“If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” (John 3:36)
Throughout 2012 and now in 2013, Virginia Baptists have been engaged in the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation through a landmark exhibit which continues on view at the Virginia Baptist Historical Society on the campus of the University of Richmond.
The exhibit is entitled “Free Indeed!” It highlights both the relationships between white and black Baptists in Virginia prior to emancipation and the trials and triumphs of the enslaved people. These are topics which have not been addressed by Virginia Baptists in the past and the exhibit breaks new ground.
Fred Anderson |
There are two other components to the “Free Indeed!” project. There is a major new book, also entitled Free Indeed! and it tells far more than any exhibit could cover. Many previously untold stories are captured. Also included are several primary sources, most printed for the first time, including the reminiscences of two white Virginia Baptist ministers who preached to the enslaved. After the Civil War, C.H. Ryland, founder of the VBHS, asked these two ministers to write their accounts; they have been pulled from the VBHS archives for the very first time.
Another valuable source is a historical account entitled A Century of the Development of Negro Baptists as hidden in an edition of the Religious Herald from 1923, the year of the centennial of the Baptist General Association of Virginia.
The other component is a registry of all the names of slaves and freedmen as well as white surnames found in antebellum church records in the VBHS archives. Michael Whitt, special projects assistant at the VBHS, spent three years pulling the names from difficult-to-decipher manuscripts. It contains over 51,000 names. It has been rewarding to see individuals searching for ancestors and making discoveries. Two African-American researchers found that their ancestors from slave days actually were freedmen.
There have been many experiences in year one of “Free Indeed!” A retired high school history teacher, a Baptist herself, spent hours reading every line of every label in the exhibit. The African-American history consultant for the Virginia Historical Society came at 10 a.m. and left at 3 p.m., reading every label and commenting upon the unique items in the exhibit.
There have been many organized tour groups from churches and civic organizations. Entire classes from the John Leland Center for Theological Studies have visited. A friend of the VBHS brought her Woman’s Missionary Union group; when they arrived, she said: “Oh, I wish that I had thought to have invited the women of the African-American church which came out of our church. I have wanted to interest them in joining our WMU.”
Artwork for “Free Indeed” was created by Michael Martin.
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She returned home that day and immediately began organizing another tour group which included members of the neighboring church. Two district associations organized tour groups which in-cluded blacks and whites together.
An unusual group was recruited on a train trip to Washington. This columnist had gone to the nation’s capital for a day trip and on the train were about 20 African-American youth and their adult chaperones. We struck up a conversation in which the exhibit quite naturally emerged as a topic of interest. In a few days, the group’s leader arranged a tour. The youth were high school dropouts who were under the guidance of a community action organization with the purpose of completing their GED and securing internships or jobs. Through a guided tour of “Free Indeed!” the youth learned of the triumphs of an enslaved people and perhaps from their visit to the University of Richmond they learned of opportunities for improvements in their own lives.
Located at the heart of the UR campus, the door to the Society’s building has been wide open in good weather and attractive signs have beckoned anyone to enter. Hundreds of passersby, including UR students, professors, parents and campus visitors, have wandered through the exhibit. For most it was the first time they had ever entered the Baptist historical building. International students have appeared the most curious to learn more about slavery and its impact on churches and society in general.
What insights can be gleaned from a “free indeed!” exhibit visit? In the 18th-century, Virginia Baptists, who were despised themselves by upper-class Anglicans, were welcoming to the enslaved. They provided religious instruction and accepted them into membership in the churches. They accorded them the human dignity of having their names placed on the rolls in the church record books.
In the 18th-century, Virginia Baptists, in a word, were abolitionists. On exhibit is a resolution authored by John Leland and adopted by Virginia Baptists which condemned slavery as an evil and sought its abolishment. The document was written 75 years before emancipation.
Also on exhibit is an anti-slavery pamphlet written in 1808 by David Barrow, a Baptist minister, as well as the 1797 minutes of the Dover Baptist Association in which churches were encouraged “to unite with the Abolition Society in proposing gradual emancipation.”
In the 1700s, there were numerous black preachers, including “Negro Lewis” of the Northern Neck, and in the exhibit there is an account of his preaching to about 300 people and displaying his preaching gifts, which “exceeded many white preachers.”
All of the advancements for black preachers and black congregations were challenged after the 1831 Nat Turner insurrection in Southampton County, Va. The state passed harsh laws requiring the presence of white males if blacks gathered for worship and for white pastors to preside over black congregations. In that period, Robert Ryland, a white minister and president of the Baptist school, Richmond College, became pastor of First African Baptist Church of Richmond. He wrote his own catechism for the church and a copy is on exhibit. It has been interesting to watch people as they tried to answer the questions in the catechism. Ryland’s congregants were expected to know the answers and the Scripture text to back up the answer. Many 21st century Christians would not know all the answers.
“Free Indeed!” will be on view through December 2013. To schedule a group tour, contact the VBHS at 804.289.8434.
Fred Anderson ([email protected]) is executive director of the Virginia Baptist Historical Society and the Center for Baptist Heritage & Studies.