The Beginning of the Baptist church
Johnathan L. Sykes
William Penn University
June, 29, 15

Abstract

This paper is about the start of the Baptist church and how it all began. I will talk about the decline of the Baptist church as well as the growth of it over time periods. I will mention people who played part in the Baptist church movement across the south. U will learn from my paper who played a part in this movement and who started it all.

Baptist in America originally came from England during the sixteenth century where they were getting persecuted by the king for having their own religious belief. Baptist like Roger Williams, and John Clarke; who were both ministers, migrated to New England in the 1630s. Many others entered the middle colonies in the 1680s, and most purchased land in the southern colonies.
The first Baptist church was organized in Kittery, Maine in 1682 under the leadership of William Screven. He was ordained by the first Baptist church of Boston to start of the church in Kittery, Maine, but in 1696 the new church moved to Charleston, South Carolina, partly because of problems with the New England authorities. By 1715, a Baptist church was formed in the Virginia colony under the preaching of Robert Norden and in 1727, Minister Paul Palmer opened up a Baptist church in North Carolina, but there were only eight Baptist churches set up in three colonies with possibly only 300 to 400 people attending them.
In 1740, a great revival affecting all denominations swept through American colonies. Shortly after, baptism in the south began a period of rapid growth all over. The key Baptist leaders in this revival were shubal steams and Daniel Marshall who were both preachers from Connecticut. In 1755, the Baptist preachers and a few of their followers moved to sandy creek, North Carolina, and began a church. A few years later, they preached zealously in all the southern colonies, took over the western frontier and provide patterns of church life southern Baptist still follow today.
The rapid spread of Baptism was strongly opposed by churches funded by public taxes. In Virginia, many of the Baptist preachers where being whipped and imprisoned in the decade before the American Revolution. Baptist became active patriots during the revolutionary war with their demands of religious liberty, as well as political liberty. They supported patriots like Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Patrick Henry, and George Washington, and received their praise. Like their fellow Baptist in the north, Baptist in the south played an important role in securing the adoption of religious liberty, and laying the foundation for the national Bill of Rights which guaranteed religious liberty for all in the new constitution of the United States. After the revolutionary war, Baptist continued to spread in the southern states until the end of the 1700s. At the turn of the century, a second great revival broke out. Baptist churches all across the south gained new members due to this revival.
Over time, Baptist had begun sending messages back and forth to other churches which sparked the idea of having Baptist conventions. The church ministers and preachers would come together and discuss issues going on across their churches. Because of the civil war, many programs of the conventions where destroyed and didn’t go under reconstruction until 1877. Because of the civil war, the fellowship and cooperation of the northern and southern Baptist was lost. After the war had ended, the question of reunion was raised by the northern Baptist, but the southern Baptist declined to return to the society type denominational bodies they left in 1845.
Despite this, the home mission society of the north continued their mission of education, church, and the assistance among both blacks and whites in the south during this time period, but the work the north Baptist where doing in the south unset the Southern Baptist convention. It wasn’t until 1880s that