Southern Baptist Civil War: A Case Study

In the years leading up to the Civil War the Baptist denomination in the United States fractured because of issues relating to slavery and missionary work, and North Carolinians provide a lens with which to look at this dissolution from the southern perspective. Although many northerners and southerners were ambivalent toward splitting their organizations and, as a result their resources, division was nonetheless the eventual result. The two sections could not reconcile their conflicting priorities, so the only logical answer to them, even in light of their shared religious beliefs, was to go their separate ways. This separation would have long-lasting repercussions in Baptist life. Even to the present the Southern Baptist Convention is still
home to most of the South’s Baptist churches and lends itself to a generally more conservative stance on political and doctrinal debates. The split between the Baptists was also in parallel with the divisions occurring in the nation as a whole. Just as the southern states were persistent in demanding respect for their rights as states, the Baptists of the South were firm in their claims that no national organization should be able to reject their missionaries on account of his holding of slaves. Thus, the Baptist schism was a microcosm of larger American events of the day, and the Baptists in North Carolina were aware of these events and vocal about them. This research shows how North Carolina Baptists and their records can be used as examples for studying Baptist history at large, the implications for which are myriad but include the fact that those seeking to study the Baptists, whether or not specifically in relation to missions and slavery, might look to those who lived in North Carolina as an example that could be helpful in coming to a smaller scale but still representative conclusion about Baptists.