News

June 9, 1834.  William Carey died at age 72 in his 42^nd year as a missionary to India. A British Christian missionary, Particular Baptist minister, translator, social reformer and cultural anthropologist, Carey is known as the “father of modern missions.” His essay, An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens, led to the founding of the Baptist Missionary Society in England.   ABHS has many books and articles by and about William Carey

June 8,1789.  Baptists support James Madison’s First Amendment to the constitution.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

ABHS has many books and tracts written by Baptists about the need for freedom of religion in the newly formed United States of America

 

June 5, 1934:  Bill Moyers, born in Hugo, OK., is an American journalist and political commentator. He served as White House Press Secretary in the Johnson administration from 1965 to 1967. He also worked as a network TV news commentator for ten years. Moyers has been extensively involved with public broadcasting, producing documentaries and news journal programs like The Power of Myth (1988). He has won numerous awards and honorary degrees for his investigative journalism and civic activities.

We are pleased to announce that archivist Jill Sweetapple has joined  the staff of ABHS.  She has eight years of experience as an archivist, most recently at the Georgia Archives, where she has worked as a reference archivist.  Prior to working at the state archives, Sweetapple oversaw the archives at the DeKalb (GA) History Center.  In that capacity she gained experience processing archival collections and digitizing photographic negatives.  As a contractor for Ancestry.com, Sweetapple digitized tax digests and marriage records, making them available for genealogists.  She also has done significant volunteer work at the Atlanta History Center and Georgia State University archives.

One of the things Sweetapple enjoys about working in an archives is discovering the collections —  and at the ABHS archives and Samuel Colgate Historical Library, there’s a lot to discover!  She enjoys working on conservation of documents, and has had specialized training in book repair.

Prior to earning an M.A. in Library and Information Studies from Florida State University, Sweetapple had a career in television, working for Turner Entertainment Networks in the broadcast operations center, and at CNN/Sports Illustrated.

As Head of Archives and Special Collections, Sweetapple will be responsible for the care and management of the American Baptist Historical Society’s archival collections, including the official records of American Baptist Churches/USA partners, personal papers, manuscripts and other historical records and objects in a variety of media, including maps, audio visual materials, photographs, rare books, and artifacts.  The Archivist interprets these and other special collections through reference consultation and exhibitions.  She will also provide advice and training to ABC/USA denominational partners concerning the organization and retention of records to preserve the heritage of the denomination.

 

 

 

May 25, 1803.  The American Baptist magazine was formed by a vote of the Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Society.  Originally named The Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Magazine, the name was changed to The American Baptist Magazine in 1817 and to The Baptist Missionary Magazine in 1836.  In 1910 it combined with the Home Missions Monthly and the name was changed to Missions.  The ‘s’ was dropped in 1967, and  the magazine merged with Crusader in 1970 to become The American Baptist magazine.  ABHS has all the issues of this line of magazines.

 

 

May 24, 1878.  Harry Emerson Fosdick, pastor, theologian, and peace and justice activist, was born in Buffalo, NY.  Graduating from Colgate University in 1900, and Union Theological Seminary in 1903, he was ordained and served churches in New Jersey and New York, including Riverside Church in Manhattan.    Fosdick became a central figure in the “Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy” within American Protestantism in the 1920s and 1930s and was one of the most prominent liberal ministers of the early 20th Century.  He presented the Bible as a record of the unfolding of God’s will, not as the literal “Word of God”. He saw the history of Christianity as one of development, progress, and gradual change.  ABHS has many books and articles about his life, and many more that he authored.

 

May 21, 1814.  The precursor to today’s Board of International Ministries was founded in Philadelphia following the Triennial Convention (see May 18).  ABHS is the official repository of the archives of the foreign mission societies and IM.  They contain correspondence between missionaries in places like Congo, Burma and India and the sending agencies.

May 20, 1775.  George Liele  was formally ordained, the first Black Baptist in America to be so.  A slave in South Carolina, Liele  was freed shortly after the beginning of the Revolution .   He supported the British in the war for independence, and after the war, migrated to Jamaica in 1783.  The following year he established the first Baptist church there which he named the Ethiopian Baptist Church.  Liele also established a school in Jamaica.  Deborah Van Broekhoven, ABHS’s Director Emeritus, is one of the editors of a George Liele’s Life and Legacy.  A portrait of Liele  by Averett Shannon hangs in the Reading Room at ABHS.

May 18, 1814.  The Triennial Convention (so called because it met every 3 years) was organized in Philadelphia for the purpose of supporting foreign missions.  Luther Rice was one of the primary movers of this organization, which eventually transformed into International Ministries.  Rice was ordained with Adoniram Judson and sailed with him to India.  He returned to the United States primarily to encourage support for Judson’s mission in Burma.

May 17, 1907.  The Northern Baptist Convention was organized at Calvary Baptist Church in Washington, DC.  A general meeting of all Baptist societies was called, and the American Baptist Home Mission Society, the American Baptist Publication Society and the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society responded. They formed a voluntary organization named the Northern Baptist Convention.  ABHS holds the records of these societies (and others), and the American Baptist Quarterly published a chronology of the denomination in 1995.

May 14, 1754.  John Leland, leading Baptist advocate of religious freedom, was born in Grafton, MA. He was an outspoken abolitionist and an important figure in the struggle for religious liberty in the United States.   Leland also later opposed the rise of missionary societies among Baptists.  ABHS has many books with biographical information about Leland, and books and pamphlets of his writings.

May 11, 1972.  The American Baptist Convention became the American Baptist Churches in the U. S. A.  ABHS has records that document the history of both the Convention and ABCUSA.  The American Baptist Quarterly, published by ABHS, also has a chronology of the ABCUSA in the June, 1995 issue.

May 7, 1668.  Thomas Goold and two others were banished from Massachusetts because of their Baptist beliefs.  This followed a trial for his being absent from church. Even though the jury acquitted Goold, the judge fined him.  He refused to pay, so was imprisoned.  The Governor called for a debate about baptism on April 14 and 15, which Goold was judged to have lost, and so was banished with  William Turner, and John Farnum. They did not leave, however so were thrown in prison again.  After a year in prison Goold escaped with his family to semi-banishment on Noddle’s Island, located in the middle of Boston Harbor outside the court’s jurisdiction.

We celebrate with these churches as the ABC of Massachusetts recognizes the  anniversaries of several churches at their meeting on May 5.

Renewed Baptist Church, Framingham, 25 years with the leadership of Rev. Elias Mereiles;

Bethlehem Baptist Community Church,  Holyoke, 75 years with the leadership of Rev. Paula Alexander;

First Baptist Church, Jamaica Plain, 175 years with the leadership of Rev. Ashlee Wiest-Laird;

First Baptist Church, Cambridge, 200 years with the leadership of Rev. Henry Johnson, Jr.

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May 5, 1773.  Boston area Baptists agreed to stop paying church taxes in protest of the establishment of a state religion.  Baptists and Boston authorities were often at odds regarding freedom of religion, and ABHS has many books and pamphlets that examine the issue.

May 3, 1850.  Charles Spurgeon, world-renowned Baptist preacher and writer was baptized at the age of 16.  Spurgeon was the pastor of the congregation of the New Park Street Chapel (later the Metropolitan Tabernacle) in London for 38 years.  Spurgeon produced powerful sermons of penetrating thought and precise exposition. His oratory skills held his listeners spellbound in the Metropolitan Tabernacle and many Christians hold his writings in exceptionally high regard among devotional literature.  ABHS has some of Spurgeon’s correspondence (1865-1890)  involving personal matters and pastoral concerns.  There are also many of Spurgeon’s writings in the Colgate Historical Collection.