ABSTRACT
Samuel Davies was born in Delaware in 1724 and died at the age of thirty-seven in 1761, but in his short life he helped to transform the state of religion in Virginia. He became a Presbyterian minister in Virginia in 1746 at a time when the established Anglican church was attempting to limit the spread of dissenters, yet he was able to persuade the Virginian authorities to grant him a preaching licence and began his ministry at Hanover about sixty miles north-west of Williamsburg. Anglicans were not insensible to the spiritual needs of poor and marginalized people. Davies is inclined to look favourably on the abilities of slaves, commenting at one point that ‘their natural genius is not at all discouraging, and when they set about learning in earnest, it is astonishing what progress some of them make, though with little leisure or assistance’.
