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An Appraisal of Thomas Coke';s Africa Mission, 1976–1811

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Warren Thomas Smith
Warren Thomas Smith
Affiliation:
Mr. Smith is Senior Minister of First United Methodist Church, College Park, Georgia
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Extract

Advancement in contemporary world missions has not come without heart-break, failure, defeat—prior to victory. One dramatic illustration of manifold blunders—and then success—is Thomas Coke's heroic attempt to establish missions in Africa.

Africa was coming more and more to the attention of thinking Englishmen. Abolition of the nefarious slave trade was being seriously discussed in humanitarian circles. The dark and mysterious continent caught Dr. Coke's imagination. In March, 1787, while in Charleston, South Carolina, he noted: “… Since my visit to the islands [West Indies], I have found a peculiar gift for speaking to the Blacks. It seems to be almost irresistible. Who knows but the Lord is preparing me for a visit in some future time to the coast of Africa?”

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 40 , Issue 3 , September 1971 , pp. 306 - 316
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1971

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References

1. Extracts of the Journals of the Rev. Dr. Coke's Five Visits to America (London: G. Paramore, 1793), p. 67.Google Scholar

2. Coupland, Reginald, Wilberforce (London: Collins, 1945), p. 225.Google Scholar

3. See Dictionary of National Biography, “Granville Sharp,” Vol. 51, pp. 401–404Google Scholar. Size of the colony is an approximation. See Banton, Michael, West Africa City (London: Oxford University Press, 1957), p. 3Google Scholar, note. The term Sierra Leone means “Lion Mountain.”

4. Coupland, p. 227.

5. Ibid.

6. Booth, Charles, Zachary Macaulay (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1934), p. 37.Google Scholar

7. Dated, November 21, 1791, in the Ezekiel Cooper Collection, Garrett Theological Seminary.

8. Fyfe, Christopher, A History of Sierra Leone (London: Oxford University Press, 1962), p. 38Google Scholar. Also see Candler, Warren A., Life of Thomas Coke (Nashville: Publishing House M. E. Church, South, 1923), p. 252Google Scholar, for a description of Methodist work in Free-town. Note, too, that Horne's first name is usually spelled Melville.

9. Fyfe, pp. 51–52. In 1809 Coke published a reply to a harsh doctrinal attack by Home. See Drew, Samuel, The Life of the Rev. Thomas Coke, LL.D. (N.Y.: Soule and Mason, 1818), p. 329Google Scholar. Also see Vickers, John, Thomas Coke: Apostle of Methodism (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1969), p. 288.Google Scholar

10. Fyfe, p. 32.

11. Knutsford, Viscountess, Life and Letters of Zachary Macaulay (London: E. Arnold, 1900), p. 49Google Scholar. Macaulay's papers - a veritable treasure-trove - are here preserved. This author used the Library of Congress copy.

12. Booth, p. 54. Macaulay sailed on May 6, 1795, for Barbados. Also see D.N.B., vol. 34, “Zachary Macaulay” pp. 418–420.

13. Booth, p. 49.

14. Letter to Ezekiel Cooper, April 23, 1795. Ezekiel Cooper Collection, Garrett Theological Seminary.

15. Coke, Thomas, An Interesting Narrative of a Mission Sent to Sierra Leone, In Africa, by the Methodists, in 1811. (London: Printed for the Author by Paris and Son, 1812), p. 18.Google Scholar

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21. Ibid., p. 268.

22. Etheridge, J. W., The Life of the Rev. Thomas Coke, D.C.L. (London: John Mason, 1860), p. 263.Google Scholar

23. Booth, p. 55.

24. Knutsford, p. 116. Macaulay's detailed picture of the missionaries reveals, in most fascinating terms, the utter inadequacy of the group. Also see Vickers, , Thomas Coke, p. 295.Google Scholar

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27. Booth, p. 58.

28. See Report of the Agency Committee of the Anti-Slavery Society (London: S. Bagster, 1832).Google Scholar

29. Drew, pp. 270–271.

30. Quoted in Etheridge, p. 356.

31. Etheridge, p. 356.

32. Candler, p. 253.

33. Coke, , An Interesting Narrative, p. 51.Google Scholar

34. Williams, George W., History of the Negro Race in America 1619 to 1880 (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1883) I, p. 90Google Scholar. Chapter on “Sierra Leone.”

35. Letter to Ezekiel Cooper, 1795.