Abraham Marshall, Savannah, to John Rippon, London, 18 July 1790.

Savannah, July 19, 1790, &c.

Dear Brother,

         With pleasure I received your favour of the 20th ult. More particularly, as I trust the correspondence may be of use to Brother Andrew’s church; concerning the origin of which, I have taken from him the following account. [340]

         “Our Brother Andrew was one of the black hearers of George Liele,” of whom an account was given before; “and was hopefully converted by his preaching from chapter iii. of St. John’s Gospel, and a clause of verse 7, Ye must be born again: prior to the departure of George Liele for Jamaica, he came up from Tybee river, where departing vessels frequently lay ready for sea, and baptized our Brother Andrew, with a wench of the name of Hagar, both belonging to Jonathan Bryan, Esq; these were the last performances of our Brother Geoge Liele in this quarter. About eight or nine months after his departure, Andrew began to exhort his black hearers, with a few whites. Edward Davis, Esq; indulged him and his hearers to erect a rough building on his land, at Yamacraw, in the suburbs of Savannah, for a place of worship, of which they have been very artfully dispossessed. In this their beginning of worship they had frequent interruptions from the whites; as it was at a time that a number of blacks had absconded, and some had been taken away by the British. This was a plausible excuse for their wickedness in the interruptions. The whites grew more and more inveterate; taking numbers of them before magistrates – they were imprisoned and whipped. Sampson, a Brother of Andrew, belonging to the same master, was converted about a year after him, and continued with him in all their persecutions, and does until now. These, with many others, were twice imprisoned, and about fifty were severely whipped, particularly Andrew, who was cut, and bled abundantly,” while he was under their lashes: Brother Hambleton says, he held up his hands, and told his persecutors that he rejoiced not only to be whipped, but would freely suffer death for the cause of Jesus Christ. “The chief justice Henry Osborne, Esq; James Habersham, Esq;* and David Montague, Esq; were their examinants, and released them. Their kind master also interceded for them; and was much affected and grieved at their punishment.” Brother Hambleton was also an advocate for them; and further says, that at one of their examinations George Walton, Esq; spoke freely in favour of the sufferers; saying, that such treatment would be condemned even among barbarians. “The chief justice Osborne then gave them liberty to continue their worship any time between sun-rising and sun-set; and their indulgent master told the magistrates, that he would give them the liberty of his own house or his barn, at [341] a place called Brampton, about three miles from town, and that they should not be interrupted in their worship. In consequence hereof, they made use of their master’s barn, where they had a number of hearers, with little or no interruption, for about two years. During the time of worship at Brampton, Brother Thomas Burton, an elderly Baptist preacher, paid them a visit, examined and baptized about eighteen blacks: at another period while there, they received a visit from our Brother Abraham Marshall,**, who examined and baptized about forty, and gave them two certificates from under his hand;” copies of which follow:

This is to certify, that upon examination into the experiences and characters of a number of Ethiopians, at and adjacent to Savannah, it appears that God has brought them out of darkness into the light of the Gospel, and given them fellowship one with the other: believing it is the will of Christ, we have constituted them a church of Jesus Christ, to keep up his worship and ordinances.                        

A. MARSHALL, V. D. M.

* The Rev. Mr. George Whitefield’s intimate friend.

** I have not the honour of a correspondence with this respectable minister, but his name, I perceive, stands thus in the Georgia Association of 1788. At “Kioka, Abraham Marshall 23 baptized, 230” members in all. Editor. [John Rippon.]

Text: From John Rippon, ed., “Sketch of the Black Baptist Church at Savannah, in Georgia; and of their Minister Andrew Bryan, extracted from several Letters,” Baptist Annual Register, vol. 1, 1790-93, pp. 339-41.