|
"Brother
Captain" and Others Source: The Lexington (Kentucky) Herald, 20 August 1911, 4th section, p. 3 cols. 1 & 2 Collins History of Kentucky says: "The Baptists were the pioneers of religion in Kentucky." The historian was speaking of white Baptists when he wrote this, but his remarks will apply to the colored people as well. The first colored congregations in Kentucky were Baptists. The first white people who went to the state carried their slaves with them, and many of these colored people were Baptists, and became members of the early Baptist Churches of the state. The first Baptist Church ever organized within the state ("Severan's Valley," at Elizabethtown) contained among its "charter members," three slaves of Jacob Vanmeter—Mark, Bambo and Dinah. As a rule, the white Baptist Churches of Kentucky all had colored members up to the close of the Civil War. From the very beginning, however, there were among the colored Baptists of Kentucky a number of exhorters and preachers of their own race, and in some instances they had church organizations of their own. At the beginning of the Civil War there were two independent colored Baptist Churches in Lexington ("First" and "Pleasant Green"), three in Louisville, and one each in Maysville, Mayslick, Danville, Harrodsburg, Frankfort, Paris, Versailles, Nicholasville, Tate's Creek (Madison county), Stamping Ground (Scott county) and Hillsboro in Woodford county. In some other towns there were separate colored Baptist congregations which were branches of the white Baptist Churches in the same towns. The first independent Baptist Church ever organized on Kentucky was what is now called the "First Colored Baptist Church," situated at the corner of Short and Deweese streets, in Lexington. The exact date of its organization is not known, as the church kept no records in its early years, but it was probably instituted, in an irregular way, about 1790. It was gathered by a colored man who had no other name than Captain, and who was known to everybody, white and colored, as "Brother Captain," or "Old Captain." Brother Captain was born in Carolina County, Virginia, in 1733, the slave of a gentleman named Durrett. In 1758, he was converted, baptised and received into the membership of a white Baptist Church near his home, and he immediately began to exhort among the people of his own race, from house to house. He was taken to Kentucky as a slave in 1785 and was one of the "charter members" of a small white Baptist church which was constituted as "Head of Boone's Creek Church," in Fayette county. A few years later this little church dissolved and then Brother Captain hired the time of himself and his wife from their owner and settled in Lexington. Mr. John Maxwell, one of the pioneers of Lexington, gave Brother Captain a building site, helped him to erect a cabin upon it, and was his kind and generous friend as long as they both did live. Brother Captain immediately began to hold meetings in his little house, and soon had made quite a number of converts. These desired to be baptised by him, but he at first declined to perform the rite, because he had not been ordained as a minister of the gospel; but he finally went to a meeting of the South Kentucky Baptist Association, accompanied by fifty of his converts, and applied for ordination. "The fathers and brethren, after having taken the matter into consideration, did not consider it proper to ordain him in form; but, being fully informed of his character and labors, they gave him the right hand of Christian affection and directed him to go on, in the name of their common Master." The giving him the right hand of fellowship and directing him to go on in the name of the Master was considered by Brother Captain as a sufficient ordination; or, at least, as sufficient an one as could be given to a colored man at that time; so he began to examine such penitents as applied to him, and, if satisfied of their conversion, he baptised them. It is not known that he was ever regularly ordained. These converts were constituted into the first colored church that was ever organized in Kentucky. They met at first, and for some years, from house to house, and had no regular church building in which to meet until 1801, when they erected one in Lexington. Although Brother Captain appears to have considered that he was sufficiently ordained, it seems that his white brethren did not think so, for the South Kentucky Baptist Association, at its meeting held in 1801, passed the following order: "Brother Captain, a black man who was a member of our society, and who is now preaching and baptising without having been ordained, is advised to join some convenient church, together with those he has baptised." He continued to watch over the church he had gathered—"The First African Baptist Church," of Lexington—and to labor in the gospel until his strength failed. He died in his little cabin near Lexington in the summer of 1823 at the ripe old age of ninety years. As the first colored man who ever labored as a minister of the gospel in Kentucky, the colored people of the State, regardless of creed or denomination, owe it to themselves and to him to erect in Lexington a monument to his memory, even though it be not a costly one. Brother Captain built the First African Baptist Church up to a membership of more than three hundred. After his death he was succeeded in the pastorate by the Rev. London Ferrill, a remarkable colored man, who took regular charge of the church in 1824 and served it until his death in 1854. Under his care its membership increased to more than eighteen hundred, making it the largest church congregation in Kentucky. London Ferrill was born a slave in Hanover county, Virginia, about 1789, and he was the grandson of an African king. Although he was without scholastic training, yet Rev. William Pratt said of him, "He had the manner and authority of command, and was the most thorough disciplinarian I ever saw. He was respected by the whole white population of Lexington, and his influence was more potent to keep order among the blacks than the police force of this city." He was in every way a very remarkable man, who is no doubt still well remembered by many of the older people of Lexington. It is a curious fact that African royalty has contributed several remarkable colored people to our country. There was Phyllis Wheatley, born in Africa in 1753, the daughter of an African king. She was kidnapped when a young girl, brought to America in a slave ship and sold in Boston as a slave to a Mr. Wheatley, whose name she took. There she learned the English language and received some education; and although it was not her mother tongue, she wrote a good deal of English poetry, some of which, it is said, was of so great merit that one of the early editions of the Encyclopedia Britannica contained a sketch of her life. During the Revolutionary War she wrote a poem on Washington, which he acknowledged in a very courteous and complimentary letter. However, Thomas Jefferson has written that her poetry was "beneath criticism." She is still in some of the American encyclopedias. Many others might be mentioned,
and certainly that distinguished Kentuckian, Daniel Clark, "the Ancient
Governor," should not be omitted in this brief sketch. He was the son of an
African king, kidnapped when a young man, and brought in a slave ship to
Charleston, S.C. where he was sold as a slave. He was soon afterwards bought by
Judge James Clark, of Winchester, Ky. Judge Clark, when elected governor
in 1836, took Daniel (who had assumed the surname of Clark) to Frankfort with
him and made him the major domo of the Governor's mansion, and a factotum in the
executive office. It is believed that he manumitted Daniel Clark, who remained
as the head servant of every succeeding Governor of Kentucky until his death in
1871. His manners, tact and deportment are said to have been perfect; and his
long service in the Governor's mansion gave him the sobriquet of "The Ancient
Governor," by which name alone he was known from one end of Kentucky to another
among the public men of the State. In his latter days the Legislature voted him
a pension of $12.50 a month, because he was "a very old and infirm man, not able
to work or perform the duties of his office any longer, and as an evidence of
the appreciation in which Kentucky holds his faithfulness and honesty, and of
her unwillingness that he shall want for a support in his old age." When he died
the legislature passed resolutions of respect to his memory, and commended him
as "a notable example to all men, white and black, of industry, society,
courtesy, according to his station and integrity in office." |