Since my last I have been rambling a little more in the Palmetto State, and have spent a few days in Georgia, well deserving to be called the Empire State of the South.

I was delighted with Anderson and Greenville, in the upper part of South Carolina. They are truly towns of groves and flowers. The latter specially, commanding a view of the distant mountains, and with a river dashing over its rocky bed across the principal streets, struck me as unusually romantic in its situation. But Greenville is interesting to many of your readers as the seat of the recently established “Theological Seminary,” under the auspices of the Baptist denomination, of which Doctors Manly and Broadus, from Virginia, are Professors. This institution is not now in session, most of the former students being in one way or another connected with the army. Although an effort was made to induce Congress to except theological students from military service, I, as a friend of religion and of such seminaries, rejoice that such exemption was not granted. It would have put a premium on hypocrisy, and would have filled seminary halls with young men who would neither reflect credit on their Alma Mater nor do good to the cause of religion. But though the institution is not in session, the faculty are by no means idle. Dr. Boyce, the Chairman, has been serving in the Legislature and as Financial Agent of the Confederate Government. He is now importuned to serve in Congress. Dr. Manly has been spending his leisure in preparing juvenile text books specially for Sabbath Schools. Some of these will probably be shortly published by the Sunday School Board, lately created by the Southern Baptist Convention, and located in Greenville. Dr. Manly is President of this Board. Dr. John A. Broadus, Professor New Testament Interpretation and Homiletics, I am permitted to say, is devoting himself to the preparation of a Commentary on the New Testament, which, it is hoped, will supply a felt necessity in the Confederate States. This work, completed, need hardly be expected for several years, but when it does come, it will be likely by its intrinsic merit and adaptation to popular need to supercede similar productions from Yankee pens now in use. Many a soldier in the army of Northern Virginia will be pleased to hear that Dr. B. proposes to spend the summer as Army Evangelist in the employ of the Virginia Baptist Sunday School and Colportage Board.

Source: Miss Sutten, “A Trip South,” Richmond Daily Dispatch, June 19, 1863 (link)

Resolved, That the members of this Association regard the system of American Slavery as a violation of the domestic rights of human nature, and hostile to the spirit of the Christian religion; that we recognize it as the root and cause of our present national troubles, and admit that what we are now suffering is only a just punishment for our sin in sustaining the iniquitous system; that we contemplate with unalloyed pleasure the action of the President of the United States looking to the emancipation of the slaves and will sustain such action by every means in our power, especially by beseeching Almighty God to prosper our armies, and hasten the day when every vestige of human bondage shall be removed from our land.

Seventy-four years earlier the (white) General Committee of Virginia Baptists had declared:

That slavery is a violent deprivation of the rights of nature, and inconsistent with a republican government, and therefore, recommend to our brethren to make use of every legal measure to extirpate this horrible evil from the land; and to pray to Almighty God that our honorable legislature may have it in their power to proclaim that great jubilee, consistent with the principles of good policy.

Virginia Baptists of the late eighteenth century, however, did not long maintain their anti-slavery position, instead embracing slavery by the 1820s in the face of a cotton-driven slave economy that positioned African bondage as the cornerstone of Christian society and culture. In so doing, Virginia Baptists became respected and prosperous in their home  land, at the cost of losing their prophetic witness on race relations and human freedom.

Yet this long-ignored legacy of Baptists of Virginia was carried on, with zeal, by many Baptists of the North, a people of faith now considered the enemy by Southern Baptists. Now, the Sabbath Baptists of the Central Association appear to be tapping into the very language that their Southern brethren had penned three-quarters of a century ago.

Sources: “The Central Association,” Sabbath Recorder, June 18, 1863 (link); Bruce Gourley, “John Leland: Evolving Views of Slavery: 1789-1839,” Baptist History & Heritage Journal, Vol. 40, No. 1, Winter 2005 (link)

A correspondent of the Religious Herald writing from Washington, Ga., gives the following account of the labors of Elder H. A. Tupper, pastor of the church in that place. We could wish that such instances of pastoral efficiency were less rare:

In all my wanderings for years past among the churches, I have never met with such a pastor as the brother who, for some ten years, has been laboring at this point.–Nine years ago he established a Sunday school for colored children, which has been in successful operation ever since. Last Sunday was the anniversary, and it was a pleasant occasion. The pastor gave to each pupil–seventy-five being present–a card or book. The school meets every Sunday afternoon. Here then is an instance in which it has been demonstrated that colored schools can be kept up and effect vast good.

Brother Tupper (the pastor) also preaches frequently to servants on the plantations around. Two or three days of every week are devoted to this service. At the hour of 12 o’clock the servants are assembled immediately before or after dinner, and a sermon is preached to them. The same course is pursued from plantation to plantation, until all the large planters, for some miles around, have had the gospel preached in the weekdays to their servants. Service is held every Tuesday evening in the Baptist church for the colored people of the village. So much for this portion of the flock.

We come now to the little ones. Of course the Sunday school is well attended. We have never seen a nicer school. Last Sabbath the pastor gave a book to each pupil. Two Sundays of every month brother Tupper preaches to the children in the afternoon. Though, for years, he has been doing this the little people flock out in great numbers. The old ones come too, so that the preacher can often give them some timely hints and suggestions through the children. As the result, in part, of this attention to the children, quite a number of them are pious, consistent church members.

Source: “A Model Pastor,” Biblical Recorder, June 17, 1863 (link)