be the cause of this remarkable beginning
of Negro Baptist churches in the United States, for he was living and
active during and prior to the Revolutionary period, and long before.

Wait Palmer, of Stonington, Connecticut, moreover, was, as his
biographer states, "an actor in the great New Light, or Separatist
movement," and in this capacity he "preached often in destitute
regions." Benedict testifies that "he became a famous pioneer in
Virginia and North Carolina." But what is more, Mrs. Marshall, the
mother of Abraham Marshall, of Kiokee, Georgia, was a sister of Shubal
Sterns, and Shubal Sterns was baptized and ordained to the work of the
ministry by Wait Palmer, at Tolland, Connecticut, in the spring of
1751. It was but natural that, in his zeal to preach Christ in
destitute regions, Palmer would visit this Connecticut family and
preach the gospel to any who might desire to hear it.

If it should be thought by some that no man would, in the
circumstances, have gone on a preaching tour from Connecticut to South
Carolina, it may be well to recall the fact that Rev. Abraham Marshall
covered the ground in question, in the year 1786, travelling both ways
on horseback, preaching nearly every day during the three months he
was away from home. But Palmer was now in the South and not in the
North, as Benedict states. No other Palmer, known to Baptists, fits
the case like this friend of Shubal Stearns. We shall continue to
assign to him the credit of the first Negro Baptist Church in America,
until we can find another "Elder Palmer," whose claim is absolutely
certain. See Rippon, _Annual Baptist Register_, 1790-1793, pp.
475-476; Catheart's _Baptist Encyclopedia_, II, 882.

[13] Rippon's _Annual Baptist Register_, edition 1790-1793, pp.
473-480, and compare article, Sir Archibald Campbell, in Appleton's
_Cyclopedia of American Biography_, Vol. I, p. 511.

[14] See Bill's letter of March 12, and one of March 14, 1776; also
March 26, 1776, printed in Gibbes' _Documentary History of the
American Revolution_ (South Carolina), Vol. I, pp. 266-273. Compare
with letter in Vol. II, p. 62. See also Dunmore's Emancipation
Proclamation issued in November, 1775, in Joseph T. Wilson's
_Emancipation_, pp. 36-37.

[15] _Cyclopedia American Biography_, Vol. I, p. 511. Compare with
Rippon's _Annual Baptist Register_, edition 1790-1793, pp. 332-333.

[16] Cathcart's _Encyclopedia_, Vol. II, p. 749, and compare article
of John Houston