Cato Perkins

Cato Perkins was an enslaved African-American man from Charleston, South Carolina, who became a missionary to Sierra Leone.

Cato was enslaved by John Perkins. ^[1] Cato Perkins self-emancipated by joining the British during the Siege of Charleston, and he joined General Clinton in New York and worked as a carpenter there. Perkins was evacuated to Birchtown, Nova Scotia, in 1783, and he is listed in the Book of Negroes . Upon arriving in Nova Scotia, he was converted by John Marrant of the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion, which was a Methodist splinter group. Perkins was ordained into the church ^[2] and later took over the running of it. ^[3]

Perkins migrated to Sierra Leone, where he led a strike of carpenters against the Sierra Leone Company. The new life in Sierra Leone was not what the group had expected and Perkins petitioned the SLC to improve Freetown; ^{[1] [4]} In 1793 Perkins travelled with Isaac Anderson to London to make their petition heard. ^[5] By 1800, inflated price-fixing was leading to food riots and Perkins negotiated between the rioters and the council. ^[4]

Perkins established the first Huntingdon's Connexion church, with William Ash and John Ellis ^[6] and later on, other Nova Scotian settler preachers established churches in the Liberated African villages.

Perkins died in Sierra Leone in 1805, ^[7] although some sources state that he lived until 1820; ^{[6] [8]} his churches are the remnant of Huntingdon's Connexion church worldwide.

References

1. British Library website, The Lives and Letters of the Black Loyalists - Part 3 Cato Perkins and Nathaniel Snowball
2. University of Virginia website, John Morrant, From Methodism to Freemasonry
3. Equiano’s World website, ‘’Associates’’
4. Oxford University Press website, No Useless Mouth: Waging War and Fighting Hunger in the American Revolution; Chapter 8, Black Loyalist Hunger Prevention in Sierra Leone (2019)
5. William and Mary College website, Perceptions, Promises, And Power: Anna Maria Falconbridge, The Sierra Leone Company, And The Development Of Freetown, 1791-1802, by Jackson Wood (2022)
6. Early Religious Influences in Sierra Leone. by F.W. Butt-Thompson, published in the Baptist Quarterly 16.7 (July 1956), pages 313-322.
7. Countess of Huntingdon Connexion website, The Elect Lady, by Gilbert W. Kirby (1972)
8. Black Loyalists Digital Collections website, Cato Perkins

Sources

• Sanneh, L.O. (1997). The Crown and the Turban: Muslims and West African Pluralism. Westview Press. ISBN   9780813330594.
• Director of Language Centre University of Ghana Mary Esther Kropp Dakubu Professor of Linguistics, L. (1997). Korle Meets the Sea : A Sociolinguistic History of Accra: A Sociolinguistic History of Accra. Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN   9780195345186.
• Sillinger, B. (2003). Sierra Leone: Current Issues and Background. Nova Science. ISBN   9781590336625.
• Schama, S. (2006). Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves and the American Revolution. HarperCollins. ISBN   9780060539160.
• Olson, J.S.; Shadle, R. (1991). Historical Dictionary of European Imperialism. Greenwood Press. ISBN   9780313262579.
• Ware, S. (1999). Forgotten Heroes: Inspiring American Portraits From Our Leading Historians . Free Press. ISBN   9780684868721.
• Clarke, G.E. (2002). Odysseys Home: Mapping African-Canadian Literature . University of Toronto Press. ISBN   9780802081919.
• Pybus, C. (2007). Epic Journeys of Freedom: Runaway Slaves of the American Revolution and Their Global Quest for Liberty. Beacon Press. ISBN   9780807055151.
• Tony Pace. "Cato Perkins". blackloyalist.com. Archived from the original on 19 February 2008. Retrieved 16 January 2014.
• Tony Pace. "Freetown". blackloyalist.com. Archived from the original on 29 July 2013. Retrieved 16 January 2014.
• Pybus, C. (2007). Epic Journeys of Freedom: Runaway Slaves of the American Revolution and Their Global Quest for Liberty. Beacon Press. ISBN   9780807055151.
• Clendenen, C.C.; Duignan, P. (1964). Americans in black Africa up to 1865 . Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace, Stanford University.
• Religious Tract Society (Great Britain) (1880). The Sunday at Home. Religious Tract Society.
• Butt-Thompson, F.W. (1926). Sierra Leone in History and Tradition. Witherby.
• Forna, A. (2003). The Devil That Danced on the Water: A Daughter's Quest . Grove Press. ISBN   9780802140487.
• Lunn, K. (1985). Race and Labour in Twentieth-century Britain. Cass. ISBN   9780714632384.

External links

Sierra Leone website Two Voyages to Sierra Leone, During the Years 1791-2-3, by Anna Maria Falconbridge