“ … If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed!” (John 8:36)
‘Negro Adam” — property of Thomas Dodson — was the first black who can be documented in one of the church records at the Virginia Baptist Historical Society. He was dismissed from Broad Run Baptist Church near Warrenton, Va., in May 1764 because he had gone to Halifax. The following month two more came into the fellowship — “Negro Dick” and “Negro Sarah,” both of whom belonged to the Dodsons. Likely there were earlier black Baptists in Virginia but these are the first whose names survive in the Baptist archives.
Fred Anderson
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Why were the enslaved and free blacks — people like Adam, Dick and Sarah — drawn to Baptist churches? They found a degree of freedom. It was not perfect freedom but it was more than they found in other churches and certainly in the larger culture.
In the 18th century they also found an appealing worship style which was lively and spirited compared to Anglican services. The white Baptists of the 1700s were given to whoops and hollers and heart-warming hymns and the black Baptists must have felt at home. The white Baptists were as welcoming to the blacks as if they had illuminated the front porch of the meetinghouse. In some churches blacks were appointed deacons, albeit over their own people. In many of the churches there was separate seating, which accounts for the addition of galleries to many a country meeting house.
After studying the period, we also have concluded that the vast majority of blacks participated in worship services held outdoors in arbors. We have read reminiscences of white Baptist preachers who made regular appointments to preach on scattered farms. It makes sense. After all, most of the country churches had more black members on the roll than they had seating, and it would have been challenging at best to transport and accommodate huge numbers of slave worshippers.
In a search of the hundreds of old records, we have found that very rarely was the word “slave” used. The churches referred to them as “servants.” In early books they often were listed along with the whites; but in time, most clerks made separate listings of white and “colored” males and females.
The Storyteller guides visitors through the “free indeed!” exhibit. He was created by artist Michael Martin, a member of Bruington (Va.) Baptist Church.
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Let it be forever said that the blacks found the releasing presence of Jesus Christ within the Baptist experience and it was a spiritual release which enabled them to survive in the world beyond church walls. Yes, they were “free indeed” in Christ, a freedom which transcended everything and lasted forever. It was the ultimate expression of freedom.
The earthly reality was quite different from the inward spiritual freedom. But actual physical freedom could have come much earlier. If the country had followed the lead of Virginia Baptists, slavery might have been abolished much sooner and a war averted. Indeed if the membership of the Virginia Baptist churches had followed their own leadership, the course of history may have been different.
In 1790 Virginia Baptists, through what was known as the General Committee, endorsed a resolution authored by John Leland, the great Baptist statesman, which condemned slavery and urged that “the horrid evil” be removed. Leland believed so strongly in his own resolution that he owned no slaves and instead worked his children on his farm. There were others who opposed slavery in the late 18th century, but in the early 19th century attitudes and politics hardened in defense of the peculiar institution.
For the last three years the Virginia Baptist Historical Society and the Center for Baptist Heritage & Studies have collaborated to produce the “free indeed!” project. It is the Virginia Baptist contribution to the 150th anniversary of emancipation. It has three components: an exhibit on black/white relationships prior to emancipation, a companion book which tells far more than the exhibit could include, and a registry which includes some 50,000 names of slaves, freedmen and whites found in the antebellum records of the Virginia Baptist Historical Society. Mike Whitt, special projects assistant at the Society, was responsible for creating the name registry and writing the book. The exhibit opens in January at the Historical Society and will remain in place throughout 2012 and 2013.
The greatest defining and dividing event in Virginia Baptist history was emancipation. Of course, it freed the enslaved, and almost at once, it unintentionally ended for awhile the shared worship experience of whites and blacks. It was as if the porch light had gone out at the formerly mixed-race churches. Almost en masse, the black members left the churches, marking the loss of 57 percent of the membership of the General Association’s churches. Relishing their new full freedom, the blacks constituted new churches, associations, a newspaper, a seminary and eventually a college.
It has taken 150 years for black and white Baptists to begin to form a new humanity. More and more traditionally black churches are joining the General Association or, at least, becoming dually aligned with it and the historically black state associations, the State Convention and the General Convention. It is almost as if the porch light has been turned on and the welcoming mat swept.
Someone asked me at the Virginia Baptist Mission Board meeting on Nov. 29 if we did the exhibit, the book and the name registry because of the election of an African-American as president of the General Association on Nov. 9. The inquirer must think that we are miracle workers if we could have accomplished this three-in-one project in 20 days! We began work on “free indeed!” some three years ago.
Remember “Negro Adam” and his owner, Thomas Dodson, mentioned in the opening paragraph? A year ago the Virginia Baptist Historical Society had a researcher from Michigan and he was a descendant of the Dodsons. I showed him the entry in the old church records; and when I told him that we were mounting an exhibit on black/white relationships in the churches, he indicated that he would drive all the way back just to see it. We expect many whites and blacks — including groups from churches — will visit the “free indeed!” exhibit. We will leave the porch light on.
Fred Anderson ([email protected]) is executive director of the Virginia Baptist Historical Society and the Center for Baptist Heritage and Studies.