{"id":6421,"date":"2016-05-17T14:11:20","date_gmt":"2016-05-17T14:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lichen.csd.sc.edu\/sce\/entries\/bryan-hugh\/"},"modified":"2022-07-19T19:31:55","modified_gmt":"2022-07-19T19:31:55","slug":"bryan-hugh","status":"publish","type":"entry","link":"https:\/\/www.scencyclopedia.org\/sce\/entries\/bryan-hugh\/","title":{"rendered":"Bryan, Hugh"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Planter, evangelist. Bryan was born in South Carolina, the son of Joseph Bryan and Janet Cochran. His father was a native of England and an earlier settler of the colony\u2019s southern frontier. As a youth, Hugh Bryan was captured by Indians during the Yamassee War of 1715, but he was released a year later at St. Augustine in Spanish East Florida. According to later testimony, while a captive Bryan \u201cmet with a Bible among the <em>Indians,<\/em>\u201d which sustained him during his ordeal and laid the groundwork for his future spirituality. Returning to South Carolina, Bryan took up residence in St. Bartholomew\u2019s Parish and then St. Helena\u2019s Parish, where he quickly rose in the local social and economic hierarchy. By the late 1730s Bryan was a leading rice planter, cattle raiser, and slaveholder. His marriage on January 2, 1734, to Catherine Barnwell, the daughter of John \u201cTuscarora Jack\u201d Barnwell, further advanced his position.<\/p>\n<p>During a severe illness in 1739, Catherine Bryan underwent a conversion to evangelical Christianity. Impressed by his wife\u2019s devotion and her subsequent miraculous recovery, Hugh Bryan converted as well. When the English evangelist George Whitefield visited Georgia in 1740, the Bryans traveled to hear him and became enthusiastic followers. Under Whitefield\u2019s guidance, Hugh Bryan began to apply his understanding of religious writing to contemporary events. He saw the Stono slave rebellion of 1739, a disastrous fire in Charleston in 1740, droughts, and outbreaks of epidemic disease as signs of God\u2019s displeasure with South Carolina. He actively evangelized among his slaves and prophesied that the colony would be destroyed by \u201cAfrican Hosts\u201d unless it repented and turned from its misguided ways. In January 1741 Bryan\u2019s warnings were printed in the <em>South-Carolina Gazette. <\/em>This aroused the ire of the residents of Charleston, who arrested Bryan and Whitefield and charged them with libel and contempt \u201cagainst the King\u2019s peace.\u201d Both were released after a few days. Whitefield sailed for England, and Bryan returned to St. Helena\u2019s Parish, where he continued to evangelize, instruct his slaves in the fundamentals of religion, and call on the people of South Carolina to atone for their sins.<\/p>\n<p>Bryan\u2019s activities did not go unnoticed by the Commons House of Assembly, which became increasingly alarmed at reports of the \u201cfrequent and great Assemblies of Negroes in the Parish of St. Helena.\u201d In February 1742, when Bryan sent the assembly a journal of his predictions that God would use the slave population to punish those who profaned his laws, the Commons House ordered his arrest. Bryan fled and underwent a grave crisis of faith. Witnesses claimed that, like Moses, he attempted to part the waters of a creek and cross that way, and he was nearly drowned. Shortly thereafter, Bryan wrote the Speaker of the House apologizing for \u201cthe Dishonour I\u2019ve done to God, as well as the Disquiet which I may have occasioned to my Country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bryan returned to his plantation, where he continued to teach religion to slaves but no longer prophesied about slave rebellions as punishment for the worldliness of South Carolinians. He married Mary Prioleau on October 25, 1744, and died on his plantation on December 31, 1753. He was buried in the cemetery of Stoney Creek Independent Church, a dissenter congregation that he helped to found.<\/p>\n<p>Edgar, Walter, and N. Louise Bailey, eds. <em>Biographical Directory of the South Carolina House of Representatives. <\/em>Vol. 2, <em>The Commons House of Assembly, 1692\u20131775. <\/em>Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1977.<\/p>\n<p>Gallay, Alan. \u201cThe Great Awakening in the Deep South: George Whitefield, the Bryan Family, and the Origins of Slaveholders\u2019 Paternalism.\u201d <em>Journal of Southern History <\/em>53 (August 1987): 369\u201394.<\/p>\n<p>Jackson, Harvey H. \u201cHugh Bryan and the Evangelical Movement in Colonial South Carolina.\u201d <em>William and Mary Quarterly, <\/em>3d ser., 43 (October 1986): 594\u2013614.<\/p>\n<p>Schmidt, Leigh Eric. \u201c\u2018The Grand Prophet,\u2019 Hugh Bryan: Early Evangelicalism\u2019s Challenge to the Establishment of Slavery in the Colonial South.\u201d <em>South Carolina Historical Magazine <\/em>87 (October 1986): 238\u201350.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Planter, evangelist. Bryan was born in South Carolina, the son of Joseph Bryan and Janet Cochran. His father was a native of England and an earlier settler of the colony\u2019s southern frontier. As a youth, Hugh Bryan was captured by Indians during the Yamassee War of 1715, but he was released a year later at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":-1,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","class_list":["post-6421","entry","type-entry","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","ecms-a-z","ecms-african-americans","ecms-b","ecms-beaufort-county","ecms-business-and-industry","ecms-colonial-period-1670-1764","ecms-education","ecms-encyclopedia","ecms-ethnicity","ecms-lowcountry","ecms-religion"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Bryan, Hugh - South Carolina Encyclopedia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scencyclopedia.org\/sce\/entries\/bryan-hugh\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bryan, Hugh - South Carolina Encyclopedia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Planter, evangelist. Bryan was born in South Carolina, the son of Joseph Bryan and Janet Cochran. His father was a native of England and an earlier settler of the colony\u2019s southern frontier. As a youth, Hugh Bryan was captured by Indians during the Yamassee War of 1715, but he was released a year later at [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.scencyclopedia.org\/sce\/entries\/bryan-hugh\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Carolina Encyclopedia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-07-19T19:31:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scencyclopedia.org\/sce\/entries\/bryan-hugh\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.scencyclopedia.org\/sce\/entries\/bryan-hugh\/\",\"name\":\"Bryan, Hugh - South Carolina Encyclopedia\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scencyclopedia.org\/sce\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-05-17T14:11:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-07-19T19:31:55+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scencyclopedia.org\/sce\/entries\/bryan-hugh\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.scencyclopedia.org\/sce\/entries\/bryan-hugh\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scencyclopedia.org\/sce\/entries\/bryan-hugh\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.scencyclopedia.org\/sce\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Entries\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.scencyclopedia.org\/sce\/entries\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Bryan, Hugh\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scencyclopedia.org\/sce\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.scencyclopedia.org\/sce\/\",\"name\":\"South Carolina Encyclopedia\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.scencyclopedia.org\/sce\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Bryan, Hugh - South Carolina Encyclopedia","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.scencyclopedia.org\/sce\/entries\/bryan-hugh\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Bryan, Hugh - South Carolina Encyclopedia","og_description":"Planter, evangelist. Bryan was born in South Carolina, the son of Joseph Bryan and Janet Cochran. His father was a native of England and an earlier settler of the colony\u2019s southern frontier. As a youth, Hugh Bryan was captured by Indians during the Yamassee War of 1715, but he was released a year later at [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.scencyclopedia.org\/sce\/entries\/bryan-hugh\/","og_site_name":"South Carolina Encyclopedia","article_modified_time":"2022-07-19T19:31:55+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.scencyclopedia.org\/sce\/entries\/bryan-hugh\/","url":"https:\/\/www.scencyclopedia.org\/sce\/entries\/bryan-hugh\/","name":"Bryan, Hugh - South Carolina Encyclopedia","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scencyclopedia.org\/sce\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-05-17T14:11:20+00:00","dateModified":"2022-07-19T19:31:55+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scencyclopedia.org\/sce\/entries\/bryan-hugh\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.scencyclopedia.org\/sce\/entries\/bryan-hugh\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.scencyclopedia.org\/sce\/entries\/bryan-hugh\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.scencyclopedia.org\/sce\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Entries","item":"https:\/\/www.scencyclopedia.org\/sce\/entries\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Bryan, Hugh"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.scencyclopedia.org\/sce\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.scencyclopedia.org\/sce\/","name":"South Carolina Encyclopedia","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.scencyclopedia.org\/sce\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scencyclopedia.org\/sce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entry\/6421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scencyclopedia.org\/sce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entry"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scencyclopedia.org\/sce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/entry"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scencyclopedia.org\/sce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6421"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.scencyclopedia.org\/sce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entry\/6421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28134,"href":"https:\/\/www.scencyclopedia.org\/sce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entry\/6421\/revisions\/28134"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scencyclopedia.org\/sce\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scencyclopedia.org\/sce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}