Jacob Grigg: Cornwall's First Missionary

Jacob Grigg: Cornwall's First Missionary
Author: Stephen Dray
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 160
Release: 2017-09-03
Genre: History
ISBN: 0244930759

This book is the life of one of the most remarkable and neglected pioneers of the modern protestant missionary movement. Jacob Grigg was a young Cornishman who, inspired by his contemporary William Carey, was the first English missionary to volunteer for Africa. His career was a chequered one. Expelled by the Governor of Sierra Leone, he emigrated to the newly-free United States of America. There he became renowned for his ability as a preacher, evangelist and theological thinker. An emancipationist and committed to worldwide evangelism, he suffered for his views. Workloads led to alcoholic addiction which he conquered. This is the first biography of a remarkable man who died nearly two centuries ago.

Black Labor in Richmond, 1865-1890

Black Labor in Richmond, 1865-1890
Author: Peter J. Rachleff
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 268
Release: 1984
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780252060267

''The best study yet written about the ex-slave as urban wage-earner. It is essential reading for students of Afro-American and working-class history.'' -- Herbert Gutman''This book shows that black and white workers could act together and that a working-class reform movement, at least in one southern city, could challenge the existing status quo. . . . Rachleff presents an interesting story of social, economic, and political intrigue in a post-Civil War urban environment where class was pitted against class and race against race.'' -- C. K. McFarland, Journal of Southern History

The Richmond Theater Fire

The Richmond Theater Fire
Author: Meredith Henne Baker
Publisher: LSU Press
Total Pages: 349
Release: 2012-03-14
Genre: History
ISBN: 080714374X

On the day after Christmas in 1811, the state of Virginia lost its governor and almost one hundred citizens in a devastating nighttime fire that consumed a Richmond playhouse. During the second act of a melodramatic tale of bandits, ghosts, and murder, a small fire kindled behind the backdrop. Within minutes, it raced to the ceiling timbers and enveloped the audience in flames. The tragic Richmond Theater fire would inspire a national commemoration and become its generation's defining disaster. A vibrant and bustling city, Richmond was synonymous with horse races, gambling, and frivolity. The gruesome fire amplified the capital's reputation for vice and led to an upsurge in antitheater criticism that spread throughout the country and across the Atlantic. Clerics in both America and abroad urged national repentance and denounced the stage, a sentiment that nearly destroyed theatrical entertainment in Richmond for decades. Local churches, by contrast, experienced a rise in attendance and became increasingly evangelical. In The Richmond Theater Fire, the first book about the event and its aftermath, Meredith Henne Baker explores a forgotten catastrophe and its wide societal impact. The story of transformation comes alive through survivor accounts of slaves, actresses, ministers, and statesmen. Investigating private letters, diaries, and sermons, among other rare or unpublished documents, Baker views the event and its outcomes through the fascinating lenses of early nineteenth-century theater, architecture, and faith, and reveals a rich and vital untold story from America's past.