Great Expectation

A portion of a letter written by a former slave, Ambrose Headen, who obtained his freedom after the Civil War. Life had been hard for the slaves but they were able to start a new life. The slaves rejoiced in the freedom they now knew. This letter was written in 1878 and explains some of the struggles of slavery and of the longing for freedom.


During all my slave life I never lost sight of freedom. It was always on my heart; it came to me like a solemn thought, and often circumstances much stimulated the desire to be free and raised great expectation of it...

We always called "freedom" "possum," so as to keep the white people from knowing what we were talking about. We all understood it... and now all my children are good scholars; one is a minister, one has charge of an academy; I have a good house of seven rooms, and eleven acres of land about it, besides a farm of 320 acres in the country.

Africans in America: America's Journey Through Slavery, by Charles Johnson and Patricia Smith, published by Harcourt Brace and Company, 1998, p. 443.

Wounded and Healed

A letter from George Whitefield to an acquaintance in Philadelphia who was an overseer of a Society of “negro women and children.” Whitefield had a great interest in the slaves and often preached the gospel to them. Arnold Dallimore shows in a chapter of his two-volume work on the life of Whitefield entitled, “Whitefield and the American Negro,” how he loved the slaves and how they loved him. Many of them responded to the gospel message as preached by Whitefield. Dallimore even argues that Negro Spirituals originated from the slaves that found Christ as Savior and Lord through Whitefield’s preaching.

May 2, 1740

Dear R______,

Let nothing said to you in my absence affect you. God has lately delivered you out of one snare; take heed how you fall into another. If you watch unto prayer, who knows but God may bless your endeavours amongst the poor negro women and children? I could not wish you more happily situated.—My love to all the society.—Exhort them not to rest in good desires. Shew them, O shew them the necessity of being deeply wounded, before they can be capable of healing by Jesus Christ. Bid them to beware of a light behaviour, and light company. Both do grieve the blessed Spirit of God. Take heed, take heed of those accursed snares. I could say more, but time will not permit. My love to the Negro Peggy, and all her black sisters. Bid them to pray for me. May the blood of Jesus wash away all the pollutions of their sin-sick souls! What if they were put into a society by themselves, and you, or some white woman, met with them? The good Lord direct and bless you in all things.—This is the hearty prayer of

Your sincere friend and servant in Christ,
G.W.

Letters of George Whitefield: For the Period 1734-1742, The Banner of Truth Trust, 1976, reprinted from The Works of George Whitefield, 1771, pp. 476-77.

Seek the Lord

A selection from letters of Rev. Charles Colcock Jones (1803-1863), affectionately known as “the apostle of the Negro slaves.” His son Joseph, a professor in the University of Georgia, professed faith in Christ in 1858. But his son, Charles, a lawyer, gave no evidence of knowing Christ, but received many letters from his father that included pleas for him to be converted. There is some evidence that he was brought to faith in Christ after his father’s death. Below are three samples of exhortations of a father to a son to be saved.

“Do not put off making your peace with God. You stand in danger of eternal ruin every hour you live without repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ” (September 6, 1854).

“My dear son, I pray the Lord to open your eyes and open your heart to see and feel your need of a precious Saviour” (February 16, 1858).

“When, my son, will you seek the Lord? Why are you not a Christian?” (October 3, 1859).

Heroes, Iain H. Murray, the Banner of Truth Trust, 2009, p. 233. This is a wonderful volume, especially the chapter on Charles Colcock Jones, and his wife, Mary. He was once the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Savannah, Georgia, and was professor of Columbia Theological Seminary, but his greatest work was that of evangelizing slaves.