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David Margrett: A Black Missionary in the Revolutionary Atlantic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 February 2012

TIM LOCKLEY
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Abstract

David Margrett was a black missionary sent by the Countess of Huntingdon to preach to slaves in South Carolina and Georgia in 1774. Margrett did not confine his preaching in America to spiritual matters, instead speaking out against the system of slavery itself, and offering himself as a “second Moses.” Margrett's message was not well received by authorities in South Carolina, indeed he was fortunate to escape with his life. This article argues that Margrett was a product both of his evangelical training, where speaking out on important matters was encouraged, and also of his British environment, where anti-slavery voices were becoming increasingly prominent. The story of David Margrett demonstrates how black Britons received and interpreted the message of Christianity, and in particular how they used their faith as a means to attack slavery.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of American Studies , Volume 46 , Issue 3 , August 2012 , pp. 729 - 745
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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References

1 Both volumes were dedicated to the countess. Gronniosaw, James, A narrative of the most remarkable particulars in the life of James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw (Bath: W. Gye, 1772)Google Scholar; Wheatley, Phillis, Poems on various subjects, religious and moral (London: A. Bell, 1773)Google Scholar.

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3 James Habersham to Robert Keen, 11 May 1775, Letters of the Hon. Habersham, James, Collections of the Georgia Historical Society, Volume VI (Savannah: Georgia Historical Society, 1904), 244Google Scholar.

4 While there was no census of black people in eighteenth-century Britain, the figure of 20,000 was widely accepted at the time. See the Gentleman's Magazine, 34 (1764), 493, cited in Fryer, Peter, Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain (London: Humanities Press, 1984), 68Google Scholar; and Edward, Paul and Walvin, James, Black Personalities in the Era of the Slave Trade (London: Macmillan, 1983), 18CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 David Margrett to the Countess of Huntingdon, n.d. (c. April 1774), F1/1221, American Papers of the Countess of Huntingdon, Westminster College, Cambridge. (henceforth CH papers). Other letters refer to Margrett as Margate, but the former is the spelling used in the only extant letter in Margrett's hand.

6 Lambert, Frank, Pedlar in Divinity: George Whitefield and the Transatlantic Revivals, 1737–1770 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994), 205–6Google Scholar.

7 London Evening News, 8 June 1773. Countess of Huntingdon to John Hawkesworth, 26 March 1773, G2/1/7, CH Papers.

8 Countess of Huntingdon to John Hawkesworth, 13 Oct. 1773, G2/1/9, CH Papers.

9 John Meldrom to the Countess of Huntingdon, 6 Nov. 1773, F1/258, CH papers. Mrs. B. Peckwell to the Countess of Huntingdon, 11 Apr. [1774], F1/1353, CH Papers. Robert Keen to the Countess of Huntingdon, 15 Sept. 1774, A1/12/4, CH papers. In a possible reference to Margrett, Phillis Wheatley wrote in July 1773 of her “great satisfaction to hear of an African so worthy, to be honoured with your Ladyship's approbation and friendship.” Phillis Wheatley to the Countess of Huntingdon, 17 July 1773, A3/5/5 CH papers.

10 David Margrett to the Countess of Huntingdon, n.d. (c. April 1774) F1/1221.

11 Ibid.

12 Hempton, David, The Religion of the People: Methodism and Popular Religion, c.1750–1900 (London and New York: Routledge, 1996), 80, 89Google Scholar; idem, Methodism: Empire of the Spirit (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005), 25.

13 David Margrett to the Countess of Huntingdon, n.d. (c. April 1774) F1/1221

14 Henry Peckwell to the Countess of Huntingdon, n.d., F1/1350.

15 Mrs. B. Peckwell to the Countess of Huntingdon, 11 April [1774], F1/1353, CH Papers.

16 Daniel Roberts to the Countess of Huntingdon, 16 Feb. 1773, A3/4/12, CH papers.

17 List of Negroes, 1 Jan. 1771, A3/2/2, CH papers.

18 Schlenther, Boyd Stanley, Queen of the Methodists: The Countess of Huntingdon and the Eighteenth-Century Crisis of Faith and Society (Durham: Academic Press, 1997), 91Google Scholar. The Countess of Huntingdon had created her own “connexion” of chapels and ministers in Britain during the second half of the eighteenth century and while the connexion shared some traits with Wesleyan Methodism it was theologically quite distinct. See Harding, Alan, The Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion: A Sect in Action in Eighteenth-Century England (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Welch, Edwin, Spiritual Pilgrim: A Reassessment of the life of the Countess of Huntingdon (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1995)Google Scholar.

19 Anthony Benezet to the Countess of Huntingdon, 25 May 1774 and 10 March 1775, A3/1/33 and A4/7/9, CH papers.

20 Mrs. Elizabeth Cosson to the Countess of Huntingdon, 10 Jan. 1773; John Cosson to the Countess of Huntingdon, 9 Jan. 1773, A3/4/4 and A3/4/3, CH papers.

21 James Habersham to the Countess of Huntingdon, 8 April 1774, A3/6/14, CH papers.

22 William Piercy to the Countess of Huntingdon, 25 March 1774, A4/2/9, CH papers.

23 Robert Keen to the Countess of Huntingdon, 20 June 1744, A1/10/3, CH papers.

24 William Piercy to the Countess of Huntingdon, 11 June 1774, A4/2/10, CH papers.

25 Countess of Huntingdon to William Piercy, 22 Sept. 1773, A4/3/2, CH Papers.

26 Henry Peckwell to the Countess of Huntingdon, 6 July 1774, F/1357, CH papers.

27 Between 1770 and 1775 at least 19,193 Africans had arrived in South Carolina, while a further 3,417 had arrived in Savannah. All figures are taken from the transatlantic slave trade database www.slavevoyages.org. This is certainly an undercount of the number of slaves imported. For example, one shipment of 90 slaves aboard the Anna that arrived in Savannah in August 1774 does not appear the database. Georgia Gazette, 3 Aug. 1774.

28 Robert Keen to the Countess of Huntingdon, 15 Sept. 1774, A1/12/4, CH papers.

29 Among the invoices are those for neck cloths £1 (A2/8/22); breeches, coats and suits, £8.10.0 (A2/8/24); shirts £0.9.6 (A2/8/28); gloves £.0.1.8 (A2/8/34); a hat £0.15.0 (A2/8/35); bedding £2.12.6 (A2/8/30); wine £2.12.9 (A2/8/31); ham £1.16.10 (A2/8/23). Daniel Golden's invoice was for £4.5.8 (A2/8/21). All CH papers.

30 The departure of the Mermaid was noted in the General Evening Post (London), 8 Oct. 1774. William Piercy to the Countess of Huntingdon, 6 Jan. 1775 (quote), A4/2/12, CH papers.

31 James Habersham to Robert Keen, 11 May 1775, Letters of the Hon. James Habersham, 244. When Hinds died in Charleston on 23 April 1798 at the age of 83 he was described as ‘reputable inhabitant’ born in Dublin in 1715, who had lived in Charleston from 1739 until his death. City Gazette, 25 and 30 April 1798. He owned eight slaves and several city lots at the time of his death and his estate was valued at £230.6.10. Charleston County Will Book C, 468–71; Charleston County Inventory Book C, 432, both South Carolina Archives. Patrick Hinds served as one of the messengers to the Charlestown Baptist Association in February 1775. Minutes of the Charlestown Association. Charlestown, Feb. 6. 1775 (Charleston: n.p., 1775), 1.

32 Whitefield, George, Three letters from the Reverend Mr. G. Whitefield: viz. Letter I. To a friend in London, concerning Archbishop Tillotson. Letter II. To the same, on the same subject. Letter III. To the inhabitants of Maryland, Virginia, North and South-Carolina, concerning their negroes (Philadelphia: B. Franklin, 1740), 13Google Scholar.

33 Ibid., 14–15.

34 Garden, Alexander, Six letters to the Rev. Mr. George Whitefield … The sixth, containing remarks on Mr. Whitefield's second letter, concerning Archbishop Tillotson, and on his letter concerning the negroes (Boston: T. Fleet, 1740), 53Google Scholar.

35 Merrens, H. Roy, ed., The Colonial South Carolina Scene: Contemporary Views, 1697–1774 (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1977), 256Google Scholar. Henry Laurens to John Laurens, 30 July 1775, in The Papers of Henry Laurens, ed. George C. Rogers Jr., David R. Chesnutt and Peggy J. Clark et al. (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1985), x, 258.

36 William Piercy to the Countess of Huntingdon, 28 Nov. 1774, A4/1/19, CH Papers.

37 Richard Piercy to the Countess of Huntingdon, 16 June 1775, A1/13/10, CH Papers.

38 John Edwards to the Countess of Huntingdon, 16 Jan. 1775, A3/6/10, CH Papers. Another account of Margrett's words were sent to James Habersham: “God would send deliverance to the Negroes, from the power of their masters, as he freed the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage.” James Habersham to Robert Keen, 11 May 1775, Letters of the Hon. James Habersham, 244.

39 Robert Keen to the Countess of Huntingdon, 1 July 1775, A1/12/33, CH Papers.

40 Ibid.

41 James Habersham to Robert Keen, 11 May 1775, Letters of the Hon. James Habersham, 244. Richard Piercy to the Countess of Huntingdon, 16 June 1775, A1/13/10, CH Papers. William Piercy to the Countess of Huntingdon, [6, 7 and 8 May 1775], A4/2/16, CH Papers.

42 Richard Piercy to the Countess of Huntingdon, 16 June 1775, A1/13/10, CH Papers. John Edwards to William Piercy, Charleston, 11 Jan. 1775, A3/6/9, CH Papers.

43 Peckwell, Henry, The captain of salvation: A sermon preached on Christmas-day, 1773, at the Parish-Church of Saint Sepulchre, near Newgate-Street; for the benefit of the children belonging to St Ethelburga Society (London: J. & W. Oliver, 1774), viiiGoogle Scholar.

44 Ibid., 35–6.

45 Peckwell, Henry, The glory of the Lord filling the house of God: a sermon preached on the thirteenth of August, 1775. at the opening of a new chapel, at Lewes in Sussex (Lewes: William Lee, 1775), 21Google Scholar.

46 William Piercy to the Countess of Huntingdon, [6, 7 and 8 May 1775], A4/2/16, CH Papers.

47 John Edward to William Piercy, 11 Jan. 1775, A3/6/9, CH Papers. William Piercy to the Countess of Huntingdon, 24 Jan. 1775, A4/2/13, CH Papers.

48 William Piercy to the Countess of Huntingdon, 24 Jan. 1775, A4/2/13, CH Papers.

49 James Habersham to the Countess of Huntingdon, 19 April 1775, A3/6/15, CH Papers.

50 William Piercy to the Countess of Huntingdon, [6, 7 and 8 May 1775], A4/2/16, CH Papers.

51 Ibid.; Elizabeth Cosson to the Countess of Huntingdon, 30 July 1775, A3/3, CH Papers.

52 William Piercy to the Countess of Huntingdon, [6, 7 and 8 May 1775], A4/2/16, CH Papers.

53 James Habersham to Robert Keen, 11 May 1775, Letters of the Hon. James Habersham, 244.

54 The Georgia Gazette, 12 May 1775, noted the departure of Georgia Planter for London. The ship's arrival was recorded in Lloyd's Evening Post (London), 26 June 1775.

55 Robert Keen to the Countess of Huntingdon, 1 July 1775, A1/12/33, CH papers (first quote); Robert Keen to the Countess of Huntingdon, 3 Aug. 1775 (second quote), A1/13/4, CH papers.

56 Marrant, John, A narrative of the Lord's wonderful dealings with John Marrant, a black, 4th edn (London: R. Hawes, 1785), 11Google Scholar. The date of Marrant's conversion was Sunday, 4 March 1770, as Whitefield told him he was leaving Charleston the following day. Local newspapers reported Whitefield's departure for Georgia on 5 March 1770. South Carolina Gazette, 8 March 1770.

57 The chronology is not precise here. After conversion in Spring 1770 Marrant travelled back to his family in Florida, and then spent 23 months among the south-eastern Native American tribes, suggesting that the earliest he can have gone to the Jenkins plantation is late 1772. It has not been possible to identify which of various Jenkins plantations in Colleton District Marrant visited. See Webber, Mabel L., “Descendants of John Jenkins, of St. John's Colleton,” South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine, 20 (1919), 223–51Google Scholar. Marrant had been trained as a carpenter before his conversion. Marrant, A narrative, 9.

58 Marrant, A narrative, 31. The section relating Marrant's time on the Jenkins plantation only appears in the fourth edition of his narrative, the last one published before Marrant left for Nova Scotia.

59 Marrant, A narrative, 32.

60 Marrant, A narrative, 33.

61 New York, where Marrant resided until he was five, was also home to several thousand slaves.

62 Marrant, A narrative, 32.

63 See May, Cedrick, Evangelism and Resistance in the Black Atlantic, 1760–1835 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2008), 64–82Google Scholar.

64 Mansfield's judgement was far less expansive than this, mainly relating to the legality of shipping Somerset to the West Indies to be sold, but the public understood his decision to have much wider implications.

65 Sharp, Granville, A representation of the injustice and dangerous tendency of tolerating slavery; Or of admitting the least claim of private property in the persons of men, in England (London, Benjamin White, 1769), 162Google Scholar.

66 Wesley, John, Thoughts upon Slavery (London: Joseph Crukshank 1774), 24Google Scholar. An American edition appeared the same year, printed in Philadelphia.

67 Ibid., 56, 52.

68 The violent reaction to whites and blacks who dared to question slavery in Charleston in the 1770s is examined in Harris, J. William, The Hanging of Thomas Jeremiah: A Free Black Man's Encounter with Liberty (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2009)Google Scholar.

69 Benezet, Anthony, A caution and warning to Great Britain and her colonies, in a short representation of the calamitous state of the enslaved Negroes in the British dominions (Philadelphia: Henry Miller, 1766)Google Scholar. Rush, Benjamin, An address to the inhabitants of the British settlements in America, upon slave-keeping (Philadelphia, John Boyles, 1773)Google Scholar. Wheatley's letter appeared in the Connecticut Gazette, 11 March 1774. See Carretta, Vincent, Unchained Voices: An Anthology of Black Authors in the English-Speaking World of the Eighteenth Century (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2004), 69Google Scholar.