Marshall, Andrew

Marshall, Andrew a colored Baptist minister, was, according to his own account, born a slave in 1755, but by his diligence and economy succeeded in purchasing his own freedom and that of his whole family. He joined the Baptist Church when nearly fifty years old; was in 1806 ordained pastor of the Second (colored) Baptist Church in Savannah; and after this had, under his ministrations, become large enough to be divided, he became pastor of the part which took the name of "First African Baptist Church." This position he tilled until his death, Dec. 8, 1856, occasionally preaching also in Augusta, Macon, Milledgeville, Charleston, and New Orleans. He was also in business on a large scale. He possessed elements in his nature which would have made him a leading character anywhere. The high mental efforts which he at times displayed proved him to be equal to any subject which he would find occasion to meet, if allowed opportunity for preparation. His sight and hearing remained to the last as good as in middle life. and his lower limbs only began seriously to fail him in his one hundredth year. During the long period of his ministry he baptized about thirty-eight hundred persons, and he supposed that about four thousand had professed conversion under his preaching. — Sprague, Annals, 6:251.