John Day served in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Central Africa

EARLY LIFE AND CALLING

John Day was born in Virginia 1797.

John Day was the first African American appointed by the Southern Baptist Conventions Foreign Missions Board (SBC).

He was ordained as a Baptist minister in 1821. He had hoped to minister in Haiti. Nonetheless, he did not muster enough support from Virginia Baptists.

EMIGRATION AND MISSIONARY SERVICE

In 1830, he moved to Liberia to minister. Within one year of his family’s arrival in Liberia, his wife and his 5 children died. Shortly thereafter, he was appointed by the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions of the Triennial Convention. In 1844, John Day resigned from his position in the Triennial Convention. He was then appointed by the SBC to lead their ministry in Liberia. He was a missionary in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Central Africa.

POLITICAL LEADERSHIP AND FOUNDING OF LIBERIA

He is known as Liberia’s founding father. He signed the Declaration of Independence and became the Republic’s Chief Justice.

John Day spent 13 years in Africa and preached to more than 10,000 people during his ministry. In 1853 he became the pastor of Providence Church in Monrovia. In 1856 he founded Day’s Hope. It was a high school and seminary. It aimed to train African boys as missionaries to their own people. John Day died on February 15, 1859, and on his deathbed, when asked how he was feeling, said these words –

“If I speak with regard to the union subsisting between me and Christ, I am well.”

CITATIONS

• Day, John.” Dictionary of African Christian Biography (DACB). Accessed February 5, 2026.
• John Day Jr. (1797–1859). Find a Grave Memorial.
• Poff, Jan-Michael. “Day, John.” NCpedia, State Library of North Carolina.
• Moore, Judy. “Who was John Day Jr.? A look at a founder of Liberia.” The Charlotte Gazette, October 21, 2021.
• The History of Liberia. Library of Congress.