William Knibb Baptist Church

1901 1950

Named in honor of the Baptist minister and influential abolitionist William Knibb, who served as pastor of this church from 1830 until his death in 1845 and effectively argued for abolitionism in the English Parliament, the Knibb Memorial Church has numerous monuments to his memory. Deeply involved with abolition in Jamaica, the Baptists were one of the most popular Christian denominations for slaves and freedmen in the nineteenth century. Throughout Jamaica, Baptist churches and chapels, found in communities both large and small, offered religious instruction, as well as education, legal aid, and other services to the recently emancipated in the 1830s and 1840s. Built in 1947 on the footprint of the earlier church, the current building wears its history and its influence proudly.

Duke Street Corridor

B052-S009