In 1915, a Baptist minister, John Chilembwe (c. 1871–1915), led an ill-fated insurrection against British rule in Nyasaland (Malawi). As a young man, he had believed that colonial rule would “civilize” his native Nyasaland by introducing Christian values and British liberalism. In 1892, he came under the influence of the popular radical Baptist missionary Joseph Booth (1851–1932), whom he accompanied to the United States, where he studied at the black Baptist seminary in Lynchburg, Virginia. Upon his return in 1900, he established the Providence Industrial Mission where, inspired by Booker T. Washington, he preached the gospel of hard work, cleanliness, and respect for the colonial authorities. He became increasingly critical, however, of the harsh treatment and brutality of white settlers toward African laborers on their plantations and the indifference of British officials to these abuses. Convinced that his colonial government would never make good on the promise of social equality he found in English law and the Christian Bible, Chilembwe published a letter in the Nyasaland Times on November 26, 1914, that ran under the heading “The Voice of the African Natives in the Present War,” in which he laid out his complaints against colonial policies. His message of African grievances and hopes was ignored, and two months later, on January 29, 1915, Chilembwe and two hundred of his followers launched their uprising to establish an independent African state. The colonial authorities retaliated swiftly and ruthlessly. Two weeks later, Chilembwe and many of his supporters were dead and their brick mission church razed to the ground.