Gowan Pamphlet, slave preacher

Lloyd Dobyns: Hi! Welcome to Colonial Williamsburg: Past & Present on history.org. This is “Behind the Scenes” where you meet the people who work here. That’s my job. I’m Lloyd Dobyns, and mostly I ask questions. This time, I’m asking James Ingram, and at Colonial Williamsburg, he’s Gowan Pamphlet. So, the first thing is, who was Gowan Pamphlet?

James Ingram: Gowan was a slave to Jane Vobe at King’s Arms Tavern. We believe that he was born there in 17 and 48. Grew up as a tavern slave, which is quite interesting. Tavern slaves are privy, mostly, to a lot of conversation: between burgesses and delegates, people from the frontier, from the North, from the South, from overseas, and Germany, and France, and Italy, and also England, Ireland, Scotland. You have a lot of travelers in the 18th century, and they’re coming into this cosmopolitan city and, of course, to the taverns for refreshments.

And so, just being where he is in that tavern, and listening to all of this conversation between people, and musicians, and scholars, and lecturers – that’s a learning institution for him. And so, I think this is sort of what shaped his world. Also, we’re believing that Gowan was born at the right time. This was the beginning of the Great Awakening, and the Great Awakening started about 17 and 40 in Massachusetts, led by the great Reverend George Whitefield. And by the time it reached Virginia, it really set Virginia on fire. But what the Great Awakening did for slaves and free blacks here was to give them a human face, because the New Light dissenting preachers were saying to slaves that they were children of God, and not just property – cow, horse, and chair – but they were human beings.

And so this is the beginning, here, of Gowan’s experience in Williamsburg, and realizing that he has not only a part in this great kingdom, but of course, a mission now, which would be taken on later -- as a slave preacher. 

Lloyd: Well, that was rather a radical departure, that a slave wasn’t cow, horse, chair; a slave was a human being. Now, in Virginia at that time, Anglican was the accepted religion, right?

James: (Chuckling.) Well, it was the only religion.

Lloyd: OK.

James: The Church of England dominated in Virginia, also in North Carolina, South Carolina, and in Georgia. Basically, the Church of England condoned slavery to a certain extent. They wrote a pamphlet, and it’s a very interesting pamphlet, and I think that’s why Gowan took his last name, “Pamphlet,” because he probably had privy to some of these pamphlets.

“The Compassionate Address to the Christian Negro in Virginia,” that pamphlet basically denoted the stature of the Church of England towards slaves, because it said, “Negroes, you are heathens, and savages, and idol worshipers. You were delivered from the dark continent of Africa and brought here to be made civilized, and now that you’re here and now that you’ve been made civilized, stay away from the Catholics, because they will eat your souls. And also the French.” (Laughs.)

And so these pamphlets were sort of a means of indoctrinating, sort of, the slave here. And remember, Williamsburg has over 900 slaves here at any given point, and almost 50 percent of the population, sometimes 52 percent of the population. And so these words are very powerful coming from the church. But when George Whitefield came through –and I always say I never understood why George Whitefield was of the Church of England, because he preached like a Baptist – thousands of people would be in his flock – black, white, Indian, rich or poor. It really didn’t matter, your status in society. They are listening to his powerful words, and it’s bringing on a new life for them.

When that ushered in, the Great Awakening, ushered in by George Whitefield, right behind them came the Presbyterians. The Presbyterians came with a word of, “In the eyes of God, we’re all equal.” And that really set sort of a tone here. Now, they weren’t tolerated much by the Church because …

Lloyd: (Interrupts.) Gee, I wonder why…

James: (Laughs.) …We were a false denomination. And Reverend Samuel Davies, one of the first Presbyterian preachers to come into Williamsburg, he really kind of set this place on fire with his whole demeanor. He was a quiet man, tall, small, suffered under consumption. But the words were very powerful that he brought for the enslaved and for the Indian here. And that word was, “In the eyes of God, you are equal, and that when we all die and go to heaven we’re all going to be on the same level.” Those words were threatening, somewhat, to Virginia laws, as far as slaves were concerned.

But the Presbyterians poured into Virginia. Right behind the Presbyterians, in 17 and 55, came the Baptists. Now, I always say, they tolerated the Presbyterians because the rule is, if you want to preach in Virginia, you have to go to the council, in the capitol building, and plead for a license, and agree to at least 34 of the 39 articles of the Book of Common Prayer. And you were told where to preach because your meetinghouse had to be at a certain place. You have certain rules while you’re having services. The doors have to be open. You have to have access to that, in case you’re teaching something that maybe shouldn’t be taught.

Lloyd: I hate to interrupt you, but in that period in Virginia, were slaves taught to read?

James: Ironically, some were.

Lloyd: Oh, OK.

James: Especially in Williamsburg. In 17 and 60, the Bray School, b-r-a-y, Dr. Thomas Bray, an Anglican minister …  The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts had schools set here. And these Negro schools here in Williamsburg – also in Fredericksburg, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York City, Newport, Rhode Island – these schools were for slave children to attend. Some 33 slave-children from 1760 through 17 and 74 attended the school. Ann Wager, Mrs. Ann Wager was the teacher, and she taught reading, writing, and ciphering numbers. And, of course, the Catechism in Anglican – had to read the Catechism.

So, ironically, early on, there was not a great concern for Negroes to read, especially the Bible. In South Carolina and Georgia, the law said, “It’s illegal for Negroes to read.” And I always say the reason for that is, because there were so many Negroes in South Carolina and Georgia. And, of course, the ideas, they were mainly afraid of what the teachings of the Bible would do for the Negro, to make them think they’re more than they are. The equality and liberty and all of the ideas of the Revolution is in the Bible. And if they think that, then they might think themselves better than they ought to.

But, of course, not a great threat here. When the Baptists, and the Presbyterians, and later on, the Methodists came in, they sent to Great Britain for their societies there to send over shiploads of Bibles and tracts and hymnals, Isaac Watts spelling books. They taught Negroes the day before the Sabbath in their meetinghouses, reading. Not a great problem at all.

Lloyd: So, you, Gowan Pamphlet, learned to read and probably took your name from what you were reading. And the Great Awakening, which I am afraid a lot of people will not recognize what it was, it was a great religious …

James: (Interrupts.)Revival.

Lloyd:  …Revival.

James: Absolutely.

Lloyd: And swept all the colonies.
 
James: It was a phenomenon, because especially in Virginia, also in South Carolina and North Carolina, it is sort of the – not the rule – but, it is not looked well upon to have emotion, enthusiasm, especially in the Church of England, you know. That’s not encouraged at all.

But, what happened when the Great Awakening moved through, it really changed folks. Because the phenomenon of that whole spiritual movement was, I mean, out in George Whitefield’s crowd – you had 5,000 here, 10,000 in Philadelphia, 20,000 out in Boston Commons – and all of a sudden waves of people were starting, just being slayed out in the spirit. Some would be yawping, and, like, barking, jerking. All of these different sort of ironies were happening to them, to the crowd. And they knew it was something very, very different.

Jonathan Edwards, up in Northampton Church in Massachusetts, he had started experiencing that, in 1734, in his Congregational church in Massachusetts, sort of this movement of the spirit that made people move with that, you know. They couldn’t help it. And so that sort of changed things here in Virginia, once that movement happened. And, of course, when the Presbyterians came, you know, the spirit uplifted a little bit more. And then the Baptists, and the shouting Methodists are worse than the Baptists, they say.

© 2024 The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation