James Mursell Phillippo (1798-1879)

A ‘problem child’, the young James Phillippo was always getting into trouble, amusing his friends by imitating the preachers at church – not an obvious candidate to become a missionary.

 

Around the age of nine, Phillippo was moved to a strict school where his teacher was not afraid of giving severe floggings – his first real eye-opener to injustice and the inhumane treatment of innocent people: a theme which would permeate his future.

 

As he grew up, Phillippo stayed away from church and even went out of his way to disturb services and ridicule the local congregation. However, God was at work in him, prodding his conscience. Eventually, Phillippo accepted the message of the gospel:

 

"“With all my sins around me, and with an earnestness and fluency I can never forget, I supplicated mercy through the blood of Christ as the greatest boon that Heaven could bestow. I felt like Christian when he lost his burden at the sight of the cross; my mind was filled with joy unspeakable. I thought I was in a new world, surrounded by new objects, and possessed of new senses. Everything assumed a different appearance. It was heaven to me to please God, and to be fashioned into His likeness. Old things emphatically passed away; behold, all things became new!”

 

A new world

 

From then on, things were different: Phillippo started preaching in the surrounding villages, and in 1818 he applied to go overseas as a missionary with BMS. Phillippo was accepted and given his destination – it was to be Jamaica.

 

 

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 but rejected with little hope of success.

 

Despite the Act being unsuccessful, mission workers in Jamaica, especially Baptists, were criticised 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 planters were strongly against the preaching of the gospel to the slaves.

 

Phillippo applied to the authorities for permission to preach but was refused more than once. In spite of this he set up a new chapel, school, Sunday school and Bible class, 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. At last, in 1825 he was granted permission to preach.

 

The struggle for emancipation

 

The struggle for the destruction of slavery began to be taken seriously by the British government, but the opposition by the colonial planters resulted in strict regulations, prejudice and abuse for slaves and missionaries alike. Barely a month passed without Phillippo being summoned before the magistrates for violating some law.

 

In spite of this, the school and the chapel flourished.  The school had 150 pupils, of different backgrounds – black and white, slave and free. However, there was widespread opposition to the school, with claims that Phillippo was ‘about to revolutionise the country by attempting to put the slaves on an equality with white men’.

 

Insurrection

 

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 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 slain or hanged.

 

By now the slaves felt that their freedom, declared by the British Parliament, was being unjustly withheld from them. The planters though were defiant, refusing to improve the conditions of the slaves or even contemplate emancipation. The battle for freedom was now transferred to England: British public opinion needed changing to look favourably on the plight of the slaves, and the British Parliament needed influencing to take action.

 

Missionaries making history: 1832-34

 

Phillippo

 

On Phillippo’s return in 1834 he found the chapel and schools in good order, and went on to expand the capacity of the chapel and to build two new schools. During one Sunday service the chapel was ‘crowded almost to suffocation’ with around 1,000 inside, and 300 to 400 more outside the building!

 

Baptisms

 

Apprenticeship

 

The great news of abolition was soon shrouded by the implementation of a six-year transition period of apprenticeship before the slaves could work for wages. Phillippo was quick to spot the shortcomings in this plan, and started to campaign for complete emancipation to come much sooner. The apprenticeship scheme was indeed exploited by the planters, who worked the slaves even harder than before. And on 22 May 1838 the House of Commons finally abolished the apprenticeship system.

 

Free villages

 

Sligoville

 

Burchell and Knibb were able to do the same, forming the free villages of Sturge, Bethel Town, Mount Carey, Birmingham, Kettering and Hoby Town. Within five years nearly 200 free villages had been established.

 

Calabar College

 

Calabar College