When peace had been restored, and the Revolutionary forces had been
disbanded or recalled, Silver Bluff resumed once more the aspect of
social distinctions between master and slave in colonial times. Once
more, too, the Galphin place became a center of religious activities,
and the Negro Baptists of Silver Bluff were more numerous than ever.
The man who was instrumental in resuscitating the work at Silver Bluff
was Jesse Peter, who, according to an old custom of applying to the
slave the surname of the master, was better known as Jesse Galphin, or
Gaulfin. Having been connected with the Silver Bluff Church from the
very first, and only separated from it during the Revolutionary War
and the period of readjustment immediately thereafter, Jesse Peter was
eminently fitted, at least in one particular, to take up the work at
Silver Bluff which David George had abandoned in the year 1778. He
knew the place and he loved the people. Silver Bluff was his home, and
there he was held in high esteem. Moreover, he possessed what is
essential to ministerial success everywhere, deep sincerity,
seriousness of purpose, knowledge of the Bible, an excellent spirit,
and the ability to deliver, with profit and pleasure, the message of
the truth. Jonathan Clarke, and Abraham Marshall, who knew him
personally, have left on record beautiful testimonials of his work and
his worth.[28]
Why this young man, who had obtained his freedom by going to the
British at the fall of Savannah,[29] in 1778, remained in America to
resume the condition of a slave, after the Revolutionary War, is not
known. It is known, however, that, unlike George Liele and David
George, men of adventurous spirit, Jesse Peter was not a pioneering
worker in strange fields. If, indeed, he ever traveled beyond Kiokee,
Georgia, in the one direction, and the city of Savannah in the other,
we have failed to note the fact. It is known, too, that he had an
indulgent master, and it is possible that he preferred a state of
nominal slavery, under his protection, to a probable state of want and
hardship in a foreign land. Or it may be he was willing to die for the
cause, and so deliberately entered again into the old condition of
bondage in order to enjoy the privilege of preaching, where Liele and
George had labored in other days.
It is to be presumed that Jesse Peter was regularly ordained to the
work of the Gospel ministry. We take this view because he exercised
the duties and privileges which ordination implies, without ever being
called in question for doing so. His three years of association with
Liele and George, in Savannah, during the British occupancy, moreover,
afforded him ample opportunity to be publicly and regularly
consecrated to his life-work. Certainly Abraham Marshall, of Kiokee,
Georgia, would not have associated himself with Jesse Peter in the
ordination of Andrew Bryan, of Savannah, in 1788, if Jesse Peter had
not himself been ordained to the work of the ministry.
Conditions in the earlier stages of Jesse Peter's pastorate at Silver
Bluff were such that he did not reside at his old home, but came and
went as a stated visitor. Accordingly, Jonathan Clarke, writing from
Savannah, Georgia, December 22, 1792, says, "Jesse Peter (whose
present master is Thomas Galphin), is now here, and has three or four
places in the country, where he attends preaching alternately."[30]
George Liele, writing from the West Indies, in 1791, had said to
Joseph Cook, of South Carolina, "Brother Jesse Galphin, another black
minister, preaches near Augusta, in South Carolina, where I used to
preach."[31] Referring to him, George White speaks as follows: "On the
20th of January, 1788, Andrew, surnamed Bryan, was ordained by Rev.
Abraham Marshall, and a colored minister named Jesse Peter, from the
vicinity of Augusta."[32] Benedict, referring to Andrew Marshall, in
the same connection, states that "he was accompanied by a young
preacher of color, by the name of Jesse Peter, of Augusta."[33] From
these testimonies, it is evident that Jesse Peter was a nonresident
pastor of the Silver Bluff Church from 1788 to 1792, if not for a
longer period.
During the first period of Jesse Peter's pastorate at Silver Bluff,
another slave, who lived in that locality, began to preach. Andrew
Bryan, writing from Savannah, Georgia, December 28, 1800, refers to
him in the following manner: "Another dispensation of Providence has
greatly strengthened our hands and increased our means of information:
Henry Francis, lately a slave of the widow of the late Col. Leroy
Hammond, of Augusta, has been purchased by a few humane gentlemen of
this place, and liberated to exercise the handsome ministerial gifts
he possesses amongst us, and teach our youth to read and write." He
adds, "Brother Francis has been in the ministry fifteen years, and
will soon receive ordination."[34] According to Andrew Bryan, Henry
Francis was a half-breed, his mother being white, his father an
Indian, but I find in a letter, written by another from the city of
Savannah, May 23, 1800, that he is characterized as "a man of color,
who has for many years served Col. Hammond, and has handsome
ministerial abilities."[35]
The question easily suggests itself, was Henry Francis a member of the
Silver Bluff Church when, in 1785, he began to preach? We infer that
he was, from certain known facts as to his place of abode, and his
opportunities for church membership. In the first place, he lived in
the immediate neighborhood of Silver Bluff. William Tennett informs us
that the Hammond place was in South Carolina, four miles from Augusta,
Georgia and Lossing, Abraham Marshall, and others, that Silver Bluff
was also in South Carolina, twelve miles from Augusta. It was easy,
therefore, for Henry Francis to attend divine service at the Silver
Bluff Church. In the second place, it was the custom of the slaves on
the neighboring plantations to attend preaching at Silver Bluff during
the pastorate of David George,[36] and the custom doubtless prevailed
during Jesse Peter's pastorate. If Henry Francis attended church at
Silver Bluff, he did only what other slaves of the neighborhood did.
Furthermore, there was no other Baptist church, white or colored, in
the neighborhood, for Francis to join. Marshall's church at Kiokee,
Georgia, was twenty miles above Augusta, while Botsford's Meeting
House, in the opposite direction, was "25 or 30 miles below
Augusta."[37] In Augusta itself, there was no Negro Baptist church
until 1793,[38] and no white Baptist church until 1817.[39] To our
mind the conclusion is inevitable that Henry Francis, in 1785, was a
member of the Negro Baptist church, at Silver Bluff, South Carolina.
In reaching this conclusion, moreover, we have been not a little
influenced by the fact that when Henry Francis was formerly ordained
to the ministry at Savannah, Georgia, seventeen years after he had
commenced to preach, and when he was an officer in the Negro church at
Savannah, the ordination sermon was not preached by Dr. Henry
Holcombe, of the white church of that city, nor by Andrew Bryan of the
First African, but by Jesse Peter,[40] pastor of the Silver Bluff
Church. We can account for the deference shown Jesse Peter, on this
occasion, only on the presumption that Henry Francis was converted,
baptized, and licensed to preach at Silver Bluff, and that Jesse Peter
was the instrument used in bringing these results to pass. It is
evident, then, that the Ogeeche African Baptist Church,[41] on the
Ogeeche River, fourteen miles south of Savannah, organized in the year
1803, is more indebted to the Silver Bluff Church for her first
preacher and instructor of youth than to any other church.
Of Jesse Peter's ministry at Silver Bluff, as a resident pastor, we
are not well informed. In a letter written from Kiokee, Georgia, May
1, 1793, Abraham Marshall speaks of him as follows: "I am intimately
acquainted with Jesse Golfin; he lives thirty miles below me in South
Carolina, and twelve miles below Augusta. He is a Negro servant of Mr.
Golfin, who, to his praise be it spoken, treats him with respect."[42]
Jesse Peter, then, was resident pastor of the Silver Bluff Church in
the early spring of 1793. From another source we learn that the
membership of the Silver Bluff Church, at this time, was sixty or
more.[43]