Nov. 1, 1812: Luther Rice, the father of American Baptist of foreign missions, was baptized in Calcutta, India. He returned to the USA to raise money for missionaries like Adonirum and Ann Judson. ABHS has his journals and correspondence dating from 1803.
Nov. 3, 1635: Roger Williams was banished from the colony of Massachusetts because he preached religious freedom, and the colonists had set up a Puritan theocracy. No one who was not a member of that church had any rights in the colony.
Nov. 4, 1752. Over 100 years after Williams’ banishment, Isaac Backus was still fighting the state church’s tyranny. ABHS has published sermons, correspondence and a journal of family data in our collections.
Nov. 9, 1800. Mary Webb organized the first missionary society called Boston Female Society for Missionary Purposes. Women’s Missionary organizations started schools, training centers, community centers and other mission programs. They also recruited and trained women missionaries to staff these programs. Women’s Baptist Home Mission Society of the East, which was organized in Boston in 1877, was one of these.
Nov. 11: Veteran’s Day. Baptists have been ministering to veterans from the time of the Revolutionary War, when David Jones was a military chaplain and the Civil War, when Joanna Moore taught veterans to read and write. WW I and WWII, the Vietnam War and more recent conflicts have seen Baptist chaplains and Baptist soldiers. ABHS has the personal correspondence and diaries of David Jones and a Letterbook with two sets of letters (1865) and goodbye notes from soldiers of the 56th US Colored Infantry in Helena Arkansas (from the collection of Joanna P. Moore).
Nov. 15, 1961: The Progressive National Baptist Convention was organized in Cincinnati. ABHS has many books and newspaper articles about the history of the Progressive Baptists, as well as the Progressive News and the Convention minutes.
Nov. 18, 1961: Isabel Crawford,died in Winona, NY. She was a missionary to Native Americans. ABHS has a collection of her papers and photographs, information about which can be found on our online archive, ArchivesSpace. The picture on this post is a Kiowa drawing from the Isabel Crawford collection.
Nov. 19, 1774: Isaac Backus returned to Middleborough, MA, to find Baptists slandered as enemies of America (see November 4).
Nov. 24, 1910: John E. Clough died in Rochester, NY. Sent by the American Baptist foreign Mission Society to the Telegues of South India, he served for 46 years. ABHS holds published and unpublished manuscripts of his, as well as correspondence, diaries, photographs, scrapbooks and biographical information. His second wife was Emma Rauschenbusch. ABHS has the missionary letters of John Clough from 1864-1918 and of Emma Rauschenbusch from 1920-1940.
Nov. 28, 1629: John Bunyan, author of The Pilgrim’s Progress, was born in Elstow, England. ABHS has many copies of this work, the earliest dating from 1676. The theme of the fall-Winter 2014 issue of the American Baptist Quarterly is “John Bunyan and the Baptist Academy.”
Nov. 29, 1908: Adam Clayton Powell Jr. was born in New Haven, CT. A preacher and congressman, he is also known for his civil rights work.
