Lott Cary and African American Baptist

Lott Cary and African American Baptist

Introduction

The largest African American religious body in the United States, which today includes several major groups, the primary being the National Baptist Convention, U.S.A.; the National Baptist Convention of America; the National Missionary Baptist Convention of America; and the Progressive National Baptist Convention. In 2002, the collective membership of these Baptist churches totaled 13.5 million people.

Minor Baptist groups, such as the National Primitive Baptist Convention of the United States, draw small numbers of worshippers, and they do not organize on the national level. The Black Baptist Church is recognized for its social role in the African American community and also for dramatic and emotional worship services that incorporate preaching and gospel music.

Lott Cary

Lott Cary (1780 - November 10, 1828) was an African-American Baptist minister and lay physician, who was instrumental in the founding of the Colony of Liberia in Africa. Born into slavery, he purchased his freedom. He was one of the first black American missionaries as well as the first American Baptist missionary to Africa.

In 1780 Lott Cary was born into slavery and humble surroundings in Charles City County, Virginia. It soon became apparent that he was exceptionally bright and energetic.

In 1804, his master John Bowry, a Methodist minister, hired Cary out as a young man in Richmond, about 25 miles away. In 1807 Cary joined the First Baptist Church of Richmond, originally a congregation of both whites and blacks, free and slave. Beginning his education by learning to read the Bible, Cary later attended a small school for slaves. Its twenty young men were taught by Deacon William Crane. He had come from Newark, New Jersey in 1812, opened a shoe store and joined the First Baptist Church. Crane's students met three evenings each week to learn reading, writing, arithmetic, and the Bible.

As he became educated, Cary rose from working as a common laborer to become a shipping clerk in a tobacco warehouse along Tobacco Row. Because of his diligence and valuable work, Cary was often rewarded by his master with five-dollar bills from the money he earned. He was also permitted to collect and sell small bags of waste tobacco for his own profit.

With money he had earned, in 1813 Cary purchased his own freedom and that of his two children for $850. As a free man, he continued to be both industrious and frugal. He and his family stayed in Richmond; jobs were available and there was a growing free black community. In 1813 Cary became an official Baptist minister. He also studied with doctors while in Liberia and became a lay medical practitioner.

In the early 19th century, about 2 million African Americans lived in the United States, of which 200,000 were free persons. In 1816, Robert Finley established the American Colonization Society (ACS), with the goal of enabling former slaves to emigrate to Africa and establish a colony there. Although most enslaved and free blacks had been born in the United States, often for generations, some ...