Liele, George
c.1750-1828 · Contribution: 1773-1828
Became the first ordained African American Baptist preacher in 1775 and, upon emigrating to Jamaica in 1782, is widely credited as America's first Baptist missionary — leaving to evangelize abroad a full decade before William Carey, often called the father of the modern missionary movement, departed for India
Portraits are AI-generated interpretations, not photographs.
Impact on the world
Converted to Christianity in 1773 while enslaved near Savannah, Georgia, Liele was freed by his enslaver, a Baptist deacon, specifically so he could preach, and in December 1773 he organized what became First African Baptist Church in Savannah — among the oldest Black congregations in North America — converting future church leader Andrew Bryan, also profiled in this collection, along with several of the congregation's founding members. To escape re-enslavement after the Revolutionary War, Liele emigrated to Jamaica in 1782 with his wife and four children, where he built a Baptist mission from nothing, baptizing hundreds of enslaved Jamaicans in a nearby river every three months, opening a free school for enslaved and free children, and enduring repeated imprisonment, once for more than three years, on charges of “agitating the slaves.” By 1814 his ministry had produced an estimated 8,000 Jamaican Baptists, a number that grew to over 20,000 by 1832, and his converts and the churches he inspired extended his influence to South Carolina, Nova Scotia, and Sierra Leone through the ongoing work of fellow formerly enslaved preacher David George.
Life & background
Born into slavery around 1750 in Virginia and later relocated to Georgia, Liele converted to Christianity in 1773 and was ordained the following year, becoming the first African American licensed and ordained Baptist preacher in America. He organized the first Black Baptist church in Savannah in 1773, emigrated to Kingston, Jamaica, with his family in 1782, and spent the rest of his life building the Jamaican Baptist mission until his death there in 1828.
Sources
- Baptist Press; International Ministries (American Baptist Foreign Mission Society); Boston University School of Theology History of Missiology
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