The Eighteenth Annual Session of the Baptist State Convention, assembled in the Anderson Baptist Church in Grimes County, wraps up today. The state organization is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, whose 1845 break away from Baptists of the North, in order to preserve black slavery, sealed the inevitability of the Civil War that took…
Gilead Baptist Church of South Carolina’s Grindal Shoals community dates to September 27, 1804. Revolutionary veterans comprised six of the founding members. Upon the commencement of the Civil War, many members joined the Confederate Army, including pastor Philip Ramsour Elam. William Lee took Elam’s place as pastor for 1861 and 1862. During Lee’s pastorate, three…
Today Texas Baptist layman, lawyer and former slaveowner Jacob Eliot takes “the oath of allegiance to U.S. government.” Eliot, however, yet often refers to black individuals with the phrase, “belongs to.” Many other white Southerners also continue thinking of black persons as property, rather than free persons. In many instances, local Baptist church records employ…