Southern Baptists and Southern Slavery: The Forgotten Crime Against Humanity

By Rev. Dr. A. L. Carpenter

The Southern Baptist Convention is the only denomination to have been created from the idea that the African, by biblical decree, was forever doomed to slavery. This book explores how such an incredible evil could have beep perpetuated upon a people by Southern Baptists and why they felt compelled to argue for the defense of the institution of slavery until the last shot was fired in the Civil War. Southern Baptists deeply believed it was a Divine right to buy and sell the African, a fact that has been buried in the annals of Southern Baptist history. This violation of human rights has never been held to account and remains the best-kept secret of the Southern Baptists. Let every African American read this book and decide who was responsible for the pain and suffering of their ancestors. Let every Southern Baptist read this book and know the history that has been hidden for far to long.

Rev. Dr. Alvin Carpenter

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rev. Dr. A. L. Carpenter
• Release date: Jan 27, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311381699

Rev. Dr. A. L. Carpenter

Dr. Carpenter is a graduate of California Baptist University, Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary and San Francisco Theological Seminary. In addition to his academic work Dr. Carpenter has been a pastor of numerous churches and his career as a minster spans over 40 years. He may be contacted at [e-mail].

Book preview

Southern Baptists and Southern Slavery

The Forgotten Crime Against Humanity

By Rev. Dr. A. L. Carpenter

Copyright 2013 by Alvin Carpenter

Smashwords Edition

[e-mail]

ISBN: 9781311381699

Cover Photograph by Kalina Vova/Bigstock

Table of Contents

Introduction

PART I. The Unclaimed History of the Southern Baptist Convention

Chapter 1. Fabricating History

Chapter 2. Deconstructing the Myth

PART II. The Southern Baptist Convention and Its Use of Biblical Inerrancy in the Support of Human Bondage

Chapter 3. Slavery a Divine Institution

Chapter 4. Old Testament Arguments in the Defense of Human Bondage?

Chapter 5. New Testament Arguments in the Defense of Human Bondage?

Conclusion

Resources

Introduction

I would permit no man, no matter what his color might be, to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him.

—Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery

There is no evil committed by Christians that has not found its basis firmly imbedded in its adopted scriptures. The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) was born in the era of America's darkest hour when the culture of the institution of slavery was leaving its indelible mark upon the people of the New World. Throughout America if there was a voice of reason, compassion and an erstwhile representation of equality for all people that voice was drowned out by those who had much to gain by the continuation of the practice of the enslavement of the African. The Christian Bible might have been used to argue a case against slavery but that was not the case. Not only was the Bible used to argue for slavery but also those who made such an argument seemed to have an airtight case. God does seem to sanction slavery, both in the Old and in the New Testament and it was the powerful Southern Baptist ministers who made it their work to point out that fact. While the Baptists in the South were not alone in using the Bible to justify human bondage in the 19th century, it remains that the SBC was the only denomination that was founded upon the defense of the principles of slavery.

The newly formed SBC sided with slave owners and the institution of human bondage; this is not an opinion but a historical fact. This fateful decision has marred the beginnings of the SBC to the degree it has damaged the relationship between African Americans and the SBC that continue to this day. How does one apologize for using the Bible to enslave the ancestors of the African Americans? We do not know because the SBC has never offered an apology.

One thing that has never changed is the method of interpretation used by the Southern Baptists in the 19th century to protect slavery as an institution is still in use today. The very same verses in the Old and New Testaments remain, with their complete meaning, and are in full force now as they were then according to the SBC. To the SBC these slave verses remain inerrant and authoritative and since nothing has changed, when the time is right (or wrong) similar religious authorities may advocate human bondage using the same scriptures and citing the same divine authority.

From such tainted soil from which came the SBC one wonders how it has affected their work over the intervening years. Did those decisions made in 1845 by those who would form the SBC set a precedent that is still in use today? Perhaps it is not an oversight that the people who make up the SBC of the 21st century are kept in the dark concerning their formative years. For those of us who have worked in and with SBC churches have noticed a concerted effort to never broach the subject of the history of the SBC.

In brief, this book is an exploration not so much about a religious denomination becoming oppressive to culturally marginalized communities, but how it was accomplished and why it continues. The Bible is either an instrument to reconcile people to God, and to one another, or an instrument of evil used to divide races, communities and people.

I write from the perspective of one who has been a part of the SBC from my earliest youth and as one who was raised at a time when African Americans were still considered, by some, to be inferior. A friend of mine, when I was a child, went on vacation to the deep South and when he returned he told of when he walked down the sidewalk of a Southern town and adult black men had to step off the walkway to let him, a white child, pass. His story confused me as a child because I knew adults, of any color, held unquestioned authority over children. Adults were strong, wise, provided for and protected children. What kind of world had my childhood friend visited where the natural order was so disturbed? Perhaps my friend had fabricated the story where the world was up side down. Deep down I knew he had not.

I attended a Southern Baptist Church in the small town of Citrus Heights California in the early sixties. Our pastor was from the South, as many Southern Baptist pastors were at that time, and everything seemed in order without too much trouble of any kind. The fact there were no African Americans at our church did not surprise due to the reason there were no African Americans in the whole town.

For no apparent reason my oldest brother, Ken, abruptly quit the church. This alarmed us because he was always the most spiritual of the family. Out of curiosity I asked him why he decided to no longer attend. He said he detected racism in the pastor's sermons (of which I had never noticed) so he (Kenny) met with the pastor and ask him directly, If a black family applied for membership in our church would you allow them to become members? Our pastor told my brother, No. He believed the church should be segregated and negroes do not belong in a white church. I was stupefied at what I had heard. Our pastor seemed to be affirming that same superiority/inferiority concept that troubled me so much when the adult man had to step off the sidewalk for an approaching white child.

As a child I believed Baptists were the followers of a religion founded by John the Baptist and I was very proud of that fact. In our teens we were taught that we were the only denomination that had no founder other than Jesus. Yet, on my desk I have the founding documents of the Southern Baptist Convention dated and signed by its founders; all were slave owners or supporters of the institution of slavery. As I read the names of those founders there is not a single one named Jesus of Nazareth, or His cousin John called the Baptist.

In the course of this book, three words will arise often: inerrancy, infallibility and absolutism. To the Southern Baptist these three terms are used interchangeably and one is dependent on the other. If one of these terms is proven to be questionable, in terms of biblical interpretation, the other two cannot be supported. All three of these ideas are essential to the SBC hermeneutic (method of interpretation). The Bible is from God and therefore it contains no error, it is infallible and thus it is the absolute authority in all things. It is from this perspective I address the problem of a biblical hermeneutic that has led to grave error in the past and continues to lead into grave error in the present. There is nothing wrong with the Bible; the problem is with its interpreters.

Yes, the Southern Baptists have a beginning and that beginning was rooted firmly in the greatest evil this country had ever been involved, the institution of human bondage. This book will uncover that which has been hidden for over 150 years. It is the truth that sets us free; we should not fear truth even when it brings to light those things that hurt.

PART I

The Unclaimed History of the Southern Baptist Convention

Chapter 1

Fabricating History

Nobody had ever instructed him that a slave-ship, with a procession of expectant sharks in its wake, is a missionary institution, by which closely packed heathen are brought over to enjoy the light of the Gospel.

—Harriet Beecher Stowe, The Minister's Wooing

For some reason, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) has been able to successfully conceal its origins from its followers for over 150 years. It has been successful because much historical information regarding the founding of the SBC was difficult to access and was only available at seminary libraries. There seemed to be very little interest in how and when the SBC came to be a denomination. Denominational history is rarely discussed among Southern Baptist church members, or at the local and state denominational gatherings for a very good reason. One would think an institution would have an interest in how they came to exist. Many corporations are proud of their beginnings and keep meticulous records of how they came into being, unless, there is something in that history that is best left uncovered. A common phrase heard among Southern Baptists is that the SBC is the only denomination in existence that had no founder other than Jesus Himself. As a young child I was very proud of that fact and lorded it over my friends who went to other churches in our small town. Of course, historically this is a poor attempt to hide the true beginnings of the SBC.

Where did such a notion come from, that the SBC had no earthly founder? The answer to this question is found in the book, "The Trail of Blood," written in 1931 by Dr. James Milton Carroll (1852-1931). Dr. Carroll, the founding president of Oklahoma Baptist University, was a leader in both the Texas State Convention and the SBC. Dr. Carroll was a giant among Southern Baptists and was looked upon as an unquestionable authority on all matters of Baptist life.

The full title of this small book is, The Trail of Blood: Following the Christians Down Through the Centuries or The History of Baptist Churches From the Time of Christ, Their Founder, to the Present Day, and was the compilation of a series of five sermons delivered by Dr. Carroll. Carroll wrote this book at a time when Southern Baptists were desperate to dissociate themselves from their defense of, and their participation in, the institution of slavery. Dr. Carroll himself came from a family that owned slaves, as was the case of many Southern Baptists, and it was vital to begin to create distance between this unimaginable evil and a denomination that sought to find a sense of legitimacy. The problem was that on the question of slavery the Southern Baptists chose the wrong side. To make matter worse, the Southern Baptists not only were involved in the slave trade itself, but were very vocal in providing sound biblical arguments in its defense. This has been forgotten, swept under the rug of history and instead of claiming this history a new one was invented, as expressed in this book, The Trail of Blood.

The fact that Carroll came from a slave holding family never hindered lionizing him or others like him in the pages of SBC history. However, it did necessitate a revisionist history for the sake of the growing denomination. This book (Trail of Blood)was very successful at the time and still has many ardent followers today. It is much easier to teach in SBC churches that their denomination was founded by Jesus, or John the Baptist, than to teach that their denomination not only was established by slave owners but slave owners who fought desperately to ensure the institution of slavery in the South would continue as a God ordained and thus a divinely approved institution.

In essence, Carroll's book traces Baptist origins over 2,000 years beginning with Jesus. It might be pointed out that in the title of this book is the claim that Christ was their founder. It can be said that Christ indeed founded the the Church but not in the sense Dr. Carroll claims for the SBC. The SBC has a historical record, a specific date on the calendar that without doubt substantiates the claim it was founded in Augusta Georgia on May 8, 1845. The SBC was not founded in Palestine 2000 years ago. Nevertheless, the opinion of Dr. Carroll was widely accepted and is still considered to be the authorized history of the SBC by many Southern Baptists.

Why is this important? Is it acceptable to create one's history if they find the truth distasteful? The crime being attempted is one of refusing to accept responsibility for the role the Baptists in the South played in participating and protecting the institution of slavery. Not only has the SBC refused to acknowledge their role, there has never been an attempt by the SBC to offer restitution of any kind for their actions perpetrated upon the, not too distant, relatives of African Americans.

Dr. Carroll's history of the Southern Baptists starts by showing that Baptists are first nicknamed Christians (Acts 11:26), then are later known as Montanists, Novationists, Donatists, Paulicans, Albigenses, Waldenses, Tertullianists, Paterines, Cathari, Petro-Brussians, Arnoldists, Henricians, and Ana Baptists. The reason why the Baptists come in so many different incarnations is in order they might survive the constant persecutions of the Roman Catholic Church (Carroll 2010, chapter five fig). Throughout the book, Baptists are portrayed as the heroic and persecuted true church of God. This revisionist history is just the reverse of the founding of the SBC. The Baptists in the South was neither heroic nor persecuted. They were the persecutors not the persecuted and history demonstrates they were more shameful than heroic. With such beginnings it is no wonder why the origins of the SBC is never discussed among Southern Baptists and when it is . . . it is in light of the Trail of Blood.

As a young pastor this book was handed to me by a senior pastor with