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William Knibb, OM (7 September 1803 – 15 November 1845) was an English Baptist minister and missionary to Jamaica. He is chiefly known today for his work to free slaves. On the 150th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in the British Empire, Knibb was posthumously awarded the Jamaican Order of Merit. He was the first white male to receive the country's highest civil honour. Knibb's elder brother Thomas was a missionary-schoolmaster in Jamaica. When Thomas died at 24,〔Thomas was born on 11 October 1799. Hinton incorrectly gives 1823 as his death year though later quotes a letter dated 18 April 1825 written by William saying Thomas had preached there exactly a year ago on Sabbath evening. The gravestone confirms 1824. ACJ.〕 William volunteered to replace him. A dedication service was held in Bristol on 7 October 1824, two days after he had married Mary Watkins (or Watkis). The newly-weds sailed to Jamaica on 5 November 1824. William was aged just 21.〔Kettering Borough Council, 2005: William Knibb, Missionary and Emancipator. Available from (KBC ).〕 Knibb found six English Baptist missionaries, African-Caribbean Baptist deacons, and thriving congregations already in Jamaica when he arrived. Together they were following the pioneering work of the African preacher George Lisle, a former slave from Virginia who had arrived in 1782 and founded a Baptist church in Kingston. Knibb began work as the schoolmaster of the Baptist mission school in Kingston and worked closely with fellow missionaries Thomas Burchell and James Phillippo, who formed a trio. In 1828 he moved to Savanna-la-Mar. In 1830 he became the minister responsible for the Baptist church at Falmouth, which had regular congregations of 600 when he arrived. He remained there as minister until he died. ==Attitude to slavery== Christian missionaries are sometimes assumed to have been mere agents of imperialism and Calvinist Christians are sometimes thought to be almost fatalistic about the human predicament. However, the reverse is generally true of the nonconformist missions; often abolitionist, they were neither allied to European monarchies nor governments, and were funded independently, being motivated by the religious revival of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Indeed the Baptists in Jamaica were founded by freed slaves, notably George Lisle, who sought support and finance for schools and chapels from nonconformists abroad, particularly from the English Baptist movement, which William Knibb contributed to. In the early 19th-century Jamaica had become one of the British Empire's chief sugar exporters, and this colonial wealth was being reaped through slavery. As with most English nonconformists of the time, Knibb sided with the slaves and the cause of emancipation. Knibb did not hesitate to make his feelings clear. When Sam Swiney, a black slave, was unjustly accused of a minor offence, Knibb spoke for him in court. In a gross miscarriage of justice, the colonial authorities convicted Swiney and had him flogged. But Knibb refused to let it drop. He published full details in an island newspaper, for which he was threatened with a prosecution for libel. His account reached the Secretary of State in London, who eventually dismissed from office the two responsible magistrates.〔 Knibb and his Baptist colleagues were instrumental in opposing the repeated attempts by the House of Assembly to enact draconian legislation in Jamaica during the 1820s, the Consolidated Slave Law, and in persuading the British parliament to disallow it. Not surprisingly, Knibb was highly popular with the slaves. Not long afterwards the church in Falmouth needed a minister and Knibb's name was put forward. The missionary who chaired the meeting recorded that when he proposed Knibb should be their new minister and asked for a show of hands, the entire membership stood up, held up both hands, and wept.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「William Knibb」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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