20 – January – 20 – THIS DAY IN BAPTIST HISTORY PAST

 

 

First Black Baptists in Savannah, GA

1788 – Andrew Bryan was ordained into the gospel ministry. Bryan pastored the first Negro Baptist church in Georgia. The church was founded by Abraham Marshall whose father, Daniel, founded the first Baptist church in Georgia. Abraham baptized forty-five black believers and along with others who had been previously baptized he formed them into a church and called and ordained Andrew Bryan as pastor. Bryan had been a convert of George Leile who had been a slave of Deacon Henry Sharp of the First Baptist Church of Savannah, Georgia. When Deacon Sharp detected that his servant was called of God, he emancipated the stirring preacher so that he could give himself totally to the preaching of the gospel. Ordained in 1775, Leile labored in and around Savannah before leaving in 1775 for Jamaica in 1779. Thus Leile predated the service of William Carey, “the founder of modern Baptist missions.” Upon Bryan’s death a resolution was passed  by the Savannah Baptist Association in 1812. It read in part: “the Association is sensibly affected by the death of the Rev. Andrew Bryan, a man of color, and pastor of the First Colored Church in Savannah. This son of Africa, after suffering inexpressible persecutions in the cause of his divine Master, was at length permitted to discharge the duties of the ministry among his colored friends in peace and quiet, hundreds of whom through his instrumentality, were brought to a knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus…”
Dr. Greg J. Dixon from; adapted from: This Day in Baptist History Vol. I: Cummins Thompson /, pp. 26-28.

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250 – Sept. 07 – This Day in Baptist History Past

 

Knibb – Center

 

He Helped Defeat the Slave Code

 

1803 – William Knibb was born in Kettering, England, eleven years after the first missionary society in modern history was founded in the same place in 1792. His father gave no indication of salvation, but his mother took the children to Sunday school at the Independent Chapel. William moved to Bristol with his older brother Thomas, and was baptized by Dr. John Ryland in 1822. Thomas went to Jamaica as a schoolmaster and died within four months. William applied to the same mission society to take his place, married on Oct. 1824, and sailed for that other world a month later. His heart broke to see the injustice of slavery. The Society wrote him to have nothing to do with civil or political affairs. He raised the money to set a Black slave free who had been flogged and made to work on a chain gang for two weeks because he attended a prayer meeting. He helped defeat the Slave Code which would have made missionary work among slaves impossible. He also went to England in 1832 to help Wilberforce in his effort to pass the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 through the British Parliament, which abolished slavery throughout most of the British Empire. He died in 1845 at the age of forty-two. [Ernest A. Payne, The Great Succession (London: Carey Press, 1946), p.44. This Day in Baptist History II: Cummins and Thompson, BJU Press: Greenville, S.C. 2000 A.D. pp. 490-91.] Prepared by Dr. Greg Dixon

 

111– April 21 – This Day in Baptist History

 

Ordination of “Colored” Billy Harriss

 

The history of the First Baptist Church of Richmond, Virginia, records the fact that “colored deacons were elected, whose duty it was to watch over slave and free Negro members.  According to custom, the church licensed certain colored men who, by consecration and aptitude, seemed best fitted to ‘exercise their spiritual gifts in public.’ “ At least fifteen years prior to William Carey’s sailing for India, George Lisle, the “first ordained Baptist Negro in America,” went to Jamaica as a missionary. Lott Carey, member of the First Baptist Church of Richmond, purchased his and his children’s freedom for eight hundred and fifty dollars in 1813. Carey, along with Collin Teague, sailed in 1821 for Liberia and established the First Baptist Church in Monrovia. Prior to the Civil War, Abraham Marshall, pastor at Kiokee, ordained Andrew Bryan in Savannah.  It was prior to the Civil War that John Jasper was saved and sent by his “master” to preach the gospel.  However, the church minutes prior to the Civil war always alluded to blacks as “belonging to . . . “ and the name of the “master” followed. After the Civil War, the minutes named the black and then stated, “formerly the property of . . . .”   Following the Civil War, as before, blacks were still ordained into the gospel ministry. On April 21, 1867, we read from the Kiokee minutes:  “The Baptist Church of Christ at Kiokee met and proceeded to the ordination of Brother Billy Hariss, colored, to preach the Gospel.

 

Dr. Dale R. Hart Adapted from:  This Day in Baptist History Vol. I: Cummins Thompson /, p. 162

 

 

319 – Nov. 15 – THIS DAY IN BAPTIST HISTORY PAST

“…whatever be the consequences, I will speak.”

November 15, 1845 – Jacob Knibb, died after only four days of illness with the yellow fever. Over 8,000 assembled on the Island of Jamaica for the memorial service, because Knibb, known as “the lion-hearted” and having been exposed to the severest trials, had been the major instrument to bring spiritual and bodily liberty to the slaves. Opposition to knibb had come from the Roman and English clergy, the planters, the civil authorities and the soldiers. Knibb bravely met and conquered all his adversaries. Upon his departure from Bristol, England, his invalid mother sat at a window early one morning, watching her Baptist missionary son depart for the West Indies. Having bade farewell, she called him back and said, “Remember, William, I would rather hear that you perished at sea, than that you had disgraced the cause you go to serve.” With this admonition ringing in his heart, he arrived in Jamaica and was brought face to face with the horrors of slavery. His whole manhood revolted and he vowed that he would not rest until freedom was obtained. He wrote home, “The cursed blast of slavery has, like a pestilence, withered almost every moral bloom…” He also reported that the prayer meeting at 6 am every Wednesday. morning was attended by nearly a 1,000 slaves. Knibb was thrown into prison and was charged with inciting the slaves to rebellion. He declined to leave the island, though a way of escape was offered him. At last the Attorney General declared that there was no case against him. He returned to England on a holy crusade only to find that the missionary committee regarded slavery as a political question and required their representatives to remain silent on the subject. Knibb responded. “…whatever be the consequences, I will speak.” And speak he did. On July 31, 1838, 14,000 adult slaves and 5,000 children were liberated.

Dr. Greg J. Dixon from: This Day in Baptist History Vol. I: Cummins /Thompson/, pp. 475-76.