[2] The Garrettson family owned a large amount of land which included a farm, a general store, and a blacksmith shop.

Growing up in a wealthy Anglican family allowed young Garrettson to receive a proper education for the offspring of well-to-do farmers by the standards of the time.

The instruction focused on basic reading, writing, and arithmetic, but also included bookkeeping, surveying and astronomy.

Much like the Old Testament character of Joseph, the inspirational events cause him to race home and tell his siblings, even going as far as to predict from an additional encounter that he is going to be a wealthy man someday.

"[citation needed] Shortly after these supernatural happenings at the age of 10, Freeborn Garrettson faced tragedy.

This ushered in a sensitivity to depression and melancholy, causing his spiritual yearnings to lie dormant for nearly ten years.

Almost a decade later, the preaching of Methodist itinerants Robert Strawbridge and Joseph Pilmoor serve to awaken the spiritual yearnings in Freeborn Garrettson.

Garrettson wrote on the issue of slavery, including a published work, "A Dialogue Between Do-Justice and Professing Christian."

Garrettson's preaching on the Delmarva led directly to the emancipation of Richard Allen, who upon his return to Philadelphia founded the Bethel Church and then the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) denomination.

[3] Kenneth E. Rowe's foreword to the book American Methodist Pioneer, which presents Garrettson's journals, begins,"Freeborn Garrettson was unquestionably the most competent native born Methodist preacher in the American colonies in the founding period.

Although he favored the revolutionary cause, he refused to fight in the American Revolution and was placed in jail for a time in Maryland.

During Garrettson's time as a minister, Methodism rose from obscurity to a place of importance among American religions.