f Matthew Moore's church at the close of the year 1774, or the
beginning of 1775, but was converted at the end of the year 1773, and
let a whole year, or nearly so, pass before becoming a church-member.

It is probable that George Liele did not wait to be received into the
fellowship of a church before going from plantation to plantation to
tell his fellow slaves of the blessing of salvation which he had
experienced. He may have thus declared the love of Christ, at Silver
Bluff, as early as 1773, as Burke County, Georgia, in which he lived,
is in part practically adjacent to Aiken County, South Carolina, in
which was Silver Bluff. Accordingly, we are warranted in concluding
that the Negro Baptist Church at Silver Bluff was constituted not
earlier than 1773, nor later than 1775.

In making these deductions, we bear in mind that the year 1777 has
been designated as the time of Liele's conversion, 1778 as the time
when he united with Matthew Moore's church, and four years later, or
1782, as the time when his membership in that church ceased. In
explanation of this view its advocates insist that the three years in
which Liele preached at Brumpton Land and Yamacraw are included in
the four years during which he was a member of Matthew Moore's church.
According to this claim, the Silver Bluff Church could not have been
planted earlier than 1777 nor later than 1778.

We do not share this view for good and sufficient reasons. When Liele,
in 1779, went to Savannah to reside, during the British occupancy, he
became separated from Matthew Moore's church and the people of Burke
County, Georgia, for all time. With the British troops he entered
Savannah, as the Americans had evacuated it at the very close of the
year 1778. With the British he remained in Savannah during his three
years stay in that city, and with one of their officers he left the
country, in 1782, for Kingston, Jamaica, British West Indies, where he
spent the remainder of his life. His four years of connection with
Matthew Moore's church, therefore, must have preceded the year 1779,
covering the time from the latter part of 1774 to the latter part of
1778.

As George Liele informs us that he became a Christian about two years
before the American War, those who place his conversion in the year
1777 are compelled to reckon the beginning of the Revolutionary War
from the year 1779. Errors are hard things to substantiate, and force
men to choose between strange dilem