At the “Old Temperance Hall” on South Main Street in Pinckneyville, Illinois, a new Baptist church is formed this day. Nine persons, four men and five women, are the founding members of the First Baptist Church of Pinckneyville. Like many churches formed immediately after the war, progress is slow. The congregation meets in the Temperance…
The First Baptist Church of Burlington, Vermont, founded on September 26, 1834,struggled into the late 1850s, often having no regular pastor. And whereas the Civil War and resulting loss of many male members poses a challenge for many churches in the North, First Baptist Burlington experiences the opposite effect: instead of facing greater struggles, the…
The effects of the Emancipation Proclamation are rippling throughout the South and the North. In the Confederacy, slaves are escaping from their masters in ever greater numbers and many are now in Union Army uniforms, stationed in Union-controlled areas of the Southern Atlantic seaboard. For their part, slave masters and overseers are forced to keep…