The African Preacher (ca. 1746-1843)

M-40

Nearby lived John Stewart, also known as Jack, the African Preacher, who won renown as a minister and biblical scholar. Kidnapped from Africa as a child, he was brought to Nottoway County as a slave in the mid-18th century. The preaching of Presbyterian clergymen drew him to Christianity. Taught to read by his owner’s children, he immersed himself in the Bible and became a licensed Baptist preacher. His wisdom and oratory made him a leader of the black community and so impressed his white neighbors that they contributed toward the purchase of his freedom. Prominent religious journals published stories about Stewart, and he was the subject of a biography titled The African Preacher (1849).

Department of Historic Resources, 2020

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

William S. White, The African Preacher: An Authentic Narrative (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1849). Christian Intelligencer, 19 Jan. 1839, 20 May 1843. Christian Witness and Church Advocate, 25 Jan. 1839. New-York Observer, 2 Feb. 1839. Washington Native American, 28 Sept. 1839. John H. Rice, “To the Editors of the Lit. and Evan. Magazine,” Virginia Literary and Evangelical Magazine, vol. 10, no. 1 (Jan. 1827). U.S. Census, Nottoway County, 1810, 1830, 1840. William S. White, Reverend William S. White, DD, and His Times (1891), 60-61. Robert A. White, “Virginia’s ‘African Preacher’ and the Presbyterian Divines” (2001): http://www.hestories.info/robert-a-white-department-of-english.html Booker T. Washington, The Story of the Negro, vol. 1 (New York: Doubleday, Page and Company, 1909): 267-268. W.E.B. Du Boise, The Negro Church (Atlanta: Atlanta University Press, 1903): 36-37. “’Free Indeed’—Black and White Baptists in Virginia,” The Virginia Baptist Register, no. 50 (2011): 2826. https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/pdf_files/SpecialCollections/NT-010_Historic_AH_Survey_Nottoway_1996_HILL_report.pdf