{"id":40387,"date":"2016-08-29T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-08-29T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/first-north-american-missionary-freed-slave\/"},"modified":"2016-08-29T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-08-29T00:00:00","slug":"first-north-american-missionary-freed-slave","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/first-north-american-missionary-freed-slave\/","title":{"rendered":"The First North American Missionary\u2014a Freed Slave"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The first missionary from North America was George Liele, a former slave who left the American colonies for Jamaica in 1782 and began a ministry of preaching in 1783, nearly a full decade before William Carey sailed for India from England. Liele was born a slave (circa 1750) in the colony of Virginia. He launched his preaching career in 1773, and a year later he gathered slaves for what could be considered the first African-American church in America. After the Revolutionary War, the recently freed Liele fled to Jamaica to escape being re-enslaved.<\/p>\n\n<p>George Liele arrived in Jamaica as an indentured servant, but would serve as a missionary-evangelist to the island. Liele became the first Christian to win a significant number of slaves on the Island to Christ, and the first to plant a church composed of slaves. He preached in private homes and public settings drawing crowds of slaves. In a letter written in 1791, Liele reported 500 converts and 400 baptisms. In 1789 Liele&#39;s congregation had organized and by 1793 they had completed the Windward Road Chapel, the first Baptist church on the island.<\/p>\n\n<p>Liele achieved these successful evangelistic and church planting efforts despite opposition from a powerful constituency on the island. White slave owners feared the impact upon the slave population if the slaves were to embrace Christianity. Concern arose that &quot;if their minds are considerably enlightened by religion, or otherwise, that it would be attended with the most dangerous consequences.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>Despite Liele&#39;s numerous efforts to appease the slave owners, he still faced stiff opposition. He was charged with sedition and jailed on numerous occasions on trumped-up charges. Despite these obstacles, Liele was able to baptize new converts as well as plant and organize new churches. His evangelistic and church-planting efforts led to the establishment of the Baptist denomination on the island, with slaves, freedmen, and whites joining churches started by Liele. The impact of Liele&#39;s ministry continues to this day; however, Liele himself is buried in an unmarked grave in Jamaica.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[405,411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3464,3500,3511,3512,3601,3609,3640,3701,3731,3891,3897,4018,4024,4059,4060,4096,4428,4476,4477,4480,4579,4758,4759,4761,4849,4995,4997,5007,5028,5242,5283,5284],"tax_ctp_topics":[388],"class_list":["post-40387","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-awakenings","tax_ctp_tags-black-history-month","tax_ctp_tags-body-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-boldness","tax_ctp_tags-church","tax_ctp_tags-church-growth","tax_ctp_tags-commitment","tax_ctp_tags-courage","tax_ctp_tags-danger","tax_ctp_tags-ethnicity","tax_ctp_tags-evangelism","tax_ctp_tags-freedom","tax_ctp_tags-fruit","tax_ctp_tags-global-church","tax_ctp_tags-global-missions","tax_ctp_tags-great-commission","tax_ctp_tags-martin-luther-king-jr-day","tax_ctp_tags-mission","tax_ctp_tags-mission-of-church","tax_ctp_tags-missionary","tax_ctp_tags-outreach","tax_ctp_tags-race","tax_ctp_tags-race-relations","tax_ctp_tags-racism","tax_ctp_tags-risk","tax_ctp_tags-slavery","tax_ctp_tags-slaves","tax_ctp_tags-social-conditions","tax_ctp_tags-sowing-reaping","tax_ctp_tags-vision","tax_ctp_tags-witness","tax_ctp_tags-witnessing"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The First North American Missionary\u2014a Freed Slave - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/first-north-american-missionary-freed-slave\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The First North American Missionary\u2014a Freed Slave - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The first missionary from North America was George Liele, a former slave who left the American colonies for Jamaica in 1782 and began a ministry of preaching in 1783, nearly a full decade before William Carey sailed for India from England. 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