James Phillippo
Encyclopedia
James Phillippo was a Baptist
missionary
who campaigned for the abolition of slavery
.
owners were strongly against the preaching of the gospel to the slaves. They were upset that the nonconformist missionaries (chiefly Baptist, Wesleyan and Methodist) were educating slaves and teaching them the Bible
, and reacted by burning down churches and schools .
At the time of the abolition of slave trade in 1807, there were 350,000 slaves in Jamaica. By 1823, there were still over 300,000 slaves remaining on the island, all of whom were prohibited by law from practicing any form of religion . When Phillippo arrived in Jamaica in 1823, he immediately set out to build places of worship and to preach religion to the slaves .
He was denied permission to preach to slaves several times, but this did not stop him , and in spite of the fact that he regularly received threats of imprisonment from authorities and he was the target of numerous death threats from planters, he continued to set up new chapels, schools, Sunday schools and Bible classes, and preached in towns where his preaching ban was not common knowledge. There was great enthusiasm from the slaves to hear the word of God and crowds of people came to church. In 1825, Phillippo was finally granted permission to preach .
He founded a church in Spanish Town
in 1827, which still stands today, and is known as the Phillippo Baptist Church
.
In 1831 Phillippo was unwell and needed to return to England. In February 1832 news arrived of a slave insurrection in Jamaica. Houses had been burnt, the militia
called out, and several missionaries had been arrested, including the Baptist missionaries William Knibb
, Whitehorn and Abbott. The enraged planters had destroyed ten Baptist chapels and mission houses. The uprising was quickly overthrown, and many hundreds of slaves were killed .
Phillippo returned to Jamaica in 1834 and joined with missionaries William Knibb and Thomas Burchell
, and together they worked to further the establishment of a free Negro
peasantry at the end of the Apprenticeship period, when it appeared certain that the planters had not mended their ways and intended to use coercion as the basic means of control.
. He acquired land (usually via agents as the owners would not have sold to him) for settlements where emancipated slaves could live and build houses free from the threat of eviction from their former Estate hovels. He personally stood surety
for all monies borrowed but conveyed the land to the mission. He founded new chapels at each and both Sunday (for religious study) and day schools to educate the young, organising the training and appointment of teachers. Sligoville
, a hilly St. Catherine farming community about 10 miles from Spanish Town. was the location of the first free village which was established there by Phillipo in 1835, in anticipation of the emancipation
of slaves three years later .
While slavery was officially ended on August 1, 1834, with the Slavery Abolition Act
, it wasn’t until the end of apprenticeship in 1838 that all slaves were finally free. The celebration of Emancipation on August 1, 1838 was a joyous time in Spanish Town with a large turnout of freed slaves. Phillipo was asked by Governor Sir Lionel Smith
to lead the procession of the Baptist Church and Congregation of Spanish Town, along with about 2,000 school children and their teachers to Government House, where the Proclamation of Freedom was read to a crowd of over 8,000 people .
In June 1842, Phillippo his wife Hannah and their younger son Edwin set sail for England. Ostensibly, the trip to England was for their health, but also it was an opportunity to lobby the Missionary Society for permission and funding for a new college and school, known as Calabar College, which he had built with Knibb and Burchell. Calabar College changed its name to Calabar High School
in 1912 and still operates today. While in England, Phillippo travelled extensively, lectured and completed the manuscript for his first book. The trip was successful and fully recovered, the Phillippos returned to Jamaica in December 1843.
. He continued his missionary work until he retired on Sunday July 7, 1878. He lasted less than a year after his retirement, worn out by a long, difficult life in an unfriendly climate. He died on May 11, 1879 in Spanish Town at the age of 81.
James Phillippo was buried, along with his wife and daughter across the street from his beloved Church in Spanish Town, which he had built over 50 years prior to his death . He was so well respected by the Jamaican people at all social levels that the funeral was unlike anything that had ever been witnessed before, with thousands of former slaves attending the service as well as politicians, clergy, and businessmen.
villa in Oracabessa
.
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
missionary
Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...
who campaigned for the abolition of slavery
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
.
Early years as a missionary
Phillippo sailed for Jamaica in 1823 and arrived at a time of great transition: the slave trade had been banned in 1807, and in 1823 propositions to abolish slavery itself were brought in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom but rejected with little hope of success. Despite the legislation being unsuccessful, mission workers in Jamaica, especially Baptists, were criticized by the white population, the press, and the colonial government for being in league with the anti-slavery camp, with the 'intention of effecting our ruin' . The plantationPlantation
A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...
owners were strongly against the preaching of the gospel to the slaves. They were upset that the nonconformist missionaries (chiefly Baptist, Wesleyan and Methodist) were educating slaves and teaching them the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
, and reacted by burning down churches and schools .
At the time of the abolition of slave trade in 1807, there were 350,000 slaves in Jamaica. By 1823, there were still over 300,000 slaves remaining on the island, all of whom were prohibited by law from practicing any form of religion . When Phillippo arrived in Jamaica in 1823, he immediately set out to build places of worship and to preach religion to the slaves .
He was denied permission to preach to slaves several times, but this did not stop him , and in spite of the fact that he regularly received threats of imprisonment from authorities and he was the target of numerous death threats from planters, he continued to set up new chapels, schools, Sunday schools and Bible classes, and preached in towns where his preaching ban was not common knowledge. There was great enthusiasm from the slaves to hear the word of God and crowds of people came to church. In 1825, Phillippo was finally granted permission to preach .
He founded a church in Spanish Town
Spanish Town
Spanish Town is the capital and the largest town in the parish of St. Catherine in the county of Middlesex, Jamaica. It was the former Spanish and English capital of Jamaica from the 16th to the 19th century...
in 1827, which still stands today, and is known as the Phillippo Baptist Church
Phillippo Baptist Church
Phillippo Baptist Church is named in honour of its first minister and founder, Reverend James Phillippo, a Baptist missionary who arrived in Jamaica in 1823 and campaigned for the abolition of slavery and for the establishment of "Free Villages" for emancipated slaves. The church is located on the...
.
In 1831 Phillippo was unwell and needed to return to England. In February 1832 news arrived of a slave insurrection in Jamaica. Houses had been burnt, the militia
Militia
The term militia is commonly used today to refer to a military force composed of ordinary citizens to provide defense, emergency law enforcement, or paramilitary service, in times of emergency without being paid a regular salary or committed to a fixed term of service. It is a polyseme with...
called out, and several missionaries had been arrested, including the Baptist missionaries William Knibb
William Knibb
William Knibb , English Baptist minister and missionary to Jamaica, is chiefly known for his work to free slaves.-Missionary in Jamaica:...
, Whitehorn and Abbott. The enraged planters had destroyed ten Baptist chapels and mission houses. The uprising was quickly overthrown, and many hundreds of slaves were killed .
Advocate against slavery
Phillippo’s first role in England as an advocate for the slaves came in June 1832 at the BMS World Mission 40th anniversary meeting. He and William Knibb described the nature of slavery, the insurrection, the great response to the gospel both from the slaves and free that the missionaries had already facilitated, and how the missionaries themselves had suffered .Phillippo returned to Jamaica in 1834 and joined with missionaries William Knibb and Thomas Burchell
Thomas Burchell
Thomas Burchell was a leading Baptist missionary and slavery abolitionist in Jamaica in the early nineteenth century. It is not uncommon for Jamaican parents to name their children 'Burchell'; indeed it is almost as popular a Christian name as Manley.Burchell, along with James Phillippo , William...
, and together they worked to further the establishment of a free Negro
Free Negro
A free Negro or free black is the term used prior to the abolition of slavery in the United States to describe African Americans who were not slaves. Almost all African Americans came to the United States as slaves, but from the earliest days of American slavery, slaveholders set men and women free...
peasantry at the end of the Apprenticeship period, when it appeared certain that the planters had not mended their ways and intended to use coercion as the basic means of control.
Free Villages and emancipation
A unique and highly successful innovation of James Phillippo was the system of Free VillagesFree Villages
Free Villages is the term used for Caribbean settlements, particularly in Jamaica, founded in the 1830s and 1840s independent of the control of plantation owners and other major estates.-Pioneering the concept:...
. He acquired land (usually via agents as the owners would not have sold to him) for settlements where emancipated slaves could live and build houses free from the threat of eviction from their former Estate hovels. He personally stood surety
Surety
A surety or guarantee, in finance, is a promise by one party to assume responsibility for the debt obligation of a borrower if that borrower defaults...
for all monies borrowed but conveyed the land to the mission. He founded new chapels at each and both Sunday (for religious study) and day schools to educate the young, organising the training and appointment of teachers. Sligoville
Sligoville
Sligoville is a small community approximately 10 miles from Spanish Town in the parish of St. Catherine on the island of Jamaica.Sligoville is named after the Marquess of Sligo, Governor of Jamaica in 1834, the year that freedom came to the enslaved people of Jamaica. Sligoville was said to be the...
, a hilly St. Catherine farming community about 10 miles from Spanish Town. was the location of the first free village which was established there by Phillipo in 1835, in anticipation of the emancipation
Emancipation
Emancipation means the act of setting an individual or social group free or making equal to citizens in a political society.Emancipation may also refer to:* Emancipation , a champion Australian thoroughbred racehorse foaled in 1979...
of slaves three years later .
While slavery was officially ended on August 1, 1834, with the Slavery Abolition Act
Slavery Abolition Act
The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 was an 1833 Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom abolishing slavery throughout the British Empire...
, it wasn’t until the end of apprenticeship in 1838 that all slaves were finally free. The celebration of Emancipation on August 1, 1838 was a joyous time in Spanish Town with a large turnout of freed slaves. Phillipo was asked by Governor Sir Lionel Smith
Sir Lionel Smith, 1st Baronet
General Sir Lionel Smith, 1st Baronet GCB GCH was a British diplomat, colonial administrator, and soldier.His mother was noted writer and feminist Charlotte Turner Smith....
to lead the procession of the Baptist Church and Congregation of Spanish Town, along with about 2,000 school children and their teachers to Government House, where the Proclamation of Freedom was read to a crowd of over 8,000 people .
In June 1842, Phillippo his wife Hannah and their younger son Edwin set sail for England. Ostensibly, the trip to England was for their health, but also it was an opportunity to lobby the Missionary Society for permission and funding for a new college and school, known as Calabar College, which he had built with Knibb and Burchell. Calabar College changed its name to Calabar High School
Calabar High School
Calabar High School is an all-male, secondary school in Kingston, Jamaica. It was established by the Jamaica Baptist Union in 1912 for the children of Baptist ministers and the children of the poor blacks and was named after the former slave port Calabar, now in Nigeria...
in 1912 and still operates today. While in England, Phillippo travelled extensively, lectured and completed the manuscript for his first book. The trip was successful and fully recovered, the Phillippos returned to Jamaica in December 1843.
Final years
The trip in 1843 was his last major voyage abroad and, other than a few trips to the U.S., Phillippo remained in Jamaica for the next 35 years. He never stopped preaching and constantly travelled all over Jamaica to bring the ‘Word of God’ to those who needed it. When his beloved wife, Hannah, died in 1874 he moved to a small cottage outside of KingstonKingston, Jamaica
Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal and the Norman Manley International Airport to the rest of the island...
. He continued his missionary work until he retired on Sunday July 7, 1878. He lasted less than a year after his retirement, worn out by a long, difficult life in an unfriendly climate. He died on May 11, 1879 in Spanish Town at the age of 81.
James Phillippo was buried, along with his wife and daughter across the street from his beloved Church in Spanish Town, which he had built over 50 years prior to his death . He was so well respected by the Jamaican people at all social levels that the funeral was unlike anything that had ever been witnessed before, with thousands of former slaves attending the service as well as politicians, clergy, and businessmen.
Legacy
In addition to his many accomplishments as a minister and champion of human rights, James Phillippo was also the author of three books about Jamaica, the most notable being Jamaica: Its Past and Present State published while recuperating in England in 1842. Phillippo and his wife had nine children, five of whom died in childhood. One of his sons, Sir George Phillippo, had a long and distinguished career as a lawyer, politician, and statesman. Many of James Phillippo’s offspring live in Jamaica, including his great-great grandson, noted author Colin Simpson who owns the historic Golden CloudsGolden Clouds
Golden Clouds was the name given by the first female US ambassador, Ruth Bryan Owen, to her house in Oracabessa, Jamaica. It is situated between Goldeneye , where Ian Fleming wrote many of the James Bond novels, and Noel Coward's Firefly Estate. The ocean front 9-bedroom mansion is located on of...
villa in Oracabessa
Oracabessa
Oracabessa is a small town in St Mary, Jamaica east of Ocho Rios. Its population was 4,108 in 2009.Lit in the afternoons by an apricot light that may have inspired its Spanish name Oracabeza, or "Golden Head", it is a friendly town with a covered produce market and a few shops and bars...
.