By Mackenzie Grizzard | Staff Writer
With the construction of a memorial for enslaved persons taking place on Baylor’s historical Founders Mall, many wonder about the South’s history of slavery. Baylor’s Meet the Author series held a conversation to unpack the story of early Baptists in the American South.
On Tuesday, the Office of the Provost and the Baylor Libraries presented Dr. Kimberly Kellison, associate professor of history and associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, for a conversation about Southern Baptists and their connection to slavery.
Dr. Kellison’s recently-published novel, “Forging a Christian Order: South Carolina Baptists, Race and Slavery, 1696-1860” discusses the intertwining of slavery and Baptist ideologies during the early years of the state’s founding.
“As a historian of the South, maybe a historian of the United States more broadly, the importance of race [and] the importance of religion are fundamental, particularly in the American South,” Kellison said.
Dr. Kellison’s central research involves South Carolina Baptists and their connection to the practice of slavery, which stuck out from other English colonies in America at the time. According to the South Carolina Encyclopedia, by 1715, African Americans made up 60% of the colony’s total population.
“It was the only colony on the British-American mainland to have an enslaved majority as early as 1708,” Kellison said. “So that creates certainly huge problems for the enslaved who are coming in large numbers [and] the brutality that they face.”
By the turn of the 18th century, slavery became “endemic to Carolina,” Kellison said.
“South Carolina is rapidly developing into an incredibly wealthy colony with the advent of rice production, which is enhanced because of the labor of enslaved men and women who bring knowledge about how to cultivate and produce rice grain,” Kellison said.
In the context of slavery, Kellison discussed the concept of “Christian paternalism,” which kept slavery at the forefront of the lives of South Carolina Baptists.
“It is legitimizing slavery by turning to the Bible,” said Kellison. “What’s wrong about slavery is the way it’s practiced. We were taking what we understand to be the biblical way to practice slavery [and] to be benevolent patriarchs.”
This connection between scripture and slavery helped Baptist leaders in South Carolina to take control of the pro-slavery rhetoric in high society at the time, according to Kellison.
“There’s this incredible persuasive power by some leaders who say we have got to take a stronger stance towards slavery in an elite society,” Kellison said. “They realize the importance of order and control early on.”
Kellison highlighted Richard Furman, who was a Baptist leader in South Carolina in the 18th century. His pro-slavery ideologies emerged from his own biblical interpretation, according to Kellison.
“He argues very much that his beliefs are coming from his interpretation of the Bible,” Kellison said. “If Furman [wasn’t] in the picture, I don’t think the pro-slavery narrative would have emerged in a public way [like] it did in South Carolina quite as early.”
This narrative drove the development of the Baptist denomination in the South, according to Kellison.
“A lot of this is an institutional focus on how the Baptist denomination would be shaped and how it would interplay with the social order and society,” Kellison said. “It certainly didn’t represent every Baptist in that denomination.”
Despite a high percentage of the Baptist South being pro-slavery, Kellison explained that this wasn’t always the case in South Carolina.
“There are all these channels that are channeling liberty, light and freedom,” Kellison said. “There are actually white Baptists who are questioning slavery as late as the 1790s and early 1800s.”
As a Christian institution with a primarily Baptist affiliation, Kellison highlighted Baylor’s role in slavery and its historical basis.
“Baylor has been doing a wonderful job with recognizing our institution’s past with this,” Kellison said. “We may not be able to fix everything, but how do we think about how we interface with the world and hopefully make the world a more equitable place.”
Baylor Vice President and Provost Dr. Nancy Brickhouse emphasized the importance of students staying engaged and aware of Baylor’s history, especially through events like Kelliston’s lecture.
“You’ll notice the construction in front of Pat Neff, where we will be telling our own story about the relationship between Baylor and the enslaved people who helped build Baylor,” Brickhouse said. “It’s an important part of understanding who we are.”
