Freeborn Garrettson, an American clergyman, was born in Maryland in 1752. died in New York, September 26, 1827. He entered the Methodist ministry in 1775, travelled extensively in several states.
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Kenneth E. Rowe's foreword to the book "American Methodist Pioneer," which presents the journals of Freeborn Garrettson, begins,"Freeborn Garrettson was unquestionably the most competent native born Methodist preacher in the American colonies in the founding period." [1] Early in his career Garrettson served the Delmarva Peninsula. Although he favored the revolutionary cause he would not fight in the war and was placed in jail for a time in Maryland during the Revolutionary War. Most of the Methodist preachers who had come from England before the outbreak of war, returned there once the war began. In 1784 he went as a missionary to Nova Scotia. In 1788 he began working in the state of New York. In 1791, he married Catherine Livingston of Rhinebeck, after which he confined his ministry to New York.[2] During Garrettson's time American Methodism rose from total obscurity to a place of import within American religion.
He was a very popular preacher and at his death he made provision in his will for the perpetual support of a missionary.[2]
In the late 1780s Reverend Garrettson settled in the Village of Rhinebeck, NY to bring Methodism. He married Mrs. Catherine Livingston, and held the first Methodist church services in the Benner House on Mill Street.
Not long after Garrettson inherited several slaves, he freed them. Garrettson wrote that a "voice" moved him to do so. His journals divulge an anti-slavery stance, but do not reveal the extent of his activism. A wave of voluntary emancipation mirrored and followed Garrettson's time on the Delmarva. By 1810 76% of African Americans in Delaware were free, though slavery remained legal in Delaware. Garrettson wrote on the issue of slavery including a published work, "A Dialogue Between Do-Justice and Professing Christian." The Rev. Freeborn Garrettson's preaching on the Delmarva led directly to the emancipation of Richard Allen, who upon his return to Philadelphia founded the Bethel Church and then the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) denomination.[3]