Elijah J. Marrs of Company L, 12th U.S. Colored Artillery, is keeping a written record of his time in the service. Born a slave in January 1840 in Shelby County, Kentucky, in his youth Marrs converted to the Baptist faith, the denominational choice of most Christianized slaves in the South. Learning to read and write…
This weekend in Virginia, Confederate forces, led by Major General J.E.B. Stuart, engage the U.S. Sixth Army Corps near Frying Pan Baptist Church in the larger vicinity of Bull Run, site of two earlier major battles. The military activity is nothing new for the little church, which, due to the meeting house’s location on a…
A new chapter in Baptist life has been unfolding this month as freedmen on St. Helena Island off the coast of South Carolina, under the protection and with the assistance of the United States Army, form an autonomous Baptist congregation and establish a Baptist-related school, the Penn School. The school teaches reading, writing, agricultural and…