Alexander Fletcher (minister) - Missionary & Abolition Work

Missionary & Abolition Work

There were close links between the nonconfomist Baptist Missionary Society and the nondenominational but predominantly nonconformist LMS. Fletcher assisted both organisations in their work. The 'Valedictory Meeting to Mr Knibb', a Baptist missionary and abolitionist was held in Finsbury Chapel on Tuesday July 1, 1845, attended by members of both organisations.

When Moses Roper escaped enslavement in the American South, and successfully made passage to England, he brought with him letters of introduction to three nonconformist ministers: Rev. Dr. Alexander Fletcher, Rev. Dr John Morison, and a minister in Liverpool. Drs Morison, Price, Cox and Fletcher became his patrons in Hackney and the London area. In his autobiography, Roper described these friends who assisted him whilst in England. Roper's anti-slavery speech of 26 May 1836, delivered at Fletcher's Finsbury Chapel, was one of his two most influential in the capital.

In May 1846 Finsbury Chapel was the venue for a huge gathering to hear a speech by Frederick Douglass, who had escaped from slavery in the US and become a major speaker for abolition. This was advertised as a publicity meeting at Finsbury Chapel to receive from Frederick Douglass an account of the dreadful conditions, both in law and practice, of 3,000,000 of slaves in the United States. The meeting was introduced by Joseph Sturge. A contemporary report noted that every part of the large edifice was crowded to suffocation; the firebrand Congregationalist, Dr John Campbell gave a rousing response of support for abolition.