The brief, but adventurous, life of John Marrant provides a glimpse into the multitude of religious cultures formed and informed by persons of African descent in the eighteenth-century trans-Atlantic world. Marrant’s journey begins in 1755 in New York and ends in 1791 in London. In his thirty-five year life span, Marrant is a member of an Afro-Catholic religious community in St. Augustine, Florida; a witness to the preaching of renowned Methodist minister George Whitefield and a participant in American revivalism in Charleston; a resident of a Cherokee settlement for two years in Georgia; an exhorter to enslaved persons in Charleston and surrounding plantations; an ordained minister in Bath, England in the Huntingdon Methodist Connection; an itinerant preacher to a community of Black Loyalists in Halifax, Nova Scotia; and the first chaplain to the African Lodge of Freemasons in Boston. Beyond his extraordinary travels and the diverse religious communities he encounters, Marrant has significance for scholars of African American religious history that stems from his literary accomplishments. The corpus of his written works includes an autobiographical narrative, a journal that recounts his ministerial activity in Canada, several sermons, and a handful of unpublished letters. Each document incorporates religious themes, symbols, and rhetoric that provide insight into the formation of Black Atlantic religious thought and practice in the eighteenth century. Both the variety and volume of Marrant’s writings establish him as one of the most prolific writers of African descent in the eighteenth century.
John Marrant is born to free parents in New York. Although New York's enslaved population comprised 15-20% of its inhabitants, there was a small community of free blacks dating back to the mid 17th century, almost 100 years prior to Marrant's birth. New York's free black community owned and occupied farms that spanned central Manhattan. The historic African Burial Ground was the southern most border of the "Negro Lands" or "Land of the Blacks" which extended from present-day 34th St to Canal St.
When Marrant was just 4 years old, his father died prompting his mother to move the family to St. Augustine, FL. Once in Florida, the Marrant family likely sought residence at Ft. Mose, the first all-black free settlement in North America. In Spanish Florida, Black settlers were offered manumission in exchange for their military service, conversion to Catholicism, and sworn allegiance to the Spanish crown. Ft. Mose served as the northern most defense against the British who occupied territory in Georgia and South Carolina.
After a mere 18 month residency at Ft. Mose, Marrant moves to Savannah, GA where he attends school and learns to read. Throughout the colonial period, Savannah was home to a variety of religious cultures formed and informed by persons of African descent in North America. The First African Baptist Church of Savannah, organized by the Rev. George Leile in 1773, is one of the earliest African American congregations in North America. The current sanctuary (completed in 1859 and located at 23 Montgomery Street in Savannah) houses artifacts that attest to the poly-religious origins of the Black Church in North American. The ceiling of the church is in the design of a “Nine Patch Quilt” which represented that the church was a safe house for slaves. Nine Patch Quilts also served as a map and guide informing people where to go next or what to look out for during their travel. The holes in the floor are in the shape of an African prayer symbol known as a Congolese Cosmogram. Additionally, the holes in the floor enabled runaway slaves to maintain a steady flow of oxygen while hidden in tunnels beneath the building sub-flooring. The church's design and adornment provides a powerful testimony to the intersection of traditional African and Christian religious cultures that shaped the Black Church.
Marrant's eleventh year marks the end of his formal education. Aspiring to be a musician rather than practice a trade, the young Marrant is sent to live with his sister and her husband in Charleston. There he learns to play the violin and the French horn and maintains regular employment as a musician until his fateful encounter with renowned Methodist preacher, George Whitefield. After his brief exchange with Rev. Whitefield, Marrant undergoes a radical transformation. With the aid of a Native American guide, Marrant is initiated into adulthood and forms bonds with several Native communities in the lowcountry of South Carolina and Georgia. He is employed as a carpenter on the Jenkins plantation in Combahee, SC. There, Marrant also begins to hold nightly "brush harbor" worship services in the South Carolina forests with the enslaved laborers from the Jenkins plantation. Marrant remains in South Carolina until the siege of Charleston at the commencement of the American Revolutionary War.
John Marrant began his itinerant ministry to several Black Loyalist communities in Birchtown. Marrant gains notoriety and attracts a substantial following as he promotes a fiery brand of evangelical preaching that is heavily influenced by African diaspora religious cultures. Marrant utilizes the influence of his pulpit to establish an autonomous black community in North America.
In 1789, Marrant headed to Boston where, shortly after his arrival, he made the acquaintance of Prince Hall, founder of the African Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons. Hall recruited and initiated him into the brotherhood, and Marrant quickly assumed the role of chaplain to the fledgling organization. In June of 1789, Marrant preached a sermon to commemorate the Feast of St. John the Baptist, the earliest recorded oration of Black Free Masons in US history. His mixed-race audience included many of Boston's most prominent religious and civic leaders. In his address, Marrant charged the men of the African Lodge to exhibit the conduct and character befitting members of the free society they hoped to establish.
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