Gowan Pamphlet (ca. 1748-ca. 1809)

Gowan Pamphlet, ordained Baptist preacher, led clandestine religious gatherings of enslaved and free African Americans by the late 1770s. To avoid patrollers, they met in wooded areas outside Williamsburg. An enslaved worker at the Kings Arms Tavern and likely literate, Pamphlet molded the loosely knit worshipers into an organized Baptist church by 1781. In 1793, he gained membership for the 500-member church in the white regional Dover Baptist Association. Freed in 1793, Pamphlet owned part of a lot in Williamsburg and 14 acres in James City County by 1805. The congregation, later known as First Baptist Church, began worshiping on Nassau Street in Williamsburg early in the 19th century.