Throughout the South many black Baptist churches are now hosting schools for freedmen, both children and adults. White Southerners for generations prevented slaves from obtaining education via state and local laws. Many insisted that blacks were simply unable to learn. Now, against the wishes of many whites who believe that blacks should remain in servitude,…
The Northern-based American Bible Union meets in New York. Founder and president, Thomas Armitage, is a Baptist minister. In addition to providing Bibles in non-English languages, the Union is now busy supplying Bibles to freedmen, many of whom are finally learning to read, following the post-war fall of decades of Southern laws disallowing slaves to…
Far from the South, today in Indianapolis is the inaugural gathering of the State Convention of the Colored People of Indiana. Many Baptists are among those present. Delegates note that the Declaration of Independence “declares life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as “inalienable rights of all men,” rights for which colored men “have fought,…