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Rev. Richard Keaton Lives on in SENC Churches | Claudia Stack
Kneeling by his gravestone at the cemetery of Canetuck Missionary Baptist Church in western Pender County, NC, Earnestine Keaton shared her research about her great-great-grandfather, Rev. Richard Keaton. A preacher to enslaved people, in 1865 Rev. Keaton also established some of the first literacy efforts for African Americans in the Middle Cape Fear region of North Carolina. He evangelized tirelessly in Columbus and surrounding counties, and founded the first Missionary Baptist churches in the region.
Earnestine Keaton has traced her great-great-grandfather Rev. Richard Keaton’s path. Her research led her to the realization that Rev. Keaton had an enormous impact on local communities of the formerly enslaved. She seeks to commemorate the impact of this “unsung hero” by erecting a permanent marker at Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church (MBC) in Sandyfield, NC because of its ties to his life and work.
Although few details are known about Rev. Keaton’s early life, Ms. Keaton says Rev. Keaton was born a free man in Alabama in 1825. He was African American, but likely also had Native American ancestry. Ms. Keaton says
Richard Keaton was a spiritual leader for the slaves at the Lloyds Alabama plantation on the Mississippi border, and was allowed to do the same at the Lloyds Mississippi…
