and without influence. It is in this way that we account
for the fact that George Liele, and not David George, was pastor of
the church. Under ordinary circumstances, the Silver Bluff element,
which probably included nearly the whole church at the beginning,
would have insisted upon having their old pastor.

In seeking facts, which make it manifest that Savannah, Georgia, had a
Negro Baptist church prior to 1788, we have consulted the testimony of
persons who were connected with the church at the time, and that of
persons of recognized standing who were contemporaneous with them and
competent to testify. Joseph Cook, of Euhaw, Upper Indian Land, South
Carolina, in a letter to Dr. John Rippon, London, England, dated
September 15, 1790, uses the following language: "A poor Negro,
commonly called Brother George, has been so highly favored of God, as
to plant the first Baptist church in Savannah, and another in
Jamaica."[46] As Hervey, Cox, Phillipo, and others who have noticed
the missionary efforts of Negro Baptists in the West Indies, inform us
that George Liele left the United States in 1782 and began preaching
at Kingston, Jamaica, British West Indies, in 1784, it is evident from
Cook's letter that the church which Liele planted at Savannah existed
prior to 1782.[47] Cook is corroborated by F. A. Cox, who, in speaking
of George Liele, in his history of the Baptist Missionary Society of
England, states that "He had been pastor of a colored congregation in
America." A paragraph which we take from the _History of the
Propagation of Christianity Among the Heathen_, is of the same nature.
It refers to the church of which Mr. Cook speaks, in this manner: "The
first Baptist preacher in Jamaica was a black man named George Liele,
who, though a slave, had been the pastor of a Baptist church in
Georgia. He was brought to Jamaica about 1782." Liele, on his own
behalf, testified that there was a Negro Baptist church in Savannah,
Georgia, during the British occupancy, and mentions by name at least
three of its members, who were not in this country, after the British
withdrew their forces from Savannah, in 1782. In a letter to Joseph
Cook, written from Jamaica, in 1790, Liele refers to one of these
members in the following manner: "Also I received accounts from Nova
Scotia of a black Baptist preacher, David George, who was a member of
the church at Savannah."[48]

In a communication written in 1791 and addressed to the pastor of a