About Thomas Birch Freeman

Thomas Birch Freeman was an incredible man during the 19th century. He was born in Twyford, Hampshire on December 6th, 1809 to an English mother and an African father, who was believed to be a slave. Growing up, Freeman was a gardener who studied botany but was later dismissed because he started to spread the word of the Wesleyan Methodist Church. Due to his dismissal, Freeman became a missionary for the Methodist church in 1837 and traveled on to the Golden Coast, now known as Ghana, in order to spread the word of his church in 1837. 
Freeman was an extremely special person in this era, other than being Britain first ever recorded Black botanist, his impact on Ghana and further inland areas in Africa including Benin and Togo. Along with spreading the word of the Methodist Church to these areas in Africa, Freeman was the perfect diplomat between Britain and Africa due to his close ties with African royalty and British officials. But this was not his main goal, as previously mentioned he traveled to become a missionary, and he became one of the most successful missionaries of his time. He helped build churches and schools for the native people of Africa in order to help advance their education and was a renowned, pioneering preacher. In Ghana, he still has many places named after him, most notable, the Freeman Methodist Center, where people till this day still go to worship the Wesleyan Methodist religion. 
Due to the writings of Thomas Birch Freeman, we are able to fully understand and imagine his journeys as he was extremely talented at writing. His journal, Journal of Various Visits to the Kingdom of Ashanti, Aku, and Dahomi in Western Africa: To Promote the Objects of the Wesleyan Missionary Society, details his extremely dangerous journey for not only him but those around him during his time in Africa. During this time, travelers were often severely at risk of diseases in Africa that were unknown to the bodies of the British. Freeman lost many people during his travels, including his first and second wives. This journal also outlines the success and impact that Freeman was able to accumulate in this region of the world, and it truly shows how important of a person he was during this time period. 
Later on, Freeman retired from the Methodist church and began working, again, for the colonial government of Great Britain where he then worked for the next decade and a half. After this period of time, Freeman decided to retire from working for the British government and settled on retiring as a preacher for the Methodist church in Accra, the capital of Ghana. 
During his life, Freeman was able to overcome an extreme amount of adversity in order to spread the word of what he truly believed in. His travels and work helped advance and educate generations upon generations and he truly earned the title of  “Father of Ghana Methodism,” due to the love and passion that not only he had for the people of this land, but for the love that was given right back at him.