With the fall of Savannah, at the very close of the year 1778, the
Silver Bluff Church completed the first stage in its history. At that
time Rev. David George, the pastor, and about forty other slaves, whom
George Galphin had abandoned in his flight, went to Savannah, to find
safety and freedom under the British flag. Later David George returned
to South Carolina, and abode for a time in the city of Charleston.
Thence, in 1782, he sailed to Nova Scotia, in company with not less
than five hundred white persons, who were adherents of the British
cause. In Nova Scotia he abode ten years, preaching to the people of
his own race who had found their way into that portion of the
continent, in large numbers, after abandoning their homes in the
United States.
These labors were performed amid hardships and persecutions, but in
faithfulness to God and suffering humanity. In prosecuting his
mission, he preached in Shelburn, Birchtown, Ragged Island, and in St.
Johns, New Brunswick. So pronounced was the opposition to his labors
in New Brunswick, that he found it necessary to invoke the protection
of the civil authorities. How well he succeeded in doing so, may be
imagined from the subjoined statement:
"Secretary's Office, Fredericktown, 17th July, 1792, I do hereby
certify that David George, a free Negro man, has permission from
his Excellency, the Lieutenant Governor, to instruct the Black
people in knowledge, and exhort them to the practice of the
Christian religion. Jno. Odell, Secretary."[24]
It should excite in us no surprise that David George was opposed in
his labors in his new home, for, as Lorenzo Sabine declares, "the
original population of this Colony was composed almost entirely of the
Loyalists of the Revolution."[25] They had not changed their views in
regard to the rights of Negroes, by being removed from a land where
the two races had hitherto sustained the relation of master and slave.
The real surprise lies in the fact, that the secretary of the province
was himself a preacher, a minister of the Episcopal Church, and a
former resident of the State of New Jersey.
So effective were the arduous labors of David George that he is
enrolled among the pulpit pioneers, in Bill's history of Canadian
Baptists. He was certainly first to plant a Baptist church at
Shelburn, as well as a number of feeble beginnings elsewhere. But
Canada was only a temporary home to David George, and to others from
the States. Accordingly, he took a colony of Negroes to Sierra Leone,
British Central Africa, in 1782.
Of this distant colony, G. Winfred Hervey remarks: "The first settlers
of Sierra Leone were what they needed to be, men of bravery. They
consisted of about 12,000 colored men who had joined the British
forces in the American Revolution. At the close of the war they were
sent to Nova Scotia, but the climate proving too unfriendly to them,
they were, in 1792, transported to Sierra Leone."[26] One of the first
things that David George did, after reaching Africa, was to plant a
little Baptist church, which was composed of Negroes from America who
had arrived in their fatherland by way of Nova Scotia.
In order to stimulate in the English people an intelligent interest in
the colony of Sierra Leone, and secure for the Baptist cause in
Freetown the sympathy and aid of English Baptists, David George took a
trip to London, England, shortly after establishing himself on the
continent of Africa. It was this visit to the metropolis of the world
which doubtless, more than anything else, facilitated the collection
and publication of many facts then existing and ascertainable in
regard to Negro Baptist preachers and their churches in the eastern
and western hemispheres.
In visiting Europe, David George took with him letters of commendation
from persons of recognized standing in England. John Rippon, the
distinguished London divine, thus speaks of David George, after
investigating his standing: "Governor Clarkson, in the most unreserved
manner, assured me that he esteemed David George as his brother, and
that he believes him to be the best man, without exception, in the
colony of Sierra Leone."[27] Had the Silver Bluff Church done nothing
more than produce this one earnest Christian man, this faithful
preacher of Christ, this potent factor in the planting of a colony
under the English flag, it would not have existed in vain, but it did
more.