"In addition to the Baptists, Methodist missionaries commenced a concerted effort to convert Africans in Jamaica around the turn of the nineteenth century. Both groups repeatedly faced impediments by the Jamaican legislature who passed laws specifically prohibiting “preaching of ill-disposed, illiterate, or ignorant enthusiasts” in 1802 (primarily to suppress the colored and black preachers), and generally banning preaching to slaves in 1807. A central component of the official concern about these missionaries was that people of color were serving as leaders of the congregations and converts displayed an unacceptable degree of familiarity and equality between individuals of different races. Missionaries also incurred the wrath of plantation owners by stating that enslaved persons should observe Sunday as the Sabbath and not work. Pressures from Britain forced the Jamaican legislature to allow missionaries to preach to slaves in 1816 but they continued to be wary of black preachers, and in the slave codes of 1823 and 1826 prohibited “ignorant, superstitious, or designing slaves” from giving sermons."