Two Careys: One Vision

Without the church, missions doesn’t exist, pastors aren’t trained, and converts aren’t discipled. With that in mind, we want to honor the legacy of Lott Carey and William Carey for their faithful role in planting churches on the mission field and laboring for decades to see the gospel come to lost peoples. We are thankful for gospel-minded men like them and look to continuing their legacy by training and raising up future church planters and leaders.

William Carey (1761–1834)

William Carey, affectionately known as the “father of modern missions,” was born in Paulerspury, England, on August 17, 1761. He was a cobbler by trade, and in his teen years he left the Church of England and helped form a Congregational Church. Inspired by Puritans like Jonathan Edwards, Carey became greatly concerned with reaching the unsaved peoples. In 1792, Carey founded the Particular Baptist Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Amongst the Heathen (known today as BMS World Mission). That same year, he preached his most famous sermon, charging his congregants to “Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God.”

With that mindset, Carey set out in 1793 for India, where he would remain for over forty years—the rest of his life—without ever returning home to England. Carey was a gifted linguist, having taught himself Greek, Hebrew, and Latin as a young man. In India, he translated the Bible into over forty languages, even inventing writing systems to do so. Carey’s heart for the heathen led him to attempt great things for God, and Grimké is proud to honor his legacy through the work of the Carey Center.

Lott Carey (1780–1828)

Lott Carey was born into slavery in 1780 (day unknown), in Charles City, Virginia. In 1807, while working at the Shockoe Tobacco Warehouse in Richmond, Virginia, Carey heard the gospel preached and became a Christian. He joined the First Baptist Church of Richmond in 1807, where he taught himself to read the Bible. All the while, he rose up as a manager at the tobacco warehouse, where he still worked as a slave, occasionally earning money. In 1813, after the death of his wife, Lott Carey purchased freedom for himself and his two children for $850.

Once free, Carey stepped into ministry as a Baptist minister in Richmond and helped form the African Baptist Missionary Society. In 1821, Carey decided to take his family and move to a colony of free black Americans in modern-day Liberia. When asked why, he said, “I am an African, and in this country, however meritorious my conduct, and ‘respectable’ my character, I cannot receive the credit due to either. I wish to go to a country where I shall be estimated by my merits, not by my complexion, and I feel bound to labor for my suffering race.” He would never see Virginia again, but would spend the remainder of his life seeking to serve Africans through church planting, pastoring, and governing the colony as vice-regent. The Carey Center is grateful to uphold the legacy of such a faithful champion of the Christian faith and a pioneer of African missions.