[1] The resolution was: "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 the knowledge of the truth as it is
in Jesus. He closed his extensively useful, and amazingly luminous
course, in the lively exercise of faith, and in the joyful hope of a
happy immortality." See Benedict's _History of the Baptists_.
[2] Semple, _History of the Baptists in Virginia_, p. 355.
[3] Semple, _History of the Baptists in Virginia_, p. 356.
[4] _The Negro Year Book_, 1918-1919, p. 236; Benedict, _History of
the Baptists_, 376.
[5] By way of comparison, be it further remembered, that the founder
of the African Methodist Episcopal Church was originally a member of
the St. George Society, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and he and
others withdrew from that body of white persons in 1787; but it was
not until 1794, that Bishop Francis Asbury constituted the Bethel A.
M. E. Church at Philadelphia, which claims to be the oldest Negro
Methodist church in the country. The Zion Church, of the African
Methodist Episcopal Zion connection, New York City, was founded in
1796, while the first church of Negro Episcopalians, the St. Thomas
Church, Philadelphia, was planted by Bishop William White in 1794. The
Lombard Street Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, the oldest
organization of Negro Presbyterians in America, was constituted
in 1807, and not until 1829 was the first church of Negro
Congregationalists, the Dixwell Avenue of New Haven, Conn.,
constituted.
[6] Richard Kennard's _History of the Gillfield Baptist Church_, p.
16.
[6] Let me quote here a paragraph from Sprague's _Annals of the
American Pulpit_, Vol. VI, p. 583, (Ed. 1860, published by Robert
Carter and Brother, New York.) The paragraph appears in an article
which the publisher takes from _Taylor's Memoirs.--Missionary Heroes
and Martyrs_.
"In 1850, the late Rev. Eli Ball of Virginia, visited all the Liberian
Baptist Missionary Stations, as agent of the Southern Baptist
Missionary Convention, and, with considerable difficulty, ascertained
the spot where Lott Cary was buried. The next year, a small marble
monument was sent out, and placed over the grave, with the following
inscription:--
"On the front of the monument was--
LOTT CARY
Born a slave in Virginia,
1780,
Removed from Richmond to Africa, as a
Missionary and Colonist,
1821,
Was Pastor of the First Baptist Church,
and an original settler and defender
of the Colony at Monrovia.
Died Acting Governor of Liberia
Nov. 10th, 1828.
His life was the progressive development of an
able intellect and firm benevolent heart,
under the influence of
Freedom and an enlightened Christianity;
and affords the amplest evidence of the capacity
of his race to fill with dignity and usefulness
the highest ecclesiastical and political stations.
Of a truth God is no respecter of persons,
But hath made of one blood all nations of men.