News

March 13, 1764:  The Philadelphia Baptist Association voted to extend voting privileges to women.  ABHS has association records from the Philadelphia Association, and recently received a banner celebrating the 300^th anniversary of the Association.

 

March 11, 1796.  Francis Wayland, professor and president of Brown University was born in New York City.  He was also the pastor of the first Baptist church in American in Providence, RI.  In Washington, D.C., Wayland Seminary was established in 1867, primarily to educate former slaves, and was named in his honor. ABHS has about 100 items, books, magazine articles or newspaper articles by or about Francis Wayland.

March 9, 1780:  A letter to the Continental Journal attached Baptists for their opposition to state-supported religion.  The Journal was published in Boston from 1776-1787.  ABHS has many tracts and other publications that document the Baptist struggle for religious freedom.   Brown University (started by Baptists in New England) has microfilm copies of the Continental Journal.

March 7, 1668 The Governor of Massachusetts ordered a debate on infant Baptist between Baptist and Puritan ministers.  Thomas Goold led the Baptist side of the debate against the formidable Congregational minister John Allen and others.   At the end of the debate, the court remained unconvinced and the magistrates banished Goold. Refusing to leave, he was again imprisoned. ABHS has many early papers which argued for religious freedom and believer’s baptism.

March 6, 1680 the Doors of First Baptist Church of Boston were nailed shut by court order because the Bay Colony was not tolerant of anyone who advocated for believers baptism.  Men and women were banished from the colony and others were put to death. The Baptists in Boston continued to meet outside in the freezing church yard for several weeks until one Sunday they found the doors unlocked so went in to worship with no repercussions.  ABHS has some of the original church records of First Baptist Church of Boston from 1771-1960.

 

Join us for the “Legacy of Walter Rauschenbusch Conference” at Mercer University’s Atlanta Campus! Hosted by the American Baptist Historical Society and Mercer’s Center for Theology and Public Life, these lectures will address Rauschenbusch’s continued impact as the most significant Baptist ethicist of the 20th century. An extraodinary variety of topics will be addressed, including race, gender, Kingdom of God theology, and social ethics.

The international group of scholars presenting will include David Gushee, Gary Dorrien, Christopher Evans, Andrea Strubind, Roger Prentice, Adam Bond, Wendy Deichmann, Dominik Gautier, and Rauschenbusch’s great-grandson, Paul Rauschenbusch.

Registration is open until March 25 and FREE to all students (though student registration is still required).

For more information, visit: https://author.mercer.edu/www/mu-ctpl/sponsored-events/the-legacy-of-walter-rauschenbusch.cfmRauschenbush, conference registration deadline March 25

 

One Hundred Sixty Six years ago, in 1851, on February 28, Libbie Cilley Griffin was born.  She became the first woman on record to be ordained by American Baptists in 1898 in New York state.  ABHS has her ordination certificate, marriage certificate and many of her sermons and other writings.  She was a Free Will Baptist missionary in India 1873-1876, and again in 1883-1893.

In 1824, on February 25, the Baptist General Tract Society was formed in Washington, DC.  The purpose was to publish Christian Literature and Sunday School materials.  Two years later the Society moved to Philadelphia.  In 1841 the first colporters were appointed to distribute the literature.  Out of this society came the American Baptist Historical Society (1853), The Board of Education and Publication (1888), and eventually the Publication arm was named Judson Press.  The picture above is one of the first colporter wagons.  ABHS had many records from the Tract Society, and shelves of books published by Judson Press and its predecessors.  There are also many pictures of various colporters using horse and buggies, boats and cars.

REGISTER NOW for “The Legacy of Walter Rauschenbusch,” a conference taking place April 9-11, 2018, on Mercer University’s Cecil B. Day Graduate and Professional Campus in Atlanta. Detailed information and a downloadable registration form are available here.

The American Baptist Historical Society holds the most extensive collection of Rauschenbusch family papers in the world. ABHS is one of the conference sponsors, and will host a reception and display on the first night of the conference.

Conference speakers include Gary Dorrien, Christopher Evans, Andrea Strubind, Roger Prentice, Adam Bond, Wendy Deichmann, and Dominik Gautier.

Registration closes March 25

On February 19, 1812, Ann and Adoniram Judson sailed for India as missionaries commissioned by the Congregational Church (see post on February 6).  Upon arriving in India, they asked the British Baptist William Ward to baptize them by immersion.  Because of the political situation between England and the United States, Americans were unwelcome in India, so the Judsons traveled to Burma where evangelized to the Burmese.  They began translating the Bible into the local language, wrote tracts and made friends.  The picture here shows the house Judson’s lived in, drawn by Howard Malcom.  ABHS has many books about the Judson’s, Judson’s original letters to the mission society in America, and several artifacts used by Judson in his ministry.

On February 16, in 1747, Isaac Backus formed a church with 16 people in Titicut, MA.  He was going against legal requirements.  Backus spoke out for separation of church and state, and was one of the original trustees for Brown University, the first Baptist school of higher learning.  In 1751, Backus became the pastor of Middleborough Baptist church in Massachusetts.   The accompanying photo shown Backus listed as the pastor of Middleborough in the 1790-1795 Baptist Register.  ABHS has a collection of Backus’ personal papers and many books by and about him. 

On February 15, 1679, Boston Baptists met for the first time in a meeting house secretly built as a ‘Brewery’.  ABHS has original church records from four churches in Boston: Bowdoin Square BC, 1840-1876; Central Square BC and Society, 1843-1915;  First BC, 1771-1960; and Trenton Street BC, 1908-1929.  Association Records from Boston date to the mid 1800s.

REGISTER NOW for “The Legacy of Walter Rauschenbusch,” a conference taking place April 9-11, 2018, on Mercer University’s Cecil B. Day Graduate and Professional Campus in Atlanta. Detailed information and a downloadable registration form are available here.

The American Baptist Historical Society holds the most extensive collection of Rauschenbusch family papers in the world. ABHS is one of the conference sponsors, and will host a reception and display on the first night of the conference.

Conference speakers include Gary Dorrien, Christopher Evans, Andrea Strubind, Roger Prentice, Adam Bond, Wendy Deichmann, and Dominik Gautier.

Registration closes March 25

In 1884, on February 11, nine believers were baptized, the beginnings of the Baptist witness in Estonia. The first Estonian Baptist church was started in Haapsalu in 1884. From that time  Baptist churches have been  planted across the country. The period of Soviet dominion 1940 – 1990 seriously hampered the growth of Baptist churches since religious activities were allowed only in church buildings and leaders were regularly interrogated by the communist state.  Currently the Union of Evangelical Christian and Baptist Churches of Estonia numbers almost 6200 members worshipping in 84 local congregations.

In 1813, On February 27, The Maine Literary and Theological Institution was founded in Waterville, Maine.  Later the name was changed to Colby College.  It is considered a pioneer in higher education because:

in 1833 Students organized the first collegiate anti-slavery society.
in 1871  Colby, previously an all-male New England college,  admitted women.
in 1975  They participated in the first intercollegiate women’s varsity ice hockey game.
in 1983 Colby became the first college to issue e-mail accounts to all students.

ABHS has files on Colby College from 1875 to 1960.

February 6, 1812, marks the day five young men were ordained for missionary service at the Tabernacle Church in Salem, MA.  Adoniram Judson, Samuel Newell, Samuel Nott, Gordon Hall and Luther Rice were Congregationalists.  Adoniram had married Ann Hasseltine the previous day, and they sailed for India on Feburary 19.  After intensive Bible study during the long voyage, the Judson’s decided to become Baptists. Denied admission to India, they went to Burma where they both ministered until their deaths, Ann in 1826, Adoniram in 1850.  ABHS has Ann and Adoniram’s correspondence, and documentation of their work on Burma.

February 5, 1631.  After 56 days aboard the ship Lyon, Roger Williams arrived from London in the midst of winter.  He is mentioned often in these posts because his fight for religious liberty caused much uproar in the colonies that were determined to keep their worship practices and theological understandings unchallenged.  Williams  was expelled from Massachusetts eventually traveled to Rhode Island and established a colony which was a haven for those “distressed of conscience.”

Mercer University’s Center for Theology and Public Life and McAfee School of Theology, in partnership with the Acadia Centre for Baptist and Anabaptist Studies (ACBAS) and the American Baptist Historical Society(ABHS), announce the program details for an international scholarly conference in recognition of the centenary of Professor Walter Rauschenbusch’s death.

“The Legacy of Walter Rauschenbusch” will take place April 9-11, 2018, on the University’s Cecil B. Day Graduate and Professional Campus in Atlanta. This same campus hosts the American Baptist Historical Society, a premier religious historical society, which houses the most extensive collection of Rauschenbusch family papers, and will host a reception and display on the first night of the conference.

The conference will begin with dinner on Monday, April 9, and end at 3:00 pm on Wednesday, April 11.

Confirmed speakers include: Bill Brackney (Acadia University), Heath Carter (Valparaiso University), Wendy Deichmann (United Theological Seminary), Ralf Dziewas (Theological Seminary, Elstal), Gary Dorrien (Union Seminary, NY), Christopher Evans (Boston University), Dominik Gauthier (University of Oldenburg), David Gushee (Mercer University), Roger Prentice (Acadia University, Andrea Strubind (University of Oldenburg), and Darryl Trimiew (past president, Society of Christian Ethics).

See detailed information about the schedule and register on the Mercer web site. (edit)

 

ABHS has Black History month resources including a bulletin insert entitled “Liberty To Vote,” that can be downloaded from our ‘For Churches’ page.  In addition a recent issue of the American Baptist Quarterly (Vol. 2, summer, 2013) has articles related to black history.  Individual issues of the ABQ can be purchased by calling ABHS at 678-547-6680.

Recently we found a volume written by George W. Williams (1849-1891) who was born in Pennsylvania (a free state), and was a soldier before entering Howard University in 1869. As the first black student at Newton Theological Institute he graduated in 1874, and was ordained and installed as the pastor of Twelfth Baptist Church in Boston. After moving to Ohio, he was elected to the House of Representative of the Ohio General Assembly for a term.

His enduring legacy is as an antislavery activist and writer, having authored the first history of African Americans in the United States.  ABHS has a first edition of this book entitled History of the Negro Race in America 1619-1880 which  includes a chapter on ‘Colored Baptists of America.’  This two volume   book can be found on-line at https://archive.org/details/historyofnegrora00willrich.