Inspiring Christians history forgot

‘So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.’

Matthew 7: 12 NIV®

Vocab Malone, a Christian apologist, has written about the lives of eight black Christians whose achievements have been largely ignored, but whose faith, fervour and courage are worth celebrating. Vocab’s article was presented in Premier’s October ‘Christianity’ magazine; in celebration of Black History Month. I will present excerpts from four of their lives, and hope that you will be inspired to read about the rest as all their stories are uplifting.

Phillis Wheatley (1753–84), the first major black poet in American history, also one of the first major female poets in the USA. Born in Gambia, West Africa, she was kidnapped at seven, enslaved, and then taken to America. She entered the home of a prominent Boston tailor, where she learnt how to read and write. At age eleven – she wrote her earliest surviving letter to a native American missionary and poet named Samson Occom. In later correspondence she agreed with his criticism of slavery. She followed a similar line of reasoning in her poetry, especially in her Ode to the Earl of Dartmouth, calling attention to the contradiction of the colonies demanding freedom from England while upholding slavery. Wheatley’s first poem was published in the Newport Mercury in 1767 when she was only fourteen. She achieved renown in England with her Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, published in 1773, the same year she was legally granted freedom. No Boston publisher would publish her work, but a London-based Christian philanthropist, Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon, helped to disseminate her poetry. When Wheatley was baptised at eighteen years, she prayed against the temptation of pride as a result of her success.

Quobna Ottobah Cugoano (born 1757, died after1791), the first African to demand total abolition. Born in what is now Ghana, Cugoano was kidnapped in 1770, at age thirteen and taken to the West Indies. He spent a year enslaved on plantations in Grenada before being brought to England, where he learnt to read and gained his freedom; thanks to the conclusion of the Somerset Case of 1772, which gave enslaved people on English soil the right not to be forcibly removed from the country and sent to Jamaica for sale. In 1773, he was baptised and took on the name ‘John Stuart’. Cugoano worked with prominent abolitionist Olaudah Equiano and the abolitionist group of Africans living in Britain named Sons of Africa on various anti-slavery campaigns. He worked with Christian Granville Sharp to free a kidnapped man, Henry Demane, who was being forced into slavery. In 1787, Cugoano published ‘Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil and Wicked Traffic of the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species’, which became popular and was later translated into French. In it he quoted from Exodus 21: 16: And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death. He commented, ,In all modern slavery among Christians, who ought to know this law, they have not had any regard to it.’ His treatise was the first to be published in English and made him the first identified African critic of the transatlantic slave trade. He advocated for the establishment of an education system for Africans and a colony in Sierra Leone for freed slaves.

Olaudah Equiano (1745–97), abolitionist and writer, also known as Gustavus Vassa. He was born in modern southern Nigeria, kidnapped along with his sister at what he estimated to be eleven years old. The raiders split the siblings up and Equiano was transported to the Caribbean and sold as a slave to a Royal Naval officer in 1754. While aboard one of his ships, Equiano met Daniel Queen, who became a father-like figure to him. He helped Equiano to read and understand Scripture and taught him some professional skills. Equiano was sold twice more but purchased his freedom in 1766. As a freed man in London, he was part of the Sons of Africa. During this time, he exposed the murder of 130 slaves on a British ship, who had been thrown overboard by the captain. In 1789, Equiano published his autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano. In it, he wrote: ’O ye nominal Christians! Might not an African ask you, learned you this from your God? Who says unto you, “Do unto all men as you would men should do unto you”?’

Thomas Lewis Johnson (1836–1921), Baptist missionary and one of the first black students of Spurgeon’s College. He was born in Virginia to an enslaved mother and a freed father. His mother’s master refused to sell her and her son to their father, so Johnson was sent away to work from a very young age. As he grew, so did his interest in Christianity. Johnson recalled: ‘I used to think how nice it must be in heaven, no slaves, all free, and God would think as much of the black people as he did of the white.’ Johnson was converted after a street encounter with an evangelist who communicated ‘the simple gospel’ to him. Johnson was freed from slavery after the Civil War and by 1869 he was ordained as a Baptist minister, and in 1876 came to the UK to study at Spurgeon’s College. The first time Johnson met Spurgeon he sang ‘Steal away’. In 2018, a book by that name was released detailing the unique relationship between them. Johnson worked with the Anti- Slavery Society and in 1878 travelled to Sierra Leone, Liberia and Cameroon as a Baptist minister. In 1882 he returned to the UK to raise support for missionaries in Congo, and published Africa for Christ: Twenty-eight Years a Slave, which went into seven editions during his lifetime. Johnson was well known in Britain and shared the stage with Edward VII, the Prince of Wales, during an anti-slavery celebration in 1884.

Heavenly Father, may we be blessed and inspired by what we have read about the lives of these black Christians. Despite the brutality and struggle which they experienced under ‘the whip of slavery’; their courage and innate concern to strive for social justice led them to lead purposeful lives, with the support of other Christians. These pioneers helped to leave the world a much better place than they found it. May we continue to be prayerful during these trying times. Please help us to be mindful of others, draw near to them and support them with love, peace and compassion. Lord we ask you to guide us through today and bring us safely to the end of the day.

Amen

You can find out more about Vocab Malone’s work on YouTube at youtube.com/vocabmalone.

Glynne Gordon-Carter