Gowan Pamphlet (c.a. 1748 – c.a. 1809)
reflection by Kale Anderson
Imagine sneaking out of the house under the cover of night, sneaking through your neighborhood, out into the woods. If you are caught, you could be beaten. You go anyway because you want to worship God with a community of people who won’t look at you as outsider, but who fully welcome you into communion because they are like you. You want to listen to a sermon that speaks to your lived experience, from someone who has lived your experience. This is the worship for the first Black Baptist congregation in North America, cultivated by Gowan Pamphlet.
Gowan was born sometime 1748 and 1761. He was enslaved from birth, and almost nothing is known about his early years. At some point in the 1770’s, he came to be owned by the widowed owner of a tavern in Williamsburg, Virginia, where he helped lead a congregation of fellow enslaved Black Americans that met in secret on the outskirts of the city. The tavern owner made sure that people enslaved by her family could read so that they could read the Bible, and that they were educated enough to serve the politicians and dignitaries that frequented the tavern. While there is no record that he was punished directly for leading an “unauthorized” congregation at a time when Black folks gathering was considered an uprising, he was followed by allegations of horse theft and participating in slave revolt.
In 1772, with permission from his enslaver, Gowan became one of the first Black ordained in any Christian denomination in the colonies when he was ordained as a Baptist preacher. Oddly, before his ordination, he was excommunicated for defying regulations banning Black preachers. Despite that, he continued to preach. In about 10 years his congregation grew to between 200 and 500 people.
Gowan Pamphlet’s leadership led to the official establishment of the first Black Baptist church in the Americas. He navigated enslavement, persecution, social pressure, and the turmoil of the American Revolution while maintaining intense dedication to his community and congregation. That dedication could not be ignored the Dover Baptist Association and Gowan’s church became the first Black Baptist church in the US. His name should be listed among the founders of the Baptist tradition because there is nothing more Baptist than a man leading secret worship in contravention of government and church leadership and risking life and liberty in the pursuit of Christ.
Learn More:
https://gowanpamphlet.wordpress.com/
https://www.lva.virginia.gov/collections/educator-resources/changemakers/items/show/51
https://www.colonialwilliamsburg.org/discover/18th-century-people/nation-builders/gowan-pamphlet/