Description:On May 9th, 1889, Stanford accepted the invitation from Hope Street Baptist Church to become their minister. Whilst at Hope Street “he had the gratification of seeing the work grow... and had flourishing schools and organisations there.” Then, “aided by an accomplished wife, and together with the aid of a band of workers”, he also took over a church in Priestly Rd., Sparkbrook. Stanford wanted to “express in some tangible form the gratification felt towards William Wilberforce, the great benefactor of the negro”, so they called the church the Wilberforce Memorial Church. “The congregation was composed largely of the labouring people, who were greatly attached to their preacher.”
During his time in Birmingham Stanford worked to raising understanding of the suffering of the freed slave in America, who despite freedom still suffered poverty, oppression and rejection, especially in the American South. The hatred of the freed slaves was so strong that lynching was common. These brutal murders sometimes attracted large crowds who came from far and wide to watch. This became a great cause for concern in Birmingham, probably after a visit to the city by Ida B Wells in 1893. She was a courageous journalist who was, with Stanford, one of the first to write about these hideous crimes. At a public meeting held at the Willberforce Memorial Church on May 28th, 1894, it was resolved that Stanford should go to America to find out the facts.
Thus began another period in Stanford’s life. In the last week of September 1895 he left for America. “Leaving my Birmingham Church was the greatest trial of my life... ...because the kindness and love of many friends must be left behind.” The results of his investigations in the States revealed that the freed slaves were in desperate need and lynchings were even more common and vicious than reports in Birmingham suggested. After his research Stanford wrote his book about the suffering of the black people in America, The Tragedy of the Negro in America.
In 1896, Stanford started to work for the American Home Mission Society as a minister to African Americans in Roxbury, Boston, where he founded St. Mark Congregational Church, the first church for black people in the area. In 1899 he moved to North Cambridge, Massachusetts and founded the Union Industrial and Stranger’s Home for homeless women and children where he and Mrs Stanford took in black children orphaned by the social upheaval and change sweeping America at the time. He died of kidney failure on May 20th 1909, aged 49. He is buried in an unmarked grave in the cemetery at Cambridge, Massachusetts.
After thinking it wasn’t possible that an African American ex-slave was a Baptist minister in 19th century Highgate, I then imagined that Stanford was probably unique. But further research soon revealed he was not. There were, in fact, many African American, West Indian and African people who were missionaries, ministers or members of churches throughout Britain during the 18th and 19th century. Revd John Jea, an escaped slave from America, was a Methodist minister near Portsmouth around 1790; Revd George Cousens from Jamaica was the Baptist Minister in Cradley Heath in 1834. Henry Parker, who escaped from slavery in America and arrived in Bristol about 1853, was a Baptist Deacon and well known preacher. Many others came for shorter periods of a few years: Moses Roper, Revds Nathaniel Paul and David George, were all African Americans who spent time in Britain speaking on the Abolition lecture circuit and raising funds to help black people in America and Canada.
The reason such people came to Birmingham was because it was a City with a sense of civic pride, where belief in progress was strong and the city’s leaders were committed to social justice, better housing for the poor and free education for all. It was also the place where people, especially in the non-conformist chapels, had been passionate about ending slavery and then helping the freed slaves. Thus people from across the world looked to Birmingham as a beacon of justice, fairness and an example of how cities should care for their citizens.
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