Heeding the Call: The Story of Nicholas Carper

--by Nancy Ehrlich

Oral tradition, written reminiscences, snippets of his public life, and a few public records offer glimpses of Nicholas Carper’s call to use his gifts and talents to preach God’s word.[1]

Nicholas Carper was born enslaved in 1776, probably in the western Virginia mountains. His mother, name unknown, was the property and daughter of German Evangelical John Jacob Carper. At some point, Nicholas and his mother came into the possession of Jeremiah James “Jerry” Jack of Huguenot descent who moved his family and slaves from Virginia to the Kentucky/Tennessee border.[2] Jerry Jack transferred ownership of Nicholas (and possibly his wife Milly) to his son, William “Billy” Jack.[3]

In 1801 some Jack household members, including Billy Jack’s wife Esther and Nicholas, attended a Great Revival camp meeting on the Kentucky/Tennessee border. Nicholas, who probably grew up in the Jack household with Billy Jack, identified with Presbyterians, and Esther Jack, with Quakers and Scots Presbyterians. At the camp meeting, Esther and Nicholas “got religion,”[4] and Nicholas felt called to preach the Gospel to his fellow bondsmen. Within months Nicholas began evangelizing and preparing himself for the ministry. White folks listened to his preaching too. Some offered to buy him, but Billy Jack would not sell. Instead, Jack enabled Nicholas to attend and preach at camp meetings where he could be instructed by the speakers in Scripture and theology.

Sometime between 1812 and 1815, the Billy Jack family and their slaves moved to Missouri, settling on the south bank of the Missouri River upstream from Lexington where Billy Jack operated a ferry and opened a warehouse. The Jack family joined a settlement populated by close relatives of Cumberland Presbyterian founder Finis Ewing, southwest of town. These locations allowed Nicholas to exhort his neighbors on both sides of the Missouri River, including Osage villages and the Harmony Mission about 80 miles to the southwest. Billy Jack “got religion a year after his arrival in Missouri.”[5]

In the Spring of 1822, Home Missionary Rev. Salmon Giddings, the pastor of First Presbyterian Church in St. Louis, visited United Foreign Mission Stations on the Osage River, including Harmony.[6] Rev. Giddings may have met Nicholas and heard him preach. Somehow, he learned of Nicholas’ gift of communication and the ability to hold an audience’s attention with strong, melodious, and convincing preaching. After the tour, Rev. Giddings helped organize the St. Louis chapter of the American Colonization Society. He promoted Nicholas’ eligibility for the ACS’s program to educate American slaves in theology and medicine and then move candidates and their families to Liberia. In cooperation with this plan, Billy Jack sold Nicholas for $350 to Samuel Bright, the farm supervisor at Harmony Mission, in May 1823. Within the Mission family, Nicholas took advantage of theological, academic, and medical tutoring by the school headmaster Amasa Jones and others. He also traveled with Congregationalist-trained pastors organized into the Independent Indian Missions Presbytery and accompanied them on visits to Congregationalists and Presbyterians in southern Missouri, southeastern Kansas, Oklahoma, and perhaps Arkansas.

Nicholas bought his freedom in 1825 and adopted his mother’s surname, Carper. Immediately he began paying Jack for Milly and their children.[7] Now free, Nicholas Carper with Amasa Jones attended a meeting of the Indian Missions Presbytery at Union Mission.[8] Amasa Jones and Nicholas Carper were licensed to preach with the presbytery’s anticipation that Licentiate Carper would emigrate to Africa through the auspices of the American Colonization Society. Two years later, in 1827, with Harmony Mission in decline and the Osage forced across the state line, Billy Jack sold Milly to Rev. Nathaniel Brown Dodge, Harmony Mission Superintendent, and Rev. Salmon Giddings of St. Louis. Licentiate Carper had previously paid Jack $200 and promised to pay Dodge and Giddings an additional $150 for Milly’s freedom. In the same agreement, Licentiate Carper and Milly received permission to take their two youngest children to St. Louis and keep them in their possession within the state for eighteen months, providing them with food, clothing, and health care.

Rev. Dodge, Indian Missions Presbytery member, and Licentiate Nicholas Carper attended the 1829 spring meeting of Missouri Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., seeking to affiliate with that presbytery. Following examination by an unnamed committee, Rev. Dodge and another academically trained minister were admitted to the presbytery. However, the committee requested that Missouri Presbytery express its views on candidacy to Licentiate Carper with the admonition that “unless he complies with their injunctions relative to study and to connect himself with a church under our Presbytery will find themselves compelled to withdraw from his candidacy.”[9] Licentiate Carper became Candidate Carper on a vote of the Presbytery, accompanied by a certificate of dismissal from the Indian Missions Presbytery. The committee prepared a study plan for the Candidate with instructions to report next spring. In 1830 and 1831, the committee stated that Candidate Carper had not complied with its instructions. In his defense, Carper replied that he lived in poverty and supported his family, which prevented pursuing the proscribed course of study. He said he had no money and could not acquire the funds. He requested that Missouri Presbytery dismiss him to the Indian Missions Presbytery from which he had come, and Presbytery complied. Carper would not go to Liberia.

Undaunted and perhaps disappointed, he returned to Harmony and devoted himself to ministry. Nicholas Carper’s empowerers quickly acted. The Lexington Presbytery of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church welcomed, examined, and ordained him, possibly waiving the Greek and Latin requirements.

With Indian Removal and the decline of the Osage missions, Rev. Carper and his family moved to northern St. Louis, and he transferred his membership to the Cumberland Presbytery of St. Louis. He worked on both sides of the Mississippi River in abolitionist-owned businesses and ferries. When Giddings and Dodge were paid and the entire Carper family free, they moved across the Mississippi River to Illinois and into the American Botton settled by free Blacks and escaped slaves. Rev. Carper and others founded the town of Brooklyn. From there, Nicholas accepted invitations to preach from Baptist, Congregational, and Presbyterian churches, and continued to speak at camp meetings. Rev. Carper was so engaged that he neglected to transfer membership to the Vandalia Presbytery until reminded to do so in 1838.

Rev. Nicholas Carper died in 1840. His remains lie in an unknown and unmarked place. His earthly estate passed to Milly and their children. His spiritual legacy includes those he encouraged to believe. If he published anything, it does not survive. Memories of his powerful and melodious speaking voice that captured and captivated audiences lingered for over half a century, especially his oft repeated phrase, “I have heard that a Negro has no soul. I am three-quarters white. Does that mean I have three-quarters of a soul?”

Nicholas Carper persevered. Perhaps apprehensive but unafraid, he used his unique gifts in service to the Lord, thanking God for the many Brothers and Sisters in Christ who supported and aided him, especially Milly, his life partner.