April 29, 1840: the American Baptist Anti-Slavery Convention held its first session in New York. Until then, the Baptists had maintained a strained peace by carefully avoiding discussion of the topic of slavery. But in 1840, an American Baptist Anti-Slavery Convention brought the issue into the open. The Baptist Foreign Mission Board denied a request by the Alabama Convention that slave owners be eligible to become missionaries. Finally, a Baptist Free Mission Society was formed and refused Southern money. The southern members withdrew and formed the Southern Baptist Convention. The split was completed in 1845.
