First to preach the gospel west of the Mississippi
by Thomas Ray
The life of Joseph Willis reads more like fiction than the real-life experiences of a man who was born a slave, served with honor in the American Revolution, and was the first to preach the gospel west of the Mississippi River.
Joseph was born sometime between 1755-58 in Bladen County, NC. His father, Agerton Willis, was a wealthy plantation owner, and his mother was a mixed-blood Cherokee Indian and was also one of Agerton Willis’s slaves. This meant that according to North Carolina law, Joseph Willis was also a slave without any legal rights. However, Agerton never treated his son as a slave but provided him with every advantage including the best education available in the 1700s. Agerton attempted to free his son but North Carolina law forbade the freeing of a slave without court approval.
The turmoil caused by the Revolutionary War made the North Carolina judicial system completely collapse. Realizing he could not legally free his son, Agerton Willis decided he would free Joseph in his will upon his death. In 1776, Agerton’s health began to rapidly deteriorate, and he drew up his will with Joseph as heir of his extensive estate. Agerton enlisted his brother Daniel’s assistance, and since Joseph was a minor, he made his brother not only the executor of his will but Joseph’s guardian as well. Daniel promised his dying brother that he would carry out his wishes.
After his father’s death, Joseph enlisted in the army led by General Francis Marion, who was known as the “Swamp Fox.” During the war Joseph served with distinction and honor. Unknown to Joseph, while he was fighting for his country’s freedom, his uncle was petitioning the governor of North Carolina to void Agerton’s will due to the fact that Joseph was a slave and could not legally inherit. The governor approved the request.
Upon the successful conclusion of the war, Joseph returned to North Carolina to discover that he was still a slave, and his relatives had stolen his inheritance. In 1787, Joseph’s cousin, John Willis, approached Joseph and offered to obtain his freedom if he agreed to relinquish his claim and to never attempt to legally obtain his father’s estate. Joseph agreed to accept these terms, and that same year the governor of North Carolina signed a bill granting Joseph Willis his freedom. In the agreement, the family gave Joseph 324 acres, which he promptly sold and then moved to South Carolina.
While he was in South Carolina he became active in the Baptist church and was licensed to preach the gospel. In 1798, he traveled to Mississippi. Feeling the Lord’s leadership, he returned to South Carolina, sold his possessions, and after an arduous journey he and his family crossed the Mississippi River and settled in Louisiana. Joseph was the only Baptist preacher in Louisiana at the time, and sometime around 1800 he preached the first gospel message west of the Mississippi River at Vermillion, LA.
Louisiana, prior to the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, was populated almost exclusively by Roman Catholics. Joseph’s preaching enraged his Catholic neighbors and he was forced to flee for his life, settling in Ville Platte. John Shaw, the local schoolteacher, invited Joseph to hold meetings in his schoolhouse. The Roman Catholics, infuriated by Joseph’s preaching, threatened both Shaw and Joseph with death if they did not immediately leave the area. Both men decided to abandon Louisiana and move to Texas. Just before reaching Texas, “Joseph’s conscience reminded him that he was a missionary called by God. He told Mr. Shaw that he would have to get off, for God had sent him there to do missionary work, and he would be violating what he knew to be the will of God. He was not going to run anymore.”
Joseph Willis experienced and overcame several adversities. In 1810, a Baptist church in Mississippi refused to ordain him because he was of mixed blood. Finally, in 1812, the Mississippi Baptist Association ordained him to the gospel ministry. Initial results were difficult to obtain. John Christian, Baptist historian, says, “The wonder is not that at first the Baptists made slow progress, but that they made any at all.” Eventually, Joseph’s health began to fail, but he preached almost to the end, sometimes seated in a chair, and on other occasions from his bed. It is stated that in “all the history of Louisiana Baptists, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to find a man who singlehandedly achieved more enduring results than Joseph Willis.”