We must be Very Ignorant or Very Wicked: The Foundation of the Native Baptist Church in Jamaica, 1783-1841

Abstract

In 1783, a former slave named George Liele fleeing the American Revolution started the first Baptist church in the British colony of Jamaica. For the next few decades, Liele’s organization would grow into a network of Black-led Baptist churches. In 1814, the Baptist Missionary Society sent British preachers to take over the existing network of churches after the colony outlawed the original Baptist preachers. And in 1831, an enslaved deacon named Samuel Sharpe in a British missionary’s church started the Baptist Rebellion, the largest slave revolt in British history, accelerating the date of emancipation up to 1833-1834. While nominally controlled entirely by White missionaries, enslaved leaders created a second leadership structure within the church that continued the legacy of Liele’s original Baptists. After the end of slavery in Britain, growing discontent with the suppression of Black leaders in the church would lead to the formation of the Native Baptist church.