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George Liele (also spelled Lisle or
Leile, 1750–1820) was an African
American and emancipated slave who became the founding pastor of First Bryan Baptist Church and First African Baptist Church,
in Savannah, Georgia (USA).
He became the first American missionary, leaving in 1782 for Jamaica; this is
thirty years before Adoniram Judson left for Burma. He became the
first Baptist
missionary in Jamaica.
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George Liele
(also spelled Lisle or Leile, 1750–1820) was an African
American and emancipated slave who became the founding pastor of First Bryan Baptist Church and First African Baptist Church,
in Savannah, Georgia (USA).
He became the first American missionary, leaving in 1782 for Jamaica; this is
thirty years before Adoniram Judson left for Burma. He became the
first Baptist
missionary in Jamaica.
Liele
was born into slavery in Virginia in 1752, but was taken to Georgia.
As
an adult he was converted by Rev. Matthew Moore of Burke County, Georgia, in 1777, and continued
to worship in this white church for four years until Savannah was evacuated by
forces loyal to Britain. His master Henry Sharp was a deacon in Rev. Moore's
church and encouraged him in his preaching to other slaves.
Liele
was freed by his master Henry Sharp, also a Baptist and Loyalist, before the American Revolution began. Sharp died in battle
as a Tory major on March 1, 1779. Liele went to Savannah, Georgia, where he
helped organize an early Baptist congregation.
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Liele
1st Baptist missionary from America
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Liele 1st Baptist
missionary from America
by
Diana Chandler, posted Friday,
October 31, 2014
NASHVILLE
(BP) -- The only four Baptist pastors in Georgia at the dawn of the American
Revolution were so impressed with the 15-year-old's testimony and gift of
exhortation, they licensed him to preach.
The
older men were all wealthy white plantation owners, but the teenager was George
Liele, an African enslaved by one of the pastors' friends. Liele became the
first ordained black Baptist preacher in the 13 colonies and proceeded to plant
a church in Savannah, Ga., before sailing to Jamaica as the first Baptist
missionary, black or otherwise, from the New World.
In
the 2013 Mercer University Press book, "George Liele's Life and
Legacy," the former slave is hailed as a brilliant peacemaker and unsung hero
for the progress he made against odds and across racial and social boundaries.
Many
Baptist historians have heard Liele's name but few know his significance to the
denomination, said Carlisle Driggers, executive director emeritus of the South
Carolina Baptist Convention and one of 14 co-authors of the book.
"George Liele was really and truly the first Baptist
missionary; there's no way to get around it. Even before William Carey, or Lott
Carey or any of those persons who are so celebrated in Baptist history, there
was George Liele,"
Driggers told Baptist Press. "And George went out
on his own. He was not funded by any missionary society or any group
whatever."
Driggers
and others compare Liele to the Apostle Paul of the early Church.
"[Liele] was a missionary if there ever was a missionary. Just
like Paul, on his own, he went from place to place. Everywhere he went he
preached the Gospel. They'd put him in jail; he'd get out, he'd start a
church," Driggers
said. "But everywhere George went or where his disciples
went, they'd start churches."
Southern
Baptists formally recognized Liele's pioneering missions in a resolution at its
2012 annual meeting in New Orleans, on the occasion of the election of Fred
Luter as the first African American president of the Southern Baptist
Convention. The resolution celebrates Liele as the first overseas missionary
from the U.S., noting that historiography has not always reflected the
contribution of African American Baptists.
Liele
originally had the surname Sharp, after his owner Henry Sharp. Sharp's friend
Matthew Moore, a pastor, had been teaching Liele the Holy Scripture, reading
and writing, when area ministers realized they needed to ordain him, and did so
in 1775, according to the book.
Sharp
freed Liele, who continued to minister in the area until Sharp was killed in
the American Revolution and his sons tried to reenslave Liele. At that time,
Liele adopted his birth surname of Liele, honoring his father, and in 1783
secured passage to Jamaica as an indentured servant of Col. Moses Kirkland, the
commanding officer of British forces in Savannah, Ga. By then, Liele had a wife
and four children who sailed with him.
Liele
is credited with founding the first black Baptist churches in Georgia and
Jamaica, which continue today, and with training missionaries who took the
Gospel to West Africa, where Liele's ancestors were born.
"In Jamaica, he got there and the first thing he did, was
gather up a whole group of folks at a racetrack in Kingston, Jamaica and preach
to them, and the police showed up and locked him up," Driggers said.
"They'd let him out; he'd go right back to preaching. They'd lock him up
[again]."
In
Jamaica, the Church of England was the only congregation law allowed, unless
the legislature granted special permission.
"We don't know how many times he was in jail," Driggers said. "But
during that process, in Jamaica, he worked out a respect on the part of the slave
owners and the politicians. Over time, they began to respect him."
Liele's life was one of precarious balance. He walked a fine line to
serve the Lord, appease slave owners, plant a church and win lost souls to
Christ. Liele had a reputation of being able to work with people who themselves
had conflicting goals,
Driggers said.
"He got along well with anybody and everybody, black, white,
young, old. He just had a way about him, winning people's confidence, and they
would trust him,"
Driggers said. "Liele was a very astute man,
there's no question about it. Theologically, very conservative. He was smart.
And he had a reputation of being able to work with folks."
Liele
arrived in Jamaica about 10 years before William Carey preached his famous
sermon which created the Baptist Missionary Society in Kettering, England.
Liele's history attracted the attention of theologian and pastor David T.
Shannon Sr., now deceased, who pulled together a team of 14 leaders to conduct
research and write the book on Liele. Included were pastors, theologians,
historians, authors, teachers, attorneys and a Liele descendant.
Liele
ushered in a new era for Jamaica, said Noel Leo Erskine, a book co-author,
theologian and Jamaican native who grew up in the Ethiopian Baptist Church of
Jamaica Liele founded.
"This man was infatuated with preaching and baptizing. I think
they should call him the baptizer,"
said Erskine, professor of theology and ethics at Emory University's Candler
School of Theology in Atlanta. "He gets on the
boat to sail to Jamaica. He jumps off the boat and he baptizes people and he
jumps back on. And what a phenomenon that must have been for enslaved Africans,
for the first time in their lives, to see a fellow African preaching the
Gospel."
Liele
was first accused of preaching a liberation theology during his early
imprisonments in Jamaica.
"The word was his sermons were incendiary, they were stirring
up the people. He preached on Romans 10:1, 'Brethren my heart's desire for
Israel is they may be saved,'
Erskine paraphrased. "And he went on to talk about
Africans in Jamaica being like Israel in bondage and it was God's will for them
to be freed, to be saved. And he ended up in jail ... serious jail, because
they say his feet were in the stocks and he was chained ... really on death
row."
Anabaptist covenant
Liele
turned the tables by implementing an Anabaptist covenant that sought to appease
slaveholders and slaves, and allowed Liele to continue a life of ministry.
Erskine believes Liele brought with him from Georgia the document entitled
"The Covenant of the Anabaptist Church, Begun in America, December 1777,
and in Jamaica, December 1783."
"And
so he came up with this covenant to appease the planters and the legislature.
And the covenant says clearly there is to be no shedding of blood, no
quarrelling among you, no killing among you. Obey your master," Erskine
said. "And he even came up with a bell. The bell would be rung to tell the
masters what time they should send servants to church, and he would ring the
bell after church and say it's time to expect your servants to come home."
Liele's
church was open to all, but slaves could only join with their owner's
permission. While the covenant presented slavery as the norm, Erskine said the
document was indicative of a survival tactic slaves and free blacks have
employed during oppression. Slaves and other oppressed blacks often used a code
language that communicated hopes of freedom, unbeknownst to others.
Erskine
references the traditional Negro spirituals "Steal Away to Jesus" and
"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" as examples.
"The
master heard that and thought, 'Oh those people are singing a great, nice
song,' and they're talking about running away. 'Looked over Jordan, what did I
see?' That's talking about going across the Ohio River [and on up] into
Canada," Erskine said. "So the way the language was coded, the master
was right there and not understanding. Or a slave person passing looking at the
big house, 'Everybody talking about heaven ain't going there.' The codes I
think were a crucial part of it."
Yet,
Liele's approach created tension among African Baptist worshippers in Jamaica,
causing his church to split a number of times, Erskine said.
"There
was tension there because in his heart, Liele was a contextualist,"
Erskine said. "Liele would do what would work. In the end of the day, he wanted
his church to survive and he wanted his people to be freed."
Book
co-author and retired Decatur, Ga., Presbyterian pastor Winston Lawson, a
Jamaican native, calls the covenant "appeasement with a purpose."
"So
Liele's apparent conformist and cooperative strategy, assuring planters that he
would not use church attendance or instruction as opportunities to plan
revolts, derived, no doubt, from his belief that to have half a loaf is better
than having no loaf at all," Lawson wrote in the chapter he authored.
"No wonder he was well spoken of by most of the planter class, as
historian W.J. Garner attests. In fact, Liele carried his appeasement
strategy-with-a-purpose forward by enunciating the aforementioned covenant, not
only as a strict religious guideline for members, but as an agreement of
loyalty and cooperation with the Jamaican legislature."
The
legislators were planters and slaveholders, Lawson said, and had been
accustomed to doing whatever they willed with the slaves they purchased.
For
instance, article 16 of the covenant condemned the breakup of families, which
was a direct attack on plantation owners, who actively discouraged marriage and
opposed the family unit among slaves in every conceivable way, Lawson said. The
covenant also established a system of law and governance within the church for
its members, which strategically bypassed the civil authorities, who are
categorized as "the unjust" in articles 9 and 11.
"It
was also a rebuke to the plantation owners, a subtle rebuke," Lawson told Baptist
Press, "because they would just do whatever they wanted to do, whether
they were married to the enslaved people or not. It was a kind of underhanded
compliment. Even when he was advocating marriage, he was also chastising those
who were doing things outside of marriage as the norm for them."
Liele
was himself a slaveholder, evidenced by his last will and testament leaving his
eight slaves to his widow Hannah, stipulating they were to be freed upon her
death. Liele is believed to have died in 1825 or 1828, according to the book.
Liele
never accepted a salary from his church, but earned money through a business
transporting ammunition from the naval base in Port Royal to Kingston. He also
received monetary contributions from a church pastored by his friend John
Rippon in London, England.
Erskine
attributes Liele's ownership of slaves to the influence of George Whitefield,
remembered as Liele's favorite preacher.
'We're
a little bit ashamed that he caused a little blot there," Erskine told
Baptist Press. "But then ... I argue it this way, that they say that his
favorite preacher, Liele's favorite preacher, was George Whitefield, and that
he mimicked Whitefield in the way which he preached, with his gesticulations.
"And
Whitefield was one of the biggest slave owners in Georgia. [I argue] that it
was not unusual, since he came out of Georgia, for preachers to have slaves. So
he really didn't have any good role model [regarding slavery] … in terms of
what it meant to be a Christian clergyman."
"But
it seems to me that if you're involved in that structure of slavery ... it
comes in like capitalism today. Look at us Christians and how we relate to
money," Erskine said of the temptation toward materialism and greed.
"Look at our priorities. It seems to me … that if you come close to
absolute evil, it messes you up. Even a lovely man like that, slavery ...
affected him."
Diana
Chandler is general assignment writer/editor for Baptist Press, the Southern
Baptist Convention's news service.
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George Liele
America’s
First Missionary: George Liele
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Missionaries
you should know: George Liele
by
Lesley Hildreth, posted Friday,
June 29, 2018 (9 months ago)
Tags:
George Liele
RICHMOND
(BP) -- One of the most significant figures in the history of Christian
missions is a freed Georgia slave named George Liele. Even though William Carey
may be called the father of the modern missionary movement, George Liele left
America and planted the Gospel in Jamaica a full 10 years before Carey left
England.
Conversion and early ministry
George
Liele came to Christ in 1773, at the age of 23, and was baptized by his white
pastor, Matthew Moore. Some time after Liele's conversion, his owner, Henry
Sharp, who was a Baptist deacon, gave Liele his freedom so he could pursue
God's call. Liele preached for two years in the slave quarters of plantations
surrounding Savannah and into South Carolina after his conversion.
Because
of his faithfulness and powerful preaching of the Word, many surrendered their
lives to Christ. George Liele was ordained on May 20, 1775, becoming the first
ordained African American Baptist preacher in America. After his ordination, he
planted the first African American Baptist Church in North America, a church
still in existence today.
An open door to preach in Jamaica
In
1778, Henry Sharp was killed in the Revolutionary War. After his death, Sharp's
heirs took steps to re-enslave Liele. As a result of their actions, Liele was
thrown in jail. Eventually, he was able to produce proper documentation
concerning his freedom and was set free.
Soon
after his release, Moses Kirkland, a colonel of the British army, befriended
Liele and helped him leave the country. Kirkland helped pay for Liele's trip to
Jamaica, and after two years Liele paid this debt and obtained a certificate of
freedom for himself and his family. George and his wife Hannah and their four
children left Savannah and landed in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1782.
When
Liele landed in Jamaica it was a British colony. There, Liele found land and a
people who needed a missionary. Slaves were brought from Africa to Jamaica to
work on the sugar plantations. These men and women had no real knowledge of
Jesus Christ and the Gospel. Liele planted a church and held a baptism service
every three months. These baptisms were public events in which professing
converts were baptized in a nearby ocean or river.
The growth of an integrated ministry
The
work of the church and the public baptisms caused persecution.
Eventually,
Liele was charged with preaching sedition and was thrown into prison. He was
later acquitted of these charges. Despite facing these hostilities, during the
eight years of preaching, he was able to baptize 500 people and establish a
strong church.
Not
only did Liele's ministry lead to a spiritual impact on the island, but his work
also made a social difference for the Jamaican slaves. By July 31, 1838,
slavery was eradicated in Jamaica.
In
1814, there were only about 8,000 Baptists in Jamaica. This number included
slaves, freedmen, and some whites. However, as a result of Liele's ministry, by
1832 there were over twenty thousand believers.
Author
David Shannon summed up Liele's life of ministry this way: "The Christianity practiced by Liele was not limited to
one nation, colony, or ethnic group but was a faith found and spread through
interaction with colonists and national leaders in the Americas and England. In
turn, this broad vision of Christianity shaped and spread a variety of
Christian experience that became widespread and influential in black, white and
integrated congregations in Georgia, South Carolina, Jamaica, Nova Scotia,
Sierra Leone and beyond."
Training and sending out missionaries beyond Jamaica
Not
only was Liele an effective missionary and evangelist, he was known for
encouraging his converts to go preach the Gospel to the lost. As a result of
his leadership, they went to Savannah, Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone.
Adoniram
Judson is often cited as the first Baptist missionary from the United States.
But, in fact, this designation belongs to George Liele. His story is an
important part of missionary history and is worthy of emulation.
George
Liele died in 1828. He may have begun life as a slave, but he lived as a free
man in Christ. He left a rich legacy of thousands who were transformed by the
good news of Jesus.
This article first appeared on the International Mission
Board's website.
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George
Liele's Life and Legacy: An Unsung Hero (The James N. Griffith Endowed Series
in Baptist Studies) (James N. Griffith Series in Baptist Studies) 1st Edition
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