Recently we found a volume written by George W. Williams (1849-1891) who was born in Pennsylvania (a free state), and was a soldier before entering Howard University in 1869. As the first black student at Newton Theological Institute he graduated in 1874, and was ordained and installed as the pastor of Twelfth Baptist Church in Boston. After moving to Ohio, he was elected to the House of Representative of the Ohio General Assembly for a term.
His enduring legacy is as an antislavery activist and writer, having authored the first history of African Americans in the United States. ABHS has a first edition of this book entitled History of the Negro Race in America 1619-1880 which includes a chapter on ‘Colored Baptists of America.’ This two volume book can be found on-line at https://archive.org/details/historyofnegrora00willrich.
