It’s remarkable that despite such pervasive resistance, Pamphlet’s desire for Christian unity and mutual accountability drove him to pursue inclusion in the Baptist association. His leadership was instrumental in showing that good faith and an iron will could help other Christians to consider the implications of their evangelical doctrine on social and civic life.

I met Gowan Pamphlet (1748–1807) when he was sitting on a bench outside a cemetery. It wasn’t really Pamphlet, of course; it was a man named James Ingram, who portrays the colonial-era Baptist preacher at Colonial Williamsburg. Ingram spoke about the lives of the enslaved represented in the cemetery and the African Baptist Church they worshiped in. I walked away wanting to know more about Pamphlet and his theological legacy.

Unfortunately, we know little about Pamphlet’s early life. The earliest reference to him is an ad in the Virginia Gazette from July 3, 1779, that accuses him of stealing a horse, which was an offense worthy of hanging. In that account, he’s listed as the property of Jane Vobe, a tavern keeper in Williamsburg.

Yet what we know about the rest of Pamphlet’s life is remarkable. He was a faithful pastor who preached freedom from sin through the gospel of Christ as he worked for liberation from the sin of slavery. Pamphlet was in the first generation of black evangelical leaders who gained respect among their white brethren without abandoning their distinct ethnic identity.

Providential Opportunity

In the 18th century, the Great Awakening spurred a fresh generation of white Christian efforts to engage African Americans with the gospel. That’s how Pamphlet was converted to Christianity, beginning a life of service to Christ as he ministered to free and enslaved people of African descent.

Based on historical records, it’s likely that Pamphlet’s conversion experience came before his transfer of ownership. Yet his owner offered opportunities for her slaves to learn to read and write by using the Bible through the Bray School, one of the earliest institutions for black education in North America. Vobe also took her slaves to worship services at Bruton Parish, which was part of the Episcopalian church.

There’s no evidence that Vobe ever opposed slavery. However, her willingness to allow the people she enslaved to be educated enabled Pamphlet to gain the skills that would allow him to become a leading Baptist figure. Through God’s providence, he became one of the first black ordained ministers in the United States.

Risky Calling

Entry into the gospel ministry came with hardship for blacks. Historian Robert Semple reports that a black preacher named Moses Wilkinson, Pamphlet’s predecessor in Williamsburg, “was often taken up and whipped for holding meetings.” Yet Wilkinson’s courage in the face of persecution set an example for Pamphlet’s ministry to free and enslaved blacks in Virginia.

After Wilkinson’s Methodist ministry took him to New York and Nova Scotia, Pamphlet helped build the congregation Wilkinson founded into the nation’s first black Baptist church.

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