the English
language and for one quarter the expense required for other lands,[34]
the Convention felt no hesitancy in acknowledging the claims of
Africa.

Luther Rice, while in Richmond during the winter of 1817, visited the
African Missionary Society. "It afforded me much pleasure, indeed," he
reported,[35] "to observe the zeal, and intelligence and capacity, and
success, discovered in the African Mission Society."

As a matter of fact, the formation of the Richmond African Baptist
Society was an epochal event. The example was followed by the African
Baptist Church of Philadelphia[36] and by the Baptists of Petersburg,
Virginia.[37] The African mission spirit even permeated North Carolina
and Georgia, for during the years 1816 and 1817 the Negro Baptists of
those parts contributed $32.64 to the cause.[38] This contribution
far outstripped the donation of the white Baptists to the same cause.
During the same time they contributed only $14.27, $12.27 of which was
given by the newly formed African Mite Society of Providence, Rhode
Island.[39]

Lott Cary resolved that it was his duty to go and preach the gospel in
benighted Africa. It was at Crane's night school that this intention
was made known. After Crane had reviewed the report of Burgess and
Mills, telling of their exploring tour on the coast of Africa, Lott
Cary said: "I have been determined for a long time to go to Africa and
at least to see the country for myself."[40] There is no doubt that to
some extent Gary was awakened to a deep sense of responsibility for
his brethren in Africa by that part of this report which dealt with
John Kizell, the Baptist leader in Sherbro Island, the president of
the Friendly Society established by Paul Cuffee, the escort and guide
of Burgess and Mills on their exploring tour, the man directly
responsible for the beginning of the impractical scheme of deportation
on the continent of Africa by the American Colonization Society.[41]

But how was he to accomplish his object? Crane said,[42] "I had
thought of addressing the Corresponding Secretary on their (Cary and
Teague) behalf, for the patronage of the American Baptist Mission
Society, but again thought, that the Colonization Society might be
pleased with taking them under their care, and that their mission
might bear a more imposing aspect under the auspices of this society
than it would with the Baptists alone." Lott Cary was received by the
Baptist Board of Foreign Missions