Gronniosaw was an African Prince from Bornu. Freed in New York, he joined the British Army, fought the French, and traded as a Caribbean merchant. Gronniosaw was robbed of his savings in Southampton. He married a poor white silk weaver, and they left London and lived in the 'true' Christian community of Kidderminster.

Albert Gronniosaw's biography, 'A Narrative of The Most Remarkable particulars in The Life Of James Albert Gronniosaw', was the first recorded statement of a former slave to be published in England. The later biography of Olaudah Equaino, the slave who freed himself, though more widely respected and praised, built upon the pioneering way in which Gronniosaw told the story of the freed slave. He spoke to the audience directly in his own voice with his own pen and did not have anyone write it down. He argued in very direct way for the abolition of slavery and slave trade using not just religious argument, but also the political and economic ones. The importance of people speaking for themselves and in their own voice was welcomed as the unique voice for the abolition of the slave trade and slavery. It brought a new sense of right and wrong to the opposition to slavery and the slave trade.

These voices are beginnings of a black community. Gronniosaw died in poverty because he was not able to get work and made very little money from the publication of his life story.

One of the earliest records of an African baptism in England is recorded at St Martins Church, Tipton 1705². And as a record of early black presence it compares well with places like Liverpool and Bristol which we know more about. Records of port cities like Liverpool with a history of continous black settlement go back further but are infrequent. Being part of a national trend at an early stage suggests the importance of what we know as Sandwell.

Over a hundred years later the Brierley Hill Baptist Church minute book records the decision to begin a missionary society in 1827 and the arrival of George Cousins from Jamaica, who was an itinerant preacher in the Sandwell district from 1839-1842.