A pseudonymous Baptist from Jefferson, Georgia this week poses (among other queries) the question of why some Baptist churches of the Confederacy are not allowing African slave members to sing in church services. I see a practice beginning to take root and develope itself in some of our country churches, against which I enter my…
In the Baptist churches of the Confederacy, most of which are integrated, tensions between white and black members have steadily grown as the war drags on. For enslaved African Baptists, the church house is the one place where, at least in theory, a semblance of equality of the races is partially realized. This relative degree…
Today’s Georgia Baptist Christian Index offers a spirited defense of African slavery while arguing that slaves should at least be allowed to read the Bible, a practice long illegal in some Confederate states. As such, some white Baptists position themselves against a view popular among white Confederates at large that by learning to read, slaves…