An Account of the Life of Mr. David George

The fascinating story of David George (c. 1742–1810), the first recorded Black Baptist pastor in Africa.

A formerly enslaved preacher and Black Loyalist, George was evacuated from Charleston by the British in 1782 and given passage to Nova Scotia. There he established a Baptist congregation and experienced what he described as a “considerable revival of religion.” Many members of his congregation subsequently followed him to Freetown, Sierra Leone, arriving in March 1792.

Later that year, while visiting England, George related his life story in conversations with the Baptist ministers Dr. John Rippon and Samuel Pearce. His account was published in John Rippon’s Baptist Annual Register in 1793. Told largely in George’s own words, it is one of the earliest surviving autobiographical narratives of a Black Baptist preacher.