baptist Church.
There is a great galaxy of worthies and heroes
that we might make mention of but this brief
space will not allow.
THE AFRICAN BAPTIST CHURCHES 23
CHAPTER V
The Early African Baptist Church and Ministry
of the United States of America Led Off in
Foreign Missions, or Were the Pioneers.
Nine years before the Foreign Mission So¬
ciety of England was organized, which sent
William Carey to India in 1792, Moses Bakes
and George Gibbons, two Negro Baptist preach¬
ers left the United States of America in 1783
as voluntary missionaries to the West Indies.
Before the American Baptist Home Mission
Society was organized in 1832 the Negro Bap¬
tists of South Carolina and Georgia had estab¬
lished churches from Canada to the West In¬
dies.
Twenty-two years before the Missionary
Union was organized in 1814 Hector Petor and
Sampson Colbert, two Negro Baptist preachers,
left the United States of America in 1792 as
voluntary missionaries to the west coast of
Africa.
Twelve years before the White Methodist
sent out their first foreign missionary in 1833,
Lot Carey, a slave in Richmond, Virginia,
24 EARLY HISTORICAL FACTS OF
bought himself (he was a shoemaker by trade)
and sailed with Collins Teague in 1821 as vol¬
untary missionaries to Liberia, Africa.
In short, as has been shown, nine years be¬
fore the White Baptist of the United States of
America began foreign missions, the Negro Bap¬
tists were doing foreign mission work.
Fifty years before the White Methodist of
the United States of America, sent out their first
foreign missionary in 1833, Negroes were doing
foreign mission work.
So you see by the above figures and histor¬
ical data, both African Baptist Churches and
the African Baptist preachers of this country
were in the advance of all others in this country
ill the foreign mission field, leading the White
Baptists by nine years and the White Methodist
by fifty years in the above named work.
THE AFftlCAN BAPTIST CHURCHES 25
CHAPTER VI.
What the Modern African Baptist Church, or
the Church of the Present Day, is Doing.
A man's honor or disgrace lays in the fact
of his ability, or inability, to manage or not
manage a great fortune that is left him.
Almost from time immemorial a rich legacy
lias been left to the communicants of the mod¬
ern African Baptist Church by their fathers.
Let's see what use have they made of it. Have
they squandered it, let it go to waste, or have
they increased this splendid fortune that their
fathers laid up amid tears, imprisonments, per¬
secutions and blood?
The following figures will show what use
they have made of such a rich legacy:
First place the number of regenerated and
baptized persons of the African Baptist denom¬
ination of the United States of America is quite
two and a half million. We will not draw the
comparison between ours and other Christian
denominations, but will let the government cen¬
sus of the United States of America speak. This
26 EARLY HISTORICAL FACTS OF
same census accredits the Baptist of having a
million more of membership than all other Ne¬
gro denominations taken together.
Number of organized bodies or churches,
18,000.
Number of ordained ministers, 17,600.
Number of Sunday Schools, 25,000.
Number of teachers in the various Sunday
iSchools of the denomination, not certain.
Number of pupils in those Sunday Schools,
2,000,000.
Number of colleges, 60.
Number of Academies and High Schools,
100.
Number of College and Academic teachers,
8,000.
Number of College and Academic students,
i50,000.
Number of Colleges and Universities, 57,
which are owned and controlled by the Colored
Baptist, and are raising and expending annually
$250,000 to carry on this work.
The Publishing House, at Nashville, Tenn.,
under the matchless leadership of Dr. R. H.
Boyd. Seventeen years ago the Negro Baptist
of the United States of America put into his
hands $165 with which to start a publishing
house, every dollar of which has multiplied
several times. Since that time this establish-
THE AFRICAN BAPTIST CHURCHES 27
raent has done more than $1,195,000 worth of
business and donated or given away quite
$302,000.
Value of property of Publishing House,
$350,000, with a debt* of less than $25,000.
A Training School for our women and girls,
at Washington, D. C., under Sister Nannie H.
Burroughs. The property is worth $25,000.
State Conventions, 65.
Associations, 525.
Books and Bibles in library, about 206,532.
Number of meeting houses, 17,913; seating
capacity, 5,610,391.
Valuation of church property, $24,437,272.
Missions: The denomination is operating
Missions on the West, the South Coast and Brit¬
ish Central Africa, also in South America, and
the West Indies.
The membership of these missions is more
than 8,000.
We should not fail to make mention of the
Baptist Young People's Union. This branch of
our deominational work is the youngest and yet
as important as any other branch. This organi¬
zation is less than 20 years old, yet in this short
time, more than 15,000,000 Baptist Young
People have been enrolled as members, having
for their motto "Loyalty to Christ." The African
wing of the Baptist Young People's Union has
for its National Secretary, Rev. Dr. E. W. D.
28 EARLY HISTORICAL FACTS OF
Jsaac a native of Texas. In this wing of the work
we have mustered almost as many Baptist
young people as in the Sunday School branch
of the work, for they are almost one and insep¬
arable.
These figures given are not overdrawn, but
are rather modest, yet the data is reliable.
Authors or sources:
"The Story of Baptist Missions."
"Benedict's History of the Baptists."
Rev. H. W. Moses, D. D., Historian.
Bill's History.
The National Baptist Union and Review.
The Mission- Herald.
I especially acknowledge myself under
many obligations to Rev. W. H. Moses, D. D.,
and A. W. Puller, D. D., for the help I have re¬
ceived from them, and many other good bro¬
thers I do not here mention.
JOSEPH JULIUS JACKSON, D. D.
Finis.