Noah Davis (1804 - 1867)

Noah Davis was born into slavery in Madison County. He learned the boot- and shoemaker's trade in Fredericksburg, where he joined the Baptist Church in 1831 and was licensed to preach by white church officials. In 1845 Davis's owner agreed to free him for $500; a few years later he had managed to collect that sum and he secured his freedom. He established what later became Saratoga Street African Baptist Church. Davis purchased freedom for his wife and their two youngest children in 1851 and several years later for another daughter and son who were in danger of being sold. When their other three enslaved children faced the auction block in 1858, Davis again toured the North to raise money and succeeded in freeing his daughter. Hoping to earn enough money to free his two sons and to provide funds for his struggling church, he published his memoirs, A Narrative of the Life of Rev. Noah Davis, a Colored Man (1859).