The Civil War has raised a host of issues for white Baptists of the South, a largely rural people who, echoing the early frontier ethos of their spiritual ancestors, frame religion as personal piety rather than social responsibility. Local church minutes of the 1850s and 1860s are often concerned with personal sins such as card…
As reported by today’s New York Times, Henry Ward Beecher has recently toured England, speaking about the American Civil War and the temperance movement. Invited to speak to Britain’s National Temperance League, his speech included a story about a Baptist church. This distinguished advocate of temperance and freedom [Beecher] having consented to meet the members…
A brief article in this week’s North Carolina Baptist Biblical Recorder echoes advice from the South Carolina Confederate Baptist regarding church members who are growing corn partially to turn into whiskey, and partially to sell at high profits to the public, while food is ever more scarce in the South. The Confederate Baptist, in reply…