Generally considered the first college in America for the higher education of women, Vassar College in New York is incorporated in January. The college’s founder, Matthew Vassar, a Baptist layman, was born in England and at the age of four immigrated to New York with his family. Assuming his father’s brewing business, Matthew amassed a…
Shortly after the new year begins, the white First Baptist Church of Nashville, Tennessee establishes a “Second Colored Baptist Mission” in Edgefield (on Fatherland Street), East Nashville. Directed by a white committee and George Dardis, a free black preacher, the Second slave congregation is co-sponsored by Nelson G. Merry, the free black pastor of the…
Secessionist fever is spreading rapidly throughout the South. Kentucky, a border state, is conflicted. Not as dependent on slavery as the cotton states of the Deep South, Kentucky harbors much Union sentiment. Many Kentuckians, now and throughout the war, want to see reconciliation between the North and South. The tension is felt in Kentucky’s Baptist…