Baptist newspapers North and South greet the new year in various ways. Northern Baptist newspapers are generally optimistic about the year that lies ahead, while Baptist newspapers of the South run editorials ranging from despair to ambivalence to defiance. Will the United States prove capable of putting down the rebellion this year? What does the…
Black Baptists have been well-established in Norfolk and Portsmouth, Virginia since the early nineteenth century. Their vibrant presence is testimony to the acceptance of blacks in Baptist churches, a preponderance of free blacks in the area, and three decades (the 1820s-1850s) as a disembarkation point for African American missionaries traveling to Liberia through the efforts…
Today, the one-year anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, is a joyous occasion among free blacks, many of whom have obtained freedom within the past year. The year since the signing of the proclamation has witnessed a revolution in race relations. Prior to the proclamation, many Northern whites were uncertain that freed blacks would prove worthy…