Black Missionary in an Age of Enslavement: The Life and Times of George Liele

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Much discussion of Protestant Christianity and its missions in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries is focused on the work of English missionary William Carey and American Missionaries Adoniram and Ann Judson, who travelled to India in 1793 and 1813. This book reframes this conventional understanding of mission studies and outreach by exploring the legacy and life of the enslaved American Baptist George Liele (17501825)the first African American ordained to the Christian ministry.
Black Missionary in an Age of Enslavement looks at Christianity and mission through the life and times of Liele, highlighting his travels as an itinerant preacher in South Carolina, Georgia, Jamaica (and through his protg there, David George), Nova Scotia, Sierra Leone and, toward the end of his life, England. Liele knew what it meant to be both slave and free. In Jamaica, as in Savannah, he was imprisoned for his faith and saw the survival of the church as pivotal. Liele was a man of firsts: the first African American ordained to the Christian ministry (May 20, 1775), and the first missionary to take the Christian gospel outside the United States. It was Liele, more than any other missionary, who initiated the practice of offering education to native people both enslaved and free. With the hymnal in one hand and the Bible in the other, Liele taught the enslaved and free that they were destined for liberation.

Reviews

Readers will love this book because it tells the extraordinary story of a late 18th century enslaved Africa named George Liele who was converted to Christianity by his masters pastor, preached the gospel to other slaves, became the first African to receive ordination and founded the first black church in both the United States and Jamaica. -- Peter J. Paris, Elmer G. Homrighausen Professor Emeritus of Christian Social Ethics, Princeton Theological Seminary
Baptists often identify themselves as a missionary people, and they customarily begin their narration of this identity by invoking William Careys voyage to India in 1793. But this starting point for a story of White Baptist mission to other ethnic groups in other lands ignores the fact that ten years before Carey set sail for India, a formerly enslaved African American Baptist named George Liele had become the first Baptist to travel to another land to engage in mission with his arrival in Jamaica in 1783. Dr. Erskine succeeds in re-centering the story of Baptist mission with Liele as its pioneer, not only by detailing the remarkable story of Lieles life and ministry, but by exploring the liberative framework of Lieles theology that motivated his missionary work and left an enduring legacy. -- Steven R. Harmon, professor of Historical Theology, Gardner-Webb University School of Divinity
Black Missionary in an Age of Enslavement is an erudite documentation of George Liele's pioneering role as the first African American Baptist missionary and his enduring impact on the fight for freedom and justice for Afro-Jamaicans. Professor Erskines remarkable detailing of Lieles legacy and his lasting influence on Afro-Caribbean religious movements and the struggle for emancipation shows how his ministry laid the groundwork for subsequent leaders. It is here that we see the pivotal role in the abolitionist movements within the British colonies. With its compelling prose, breadth, analytic innovation, and page turning revelations, this is a must read in all interested in uncovering the complex realities of the Black Atlantic world! -- Kamari Clarke, Distinguished Professor of Transnational Justice, University of Toronto

Author Bio

Noel Leo Erskine is a Professor of Theology and Ethics at Candler School of Theology and the Graduate Division of Religion at Emory University. A native of Jamaica, he has been a visiting professor in ten schools in six countries. Erskine has written six books and edited five, among which include Decolonizing Theology (1998), King Among the Theologians (1994) From Garvey to Marley: Rastafari Theology, (2005), Black Theology and Pedagogy (2008), Plantation Church: How African American Religion was Born in Caribbean Slavery (2014) and Black Theology: Thinking about Our Faith (2023).