Baptists of Jamaica should always remember to offer
thanks to God for the pioneering work of visionary, George Liele, and his
family. Extant publications have opened a small window on Liele’s family and
service. Still, more details about Liele are only now coming into
view.
In 1983, during
the Jamaica Baptist bicentenary, Jamaica Baptist Union (JBU) published a book
on George Liele by Jamaica Baptist historian, Clement Gayle. Especially since
that time, there has been a flood of publications about this internationally
significant pioneer African American missioner who started Baptist witness in
Jamaica.
Liele himself
was born into enslavement in Virginia and the year of his birth is estimated to
be 1750, 1751 or 1752. He identified his mother’s name as Nancy and his father
as Liele. Separated from his parents early in life, George reports that he was
told his father was a person of faith.
At 14 years of
age, while still enslaved, Liele was taken to the Province of New Georgia (now
Georgia) where, after becoming a Christian in 1773, he began his preaching
ministry on plantations along the Savannah River. Liele was ordained on May 20,
1775 and later became pastor of the First African Baptist Church in Savannah,
Georgia.
When he arrived
in Jamaica in January 1783, Liele was in his thirties and he was accompanied by
his family members, for whose evacuation to Jamaica, he had secured a loan from
Colonel Moses Kirkland, a captain of the British royal militia in Georgia.
George Liele
arrived in the company of his wife, Hannah Hunt Liele, and their four children
– three sons – John, Paul, and George, Jr., and a daughter named Lucy. The sons
were born in 1772, 1774, and 1777 respectively, while Lucy was born in 1780. In
other words, when they arrived in Kingston, the children were eleven, nine, six
and three years respectively.
When Liele came
to Jamaica, Kingston, with a population of 20,000, was the third largest city
in the English-speaking Americas, exceeded only by New York and Philadelphia.
Over the first
two years that he spent in Jamaica, Liele operated a transportation business
that undertook delivery service for the government, thanks to the decision of
Sir Archibald Campbell, the Governor of Jamaica, on the recommendation of
Colonel Kirkland. Through this means, Liele managed to acquire funds to repay
Kirkland’s loan and secure full freedom for himself and his family members.
According to
Congregationalist minister and historian, William Gardner, Liele started his
public ministry in Jamaica by preaching at Race Course, now National Heroes’
Park. After acquiring a three-acre plot of land in eastern Kingston, Liele and
his members started erecting a church building there in 1789, completing it in
four years.
The available
information on Hannah Liele is sparse. In correspondence with British Baptist
minister and publisher, John Rippon, Liele advised that he administered the
baptism of his wife Hannah in Savannah, Georgia, and that she and their
children were all members of his Windward Road Chapel, Liele added that he had
“every satisfaction in life from her [Hannah].”
We have unearthed evidence showing
that Liele’s first son, John, later chose his own religious path. After
residing in Jamaica for sixteen years, John was admitted through baptism into
the membership of The Church of England in Jamaica in the parish of Kingston,
what is now called the Kingston Parish Church. His baptism took place on June 30, 1799. In the records
of the church, John is described as “a black man aged 27 years” (Jamaica,
Church of England, 1664-1880).
We also know
that, on the eve of his departure for England, Liele prepared his last will and
testament, dated February 12, 1822, in which his sense of responsibility to
Hannah is clearly reflected. George Liele left his property, including six
enslaved persons, to his wife. He identified the names of his “Negro slaves” as
Neptune, Anney and her son James, Betsy and her children Indjoe and Nancy,
Peggy and Margaret.” Doreen Morrison, Jamaican/British church historian has
suggested rather credibly that Liele might have purchased as many enslaved
persons as he could afford “in order to rescue them from the harshness of
slavery … and to enable them to fulfil their ministries within the church.” In
his will, Liele stated that, on the passing of Hannah, the enslaved persons in
his household should be granted their full freedom.
According to
British Baptist missionary John Clark, Lucy Liele was an active member of the
Hanover Street Baptist Church and, in 1830, two of George Liele’s grandsons
were attending East Queen Street School. In adulthood, one of these grandsons
was to become a member of Jamaica’s House of Assembly, where he served “with
skill and patriotism.”
Spare a thought
for Liele’s family and the sacrifice they made to enable Liele to fulfil his
ministry in an oppressive context. They had to endure several years without
George’s company – on the occasions when Liele was imprisoned – more than once
for alleged seditious preaching. During his imprisonment, Liele’s wife and
family were denied visiting rights and at his trial, Liele was “honourably
acquitted. On another occasion, Liele’s creditors had him thrown into prison
for not meeting the payment schedule for debt incurred during Liele’s church
building programme. Liele’s imprisonment lasted for three years and five
months, 1797-1801. Liele’s family also had to survive without his presence when
he was away in England over four years, 1822-1826.
So far, little
is known about Liele’s visit to England. Thankfully, Noel Erskine,
Jamaican/American Baptist theologian, recently explained that, while in
England, Liele endeavoured, without success, to gain support from the Baptist
Missionary Society to enable him to secure a license to preach in the Windward
Road Chapel, that he himself established at the corner of Windward Road and
Elletson Road.
It was not long
after Liele returned from England that his time on earth would come to an end.
Among those attending his funeral was William Knibb, the young British
missionary who had commenced his ministry to Jamaica, having arrived here in
1824.
Liele’s church
owned a cemetery on Elletson Road called the Baptist Burial Ground. On March
28, 1877, The Gleaner published an article lamenting the
“condition of the Wesleyan and the Baptist Burial Grounds on the Elletson
Road.” “The fences have fallen down and the grounds are over-run with cashew;
they are receptacles for all sorts of rubbish; and hogs and goats roam over
them at pleasure.” The Gleaner drew “the attention of the
proper authorities” to the situation because, as the writer said, “This is a
condition of things that should not be permitted in a civilized community.” The
reaction of visitors to Jamaica in 1915 shows that inadequate attention had
been given to the Baptist Burial Ground on Elletson Road.
In 1915, the
National Baptist Convention (NBC), USA, sent to Jamaica a
delegation comprising two of its outstanding leaders – J. G. Jordan and C. H.
Parrish – to strengthen links with a group of local native Baptist churches
called the Fellowship Baptist Church of Jamaica that was becoming an NBC
affiliate. Three of the congregations in this Fellowship were the Elletson
Baptist Church – the former Windward Road Chapel; the Fellowship Baptist Church
at the corner of East Queen Street and Highholborn Street; and Bethlehem
Baptist Church at 109 Charles Street, Kingston. The Jordan-Parrish delegation
participated in a meeting at Elletson Baptist Church and visited Liele’s tomb.
They expressed concern that “the iron railing around [Liele’s] grave and the
brick vault had been razed to the ground.” Instead of considering how to
facilitate the repair of Liele’s tomb and instil respect for the earthly
resting place of Liele, the two Americans actually collected and took back to
America with them “the iron railing which had been torn from around the Lisle
grave by sacrilegious hands” as well as “some of the old church furniture,”
which Jordan proudly announced in his report to 35th Fifth
Annual in Chicago, Ill, September 8-13, 1915. After telling of the capture of
the articles from Jamaica, Jordan concluded, “The story of the struggles of
this church [Windward Road Chapel] is pathetic indeed.”
Upon hearing the
Jordan-Parrish report on their visit to Jamaica, the National Baptist
Convention took the decision to erect a monument in Liele’s honour, outside the
Bryan (now First Bryan) Baptist Church in Savannah, Georgia, USA. If only they
had decided to contribute to the restoration of Liele’s burial place and not
stoke the fires of controversy between the First Bryan and the First African
Baptist Church in Savannah, Georgia, concerning which of these two churches
originated in the church Liele organized in Savannah many years ago.
Let us give
thanks to God for the Lieles – George, Hannah, John, Paul, George, Jr. and Lucy.
May the memory of their witness and sacrifice continue to inspire us and may
their memory live forever.
