The Portsmouth Baptist Association of Virginia assembles at the Blackwater Baptist Church in Prince Anne County.
Delegates voice approval of a statewide Baptist committee formed in June “to provide for the education of children of deceased and disabled Confederate soldiers, and that we earnestly urge our brethren to help in this good work.”
A resolution expressing “pleasure” at “the reestablishment” of the Virginia Baptist Religious Herald passes. The paper resumed post-war production one month earlier.
Another resolution voices support for the missionary work of the Southern Baptist Convention, noting that the convention’s 1845 founding took place because “it became necessary many years ago, because of the radical and political spirit of the Northern churches, to establish” the SBC. For these “same reasons,” the resolution declares, the “separation” should continue.
“Radical” is another word for abolitionists, or anti-slavery advocates. Many white Southern Baptists yet believe slavery of the black race is ordained of God, and are determined, despite the legal enactment of emancipation, to keep blacks in servitude to the superior white race.
Source: “Portsmouth Baptist Association,” Religious Herald, November 23, 1865
