Black Country

Black Country is the opening book of The Asbury Triptych Series, a trilogy about the life of British preacher, Francis Asbury. Black Country details Asbury’s life in England and the culture-changing movement started by the brothers, John Wesley and Charles Wesley. The story is told from the West-Midlands of England, the iron-working capital of 18th-Century Great Britain. Black Country also features the key individuals who will eventually launch this religious movement to the American colonies. People like George Whitefield, Lord Dartmouth (Founder of Dartmouth College), Benjamin Franklin, Dr. Benjamin Rush and Lady Selina, The Countess of Huntingdon (also a founder of Dartmouth when she gave funds to the Mohegan preacher from the American colony of Connecticut, Samson Occum), contribute to this rich story abounding with England’s essential history. Black Country uniquely delivers a portion of Francis Asbury’s life never written about before. In the nearly two centuries since the death of Francis Asbury, Black Country details the early preaching circuits of this young itinerant. Through the beautiful English countryside, Francis Asbury seeks to spread the good news. However, his efforts are met with opposition from the state-sanctioned church, King George’s Anglican Church, from those who view the Wesleyan movement as seditious and those who seek to harm the young preacher. On horseback, Francis Asbury braves mobs seeking to drown him and his horse, smugglers aiming to end his ministerial career and irreligious individuals who harass the young preacher.Despite his love for his country, the attraction of leaving his homeland and crossing the Atlantic Ocean for the American colonies is too much to resist. For Francis Asbury, his timing couldn’t be worse. On the eve of the American Revolutionary War between the colonies and his beloved England, Asbury sails for America. The remaining books of the Asbury Triptych Series are full of action and drama. In a virgin American wilderness, Francis Asbury risks his life to establish what will become at the time of his death, the largest church in America. The Asbury Triptych Series also establishes the opinion that Francis Asbury is the George Washington of American Christianity.