After escaping to the Cherokee, with whom he lived for two years, he allied with the British during the American Revolutionary War and resettled afterward in London.

Marrant was supported to travel in 1785 as a preacher and missionary to Nova Scotia, where he founded a Methodist church in Birchtown.

[1][4] His mother moved the family to St. Augustine, Florida, where Marrant started school, which was unique for black children.

[1][4] After 18 months in Florida[4] and during the Seven Years' War, Marrant's mother moved the family to Georgia, which was a British colony at that time.

After they moved to Charleston, South Carolina, Marrant became interested in music and learned to play the French horn and violin.

[1][5] At the age of 13, about 1768, Marrant and a friend went to hear Methodist preacher George Whitefield, who was active in the South during the Great Awakening.

[3] After disagreements with his family about religion, he left home, and wandered into a forest outside the city,[1][6] relying on God to feed and protect him.

[6] Marrant lived with the Cherokee for two years during which he had visited with other tribes of the area,[3][9] including Catawa, Housaw, and Creek people.

[7] He converted a number of Native Americans and is thought to have been an influence in creating lasting bonds between black and Cherokee people.

"[7] His experience is related to that of Lazarus and Joseph, both of whom were important figures among black Christians who were enslaved or held captive and longed for freedom and a rebirth.

[9] During the American Revolutionary War, Marrant was impressed into the Royal Navy, serving as a musician for more than six years before being discharged in 1782.

[1] He travelled throughout Nova Scotia to other towns where Black Loyalists settled,[1] such as Jordan River and Cape Negro.

[1] When he delivered sermons, he used specific Bible verses to infer that he was a prophet sent to Nova Scotia to help raise up the Black Loyalists that listen to him.

[5] He inspired the creation of Christian faith among black communities, including religious leaders Boston King, John Ball, and Moses Wilkinson, who were Methodists.

[1] He did not receive the monies he expected from the Countess for his missionary work in Nova Scotia[5][8] and suffered a six-month bout of smallpox.

[6] The next year, he became the chaplain of the African Masonic Lodge in Boston, a group active in the movement to abolish slavery in the United States.

[9][18] In a speech at the Lodge, published in 1789, Marrant described the black people as "an essentially distinct nation within a Christian universalist family of mankind.

Marrant delivered a sermon A Sermon Preached on the 24th Day of June 1789...at the Request of the Right Worshipful the Grand Master Prince Hall, and the Rest of the Brethren of the African Lodge of the Honorable Society of Free and Accepted Masons in Boston in 1789 noting the equality of men before God; it was published.

[5] He married Elizabeth Herries, whose parents were Black Loyalists,[8] on August 15, 1788, at Birchtown, Nova Scotia[1][6][f] and returned with her to Boston.