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- George Liele (also spelled Lisle or Leile, c. 1750–1820) was an African American and emancipated slave who became the founding pastor of First Bryan Baptist Church and First African Baptist Church, in Savannah, Georgia (USA). He later would become a missionary to Jamaica. Liele was born into slavery in Virginia in 1752, but was taken to Georgia.As an adult he was converted by Rev. Matthew Moore of Burke County, Georgia, in 1777, and continued to worship in this white church for four years until Savannah was evacuated by forces loyal to Britain. His master Henry Sharp was a deacon in Rev. Moore's church and encouraged him in his preaching to other slaves. Liele was freed by Sharp, also a Baptist and loyalist, before the American Revolution began. Sharp died in battle as a Tory major on March 1, 1779. Liele then went to Savannah, Georgia, where he helped organize an early Baptist congregation. He later would become one of the first Baptist Missionaries, serving in Jamaica, and founding the Ethiopian Baptist Church of Jamaica. He is known for writing the Church covenant of the Ethiopian Baptists, which became internationally recognized by Baptists for its importance. Two hundred and twenty two years later his great great granddaughter The Reverend Dr. A. Louise Bonaparte become a licensed and Ordained Baptist Minister and became the seventh generation in their family to do so. (en)
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