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Letter to a Friend in London (1755)

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Samuel Davies reports evangelical ministry among Virginia’s enslaved: many baptized, eager for instruction and psalmody, and he appeals to British supporters for Bibles and Watts’ Psalms.
Archive ⬩ Domestic Missions, Hymnody and Psalmody, Race Relations and Slavery
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Samuel Davies (1723–1761) was an influential evangelical Presbyterian pastor and educator who played a key role in spreading the Great Awakening in colonial Virginia, where he built licensed meetinghouses and attracted large congregations with his powerful preaching. He also traveled to London to raise funds for the College of New Jersey and later became its fourth president, strengthening the institution before his early death at age thirty-seven. Davies was one of the first colonial Americans to compose hymns and was buried in the presidents’ plot at Princeton Cemetery.

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