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Rought Draft #2 (Am Hist Paper)
Rought Draft #2 (Am Hist Paper)
Rough Draft #1
November 8, 2007
The roots of the American Baptist have long been an issue of controversy. Each
subset of the denomination claims a different historical setting of its founding, and even
modern day Baptists cannot find a proper compromise of the issue. As the large
protestant denomination today, the Baptist, have evolved exponentially since its humble
persecuted dissenters great rapidly and has become a strong protestant force in the
United States. During the 18th century, although small in numbers, their cry for religious
“Each denomination or church had a confession that denied the boundaries of belief.
1
Wills, Gregory A. Democratic Religion; Freedom, Authority, and Church Discipline in the Baptist South 1785-
1900. Oxford University Press: New York, 1997. Pg 5.
The Baptist were seen as spiritual inferiors to many other protestant
Charles Woodsman, an Itinerate Anglican pastor claims that, “I verily believe some few
among them (the new light Baptists clergy) mean Well- but they are unequal to the Task
they undertake. They set about effecting in an Instant, what requires both Labour and
from the pulpit, he denounces their teachings, and regards them as “poor, unthinking,
illiterate Creatures.”3
Each Baptist subset has professed its organizations origin in a different historical
setting. According to historian, Jesse Fletcher: “some think that the first Baptists church
embraced a general atonement; others hold to the first Baptist church really being
formed in London, England, in 1641 from another Puritan separatist tradition with a
particular or Calvinist theory of atonement; and still others believe that Baptist life really
Although there this discrepancy, today’s historians credit the honor to the “little
group of believers that surrounded John Smyth in Amsterdam in 1609.”4 John Smyth,
said to be the father of the first Baptist church, studied at Cambridge, adopted the
Separatist views of the Puritans, who sought to severe all ties with the Anglican Church.
He would eventually become a pastor over his own congregation. He became convicted
about the necessity of adult Baptist, rather than the traditional infant baptism. He
2
Hooker, Richard J., editor. The Carolina Backcountry on the Eve of the Revolution; the jounal and other writings
of Charles Woodmason, Anglican Itinerant. University of North Carolina Press: Chapel Hill, NC,1953. Pg 117.
3
Hooker, Richard J., editor. The Carolina Backcountry on the Eve of the Revolution; the jounal and other writings
of Charles Woodmason, Anglican Itinerant. University of North Carolina Press: Chapel Hill, NC,1953. Pg 110.
4
Fletcher, Jesse C. The Southern Baptist Convention; A Sesquincentiennial History. Pg 19.
2
rejected his own baptism at birth and was rebaptized in what is referred to as believers,
or second baptism, as an adult. Smyth, along with two other individuals, Thomas
Hewlys, and John Murton, founded a congregation of “General Baptist,” whose name
referred to “their belief that Christ’s atoning death was sufficient for the whole world.”5
This view of limited atonement is most like the doctrine of the 17th century Mennonites
and was most likely the source of influence for this doctrine. This doctrinal belief was
probably brought to the church through John Smyth, who frequently interacted with the
Mennonites.”6This group would eventually seek take refuge in Holland because of their
dissenting views.
The Baptist denomination would split, and one group would form the “Particular
Baptists.” Their name refers to their rejection of the General Baptist belief that Christ’s
death and resurrection were for all. Rather, the Particular Baptist believed that Christ
was a sacrifice for God’s elect, or predestined. This group adopted an almost Puritan
form of Calvinism, however their method of believers baptism as an adult kept them
separated from the Puritan church.7 By mid 17th century their were seven “Particular”
The stereotype of Baptists as dissenting sects did not subside as the group took
roots in the British colonies. Roger Williams, a former Puritan Separatist is the John
Symth of the Baptist denomination in the New World. He, like his predecessors in
Puritanism, from Puritanism to separatism, from separatism to the Baptist position, and
5
Richards, Wiley. W. Winds of Doctrine; the Origin and Development of Southern Baptist
Theology. University Press of America, Inc: Lanham, Maryland, 1991. Pg 6.
6
Sweet, William warren. Relgion in Colonial America. Cooper Squre pulishers, inc.: New York 1965. Pg 122.
7
Wills, Gregory A. Democratic Religion; Freedom, Authority, and Church Discipline in the Baptist South 1785-
1900. Oxford University Press: New York, 1997. Pg 6
8
Sweet, William warren. Relgion in Colonial America. Cooper Squre pulishers, inc.: New York 1965. Pg 122.
3
ended his like as a Seeker.”9 (Talk about him founding the first baptish church when we
was exiled). In 1639 the first identifiable Baptist church was established with a
middle colonies of Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey. These churches were
beginning of the 18th century, Philadelphia had become a stronghold for the Baptists.
Many churches formed in the area, and benefited from the “general meetings” which
were established and available for all Baptists to attend. By 1707 these small meetings
had evolved into a “delegated body” with several churches sending representatives. 11
Although many of the other Baptist congregations in the colonies were Armenian in
nature, or more specifically, Separate Baptist, the congregations who formed the
adopted the London Confession of faith and as the association expanded, it would “set
the theological pattern for the American Baptists throughout the remainder of the
Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey, New York, and southern New England. By 1776 the
association’s membership would double from 1,318 in 1762, to 3,013 members in forty-
two congregations.13
9
Sweet, William warren. Relgion in Colonial America. Cooper Squre pulishers, inc.: New York 1965. Pg 122.
10
Sweet, William warren. Relgion in Colonial America. Cooper Squre pulishers, inc.: New York 1965. Pg 128.
11
Sweet, William warren. Relgion in Colonial America. Cooper Squre pulishers, inc.: New York 1965. Pg 148.
12
Sweet, William warren. Relgion in Colonial America. Cooper Squre pulishers, inc.: New York 1965. Pg 141.
13
Sweet, William Warren. Religion on the American Frontier: the Baptists 1783-1830. Cooper Square Publishers,
Inc.: New York, 1964. Pg 6.
4
In Virginia, the majority of Baptist congregations were offshoots of those
proprietorship, rather than religious principles, more tolerance was given to this new
dissenting sect of Protestantism. As the ideas spread south, congregations were formed
along the coast, as well as the backcountry in South Carolina. “Present day Charleston
was the setting of the oldest Baptist church in either the Carolinas, which was in
“Baptist beginnings in the middle colonies came just as persecution was ending in new
England. The first pennsylavian Baptists wree immigrant from wales anf “the first church
in the Provice of any note and permanency” to use the words of morgan Edwards, was
that at Pennepek, organized about the year 1686. The church in Philadelphia was the
8th Baptist chuech organized in penn and dates from 1698. Theough the Baptist had
gained a foothold all the southern colonies by the middle of the century their grateest
expanision in the south did not beign until the latter thrif of that century with the coming
”15
• Separatist Baptists:
14
Sweet, William warren. Relgion in Colonial America. Cooper Squre pulishers, inc.: New York 1965. Pg 141.
15
Sweet, William warren. Relgion in Colonial America. Cooper Squre pulishers, inc.: New York 1965. Pg 140.
5
“separate Baptists had a reputation for being an ignorant and illiterate set. …
represented the lower classes exonomically and educationally. The intensity along by
the tide of their eccesses alarmed some and angered others who were not swept along
by the tide of emotionalism. Those who held to infant baptism thought the Baptists cruel
in neglecting the baptistm of their infants and to some the very name Baptist was
terrifying.”16
“baptsist were badly (separatists) trated by the lower preachers was at the hands of the
rabble. By about 1770, however the Baptists were revivalists had largely overcome this
type of opposition. The people came to relized that “Baptists were fighting their battles”
anf from this time on there began a popular reaction in th in their favor.’”17
Baptists in the south. The accomplishments of the Separate Baptists movement are
extremely remarkable since Baptists prior to 1755 were an insignificant and generally
despised sect in America. Indeed in englad, also, where Baptist churches had begun to
appear as early as the beginning of the 17th c they conintued to occupy the status of a
reluctantly –tolerated minor dissenting sect through the 18th c. Niehter in England nor
in.”18
16
Sweet, William Warren. Religion on the American Frontier: the Baptists 1783-1830. Cooper Square Publishers,
Inc.: New York, 1964. Pg 10.
17
Sweet, William Warren. Religion on the American Frontier: the Baptists 1783-1830. Cooper Square Publishers,
Inc.: New York, 1964. Pg 12.
18
Lumpkin, William L. Baptists Foundations in the South: Tracing through the Separates the Influence of the Great
Awakening, 1754-1787. Broadman Press: Nashville, TN, 1961. Pg. VI.
6
• explain the views of the Baptist Church on the eve of the American Revolution
“The dissenters role on the southern has been largely depicted either as leaders of
democraxy and independence, both from established chuech organizations and from
maintain a little flock of devout frontier Christians. Wile it is true that the dissenters
were more often than not whigs in the American Revolution, and while it is ture that a
very important part of their duties was to “win souls,” one must not, indeed cannot,
frontier.”20
“The history of the towns of the British Colonies in North America during the colonial
period was in large measure that of their churches, and the history of these churches
was largely that of their clergy. The ministers of that period were the leaders in theology,
law, medicine, education, and to a considerable degree in politics and Indian warfare.
Often they were the only educated persons in a community.”21 (Talk about Oliver Hart
19
Richards, Wiley. W. Winds of Doctrine; the Origin and Development of Southern Baptist
Theology. University Press of America, Inc: Lanham, Maryland, 1991. Pg 1.
20
Gardner, Harold Warren. The Dissenting Sects on the Southern Colonial Frontier 1720-1770. University
Mircrofilms, Inc: Ann Arbor, Michigian. 1964. Pg 2.
21
Weis, Rev. Frederick Lewis. The Colonial Clergy of Virginia, North Carolina, and South
Carolina. Clearfield: Boston 1955. Pg. V.
7
“Let us then act wisely, of the two Evils choose the least—JOIN with out Sister-Colonies
in a determined proper Opposition to Tyranny, resolved rather to die the last of American
“According to Historian Gregory Willis, “among all the denominations, Baptists won the
freedom.”23
“They were religious populists- their churches democratic, their ministers needing
only the call of the spirit, their religion personal and fervent, their appleas addressed to
the common person—but they combined their populism with authorative Calvinism and
“Baptists doctrine gave each church authority to manage its fellowship and adopt its
“Baptists touted their allegiance to freedom and republicanism, for they along, they said
truly advocated civil anf religious liberty, They organized autonomous local churches
22
Weir, Robert M. The Last of American Freemen. Mercer University Press: Macon, Georgia 1986. Pg. X.
23
Wills, Gregory A. Democratic Religion; Freedom, Authority, and Church Discipline in the
Baptist South 1785-1900. Oxford University Press: New York, 1997. Pg 6
24
Wills, Gregory A. Democratic Religion; Freedom, Authority, and Church Discipline in the
Baptist South 1785-1900. Oxford University Press: New York, 1997. Pg 6
25
Wills, Gregory A. Democratic Religion; Freedom, Authority, and Church Discipline in the
Baptist South 1785-1900. Oxford University Press: New York, 1997. Pg 20.
8
free from tyrannical hierarchies and they practiced a church government by democracy
“the Baptists were still a compartielvey small body but they were strong enough to make
it important for either side to obtain their support and influence, and the Baptitss were
not slow in perceiving the advantageous positon in which they were placed. In electeing
members to the new state Legislature, the Baptits united their voices in electing men
favorable to religious liberty and freedom of conscience. The opeing of the battle for
political freedom offered the opportunity for the achievement of religious freedom.”27
“Every Baptist Church is a republic in miniature” wrote Baptist preacher and educator
Adiel Sherwood, who argued that chuech authority was “not committed to church
wardens the preacher in charge, the bishop, ruling elders, Presbyteries, conferences,
interpretation of scripture, but pople had these rights, they believed , as citizensof the
state, not as members of the churches. The state had no right to inflict civil or criminial
26
Wills, Gregory A. Democratic Religion; Freedom, Authority, and Church Discipline in the
Baptist South 1785-1900. Oxford University Press: New York, 1997. Pg 6
27
Sweet, William Warren. Religion on the American Frontier: the Baptists 1783-1830. Cooper Square Publishers,
Inc.: New York, 1964. Pg 14.
28
Wills, Gregory A. Democratic Religion; Freedom, Authority, and Church Discipline in the
Baptist South 1785-1900. Oxford University Press: New York, 1997. Pg 6
9
penalities for religious opinions, but churches had every right to infligct spiritual
“throught the years of the Revolution, the Baptists were carrying on their agitation for
religious liberty. They had learned the expeidecy “of petitions, publicty, agitation,
comminssions and lobbying” and little by little concessions were gratned to the
minister, they assaulted their vestries and asked that overseers of the poor be elected
by the community at large. But none of these partial measures satisfied them; they
demanded complete religious freedom and they continued their agitation until it was
achieved.”30
“the close of the Revolution found the Baptists in the united states in a vastly different
position than they had occupied at the beginning. At the beginning of the war for
independence they were but small persecuted groups, here economically and
educationally . by 1790 a social revolutn had taken place. Influenttial and weathly
members were now equal to that of any other denomination of Christians. They had
supported with almost unaminty the patriot cause in complte religious liberty which had
been so gloriously won in Va, and was not written into the fundamental law of the
nation. They were numerous and aggressive, but still making the largest appeal to the
common people, to that the mountains into the new empire of the west.”31
29
Wills, Gregory A. Democratic Religion; Freedom, Authority, and Church Discipline in the Baptist South 1785-
1900. Oxford University Press: New York, 1997. Pg 87.
30
Wills, Gregory A. Democratic Religion; Freedom, Authority, and Church Discipline in the Baptist South 1785-
1900. Oxford University Press: New York, 1997. Pg 15.
31
Sweet, William Warren. Religion on the American Frontier: the Baptists 1783-1830. Cooper Square Publishers,
Inc.: New York, 1964. Pg 17.
10
• Great Awakening:
Although the establishment of the colonial Baptist church was underway in the
17th century, a religious wave that would hit the colonies is the historical element which
is seen to rapid expand the Baptists and bolster their church membership. This
movement, referred to as the Great Awakening, “affected the life of the colonies,
introducing a new religious earnestness, purifying and elevating moral and ethical
religion and idealism.”32 During this time Baptist church numbers grew exponentially
from only sixty congregations to approximately one thousand between the years 1740-
1790.33 This spread of Baptist belief during the Great Awakening, transformed the
Baptists into a more mainstream protestant faith. Although the Separatist Baptists were
still seen as rowdy, illiterate dissenters, many law abiding General Baptist
Congregations were tolerated. This spiritual revivalism, which struck the colonies greatly
changed the New World’s reception of this denomination. Before the Great Awakening,
“Baptists were not only one of the smaller religious bodies in the colonies, but they were
32
Lumpkin, William L. Baptists Foundations in the South: Tracing through the Separates the Influence of the Great
Awakening, 1754-1787. Broadman Press: Nashville, TN, 1961. Pg V.
33
Wills, Gregory A. Democratic Religion; Freedom, Authority, and Church Discipline in the Baptist South 1785-
1900. Oxford University Press: New York, 1997. Pg 29.
34
Sweet, William Warren. Religion on the American Frontier: the Baptists 1783-1830. Cooper Square Publishers,
Inc.: New York, 1964. Pg 3.
11
When the revivals first occurred in New England in 1734, the Baptists, who were
very small in numbers, did not join in. Seeing the potential for benefit, the congregations
in New England, held their own revivals and were met with great support.
When the Great Awakening moved southward, the Baptists also began their revivals in
the region. This phase of the Awakening would also prove a great success for the
Baptists. 35 It is important to not that the Baptists who spread their doctrine and influence
throughout the Great Awakening, were not the General Baptist, nor the Particular
Baptists, but rather a group of Baptists views were much more Armenian in nature. This
group was known as the “Separatist Baptists” due to their separation from the
Congregational churches in New England. It would be these Baptists who would lay the
“The formation of Separate congregations began about 1744 and by 1751 thirty
ministers had been ordained as pastors of Separate churches. Among these were Isaac
Baptist leader of the period. Eh experience of backus is typical. At about 1747 he began
to preach. At first he tried to maintain a church of mixed views of baptism. Not all the
35
Sweet, William Warren. Religion on the American Frontier: the Baptists 1783-1830. Cooper Square Publishers,
Inc.: New York, 1964. Pg 4.
12
“The first identifiable Baptist chuech in the South formed in Charleston, SC, when a
itinerant preachers like Shubal Stearns and Daniel Marshall, who separated from
Congreatgational chueche sin New England and migrated to North Carolina in 1755
to est Separte Bap chuches. The philly Bap assoc also sent to the south such
evangelists as Morgan Edwards and John Gano, who establighed Regular (formerly
Separates onjected to parts of the Longdon Confession and critized the Regulars for
tolerating luxury in dress and for retaineind members who had recived baptism b/f
they were converted. Most separaties agreed with the Relugars Calvinishem and
“Southern Baptist theology developed out of evangelicalism. Their theology was evolved
through the years in a distinctive way for Soutehrn Baptists. Their theology has gone
American with the founding of the Baptists church in providence, Rhode Island, in 1639,
and ended about 1800. Calvinists comprised a part of that original Baptist fellowership
in the colonies. The process took a century and a half for Calvinism to triumph over its
competitiors, but by the end of the 17th centjry, it claimed the formal allegiance of most
36
Wills, Gregory A. Democratic Religion; Freedom, Authority, and Church Discipline in the Baptist South 1785-
1900. Oxford University Press: New York, 1997. Pg 7
13
of those churches, which became the constituent elements of the Southern Baptist
convention.”37
but they exceeded their northern counterparts in the rigor of their church desicpline,
“The revivals of the 1740s and 1750s produced Baptist by the thousands and the
experience indelibly shaped Baptist piety. Early Baptist revials were not much planned.
Although relgular ministers often itinerated on three month “missionary” torus and gave
“In the south, as in many other Enlgish colonies, minister played an important role as
intellectual leaders. A further qualification for the colonial frontier in the south is that
most frontier intellectual productions came from the dissenting ministers. Evidence is
37
Richards, Wiley. W. Winds of Doctrine; the Origin and Development of Southern Baptist Theology. University
Press of America, Inc: Lanham, Maryland, 1991. Pg 1.
38
Wills, Gregory A. Democratic Religion; Freedom, Authority, and Church Discipline in the
Baptist South 1785-1900. Oxford University Press: New York, 1997. Pg 6
39
Wills, Gregory A. Democratic Religion; Freedom, Authority, and Church Discipline in the
Baptist South 1785-1900. Oxford University Press: New York, 1997. Pg 33.
14
not wanting to demonstrate that these ministers were to be found whenever and
wherever settlers were found, either in the form of settled pastorates or in the more
“Their pastor, William Screven, typified many early Batpist ministers. He had been
converented in England and was said to have there singed one of the early confessions
of faith called the Somerset Confession. IN England he associated with a Baptist leader
who was later discredited, which may explain why the Boston chuech asked him to be
rebiaptied when he migrated to the new world. Capable and energetic screven was the
leader of the southern exodus. Thus he and his followers and their descendeants were
a significant part of the early descendant were a significant part of the early developene
40
Gardner, Harold Warren. The Dissenting Sects on the Southern Colonial Frontier 1720-1770.
University Mircrofilms, Inc: Ann Arbor, Michigian. 1964. Pg 1.
41
Fletcher, Jesse C. The Southern Baptist Convention; A Sesquincentiennial History. Pg 15.
15
Works Cited:
16