“Meddling with Emancipation”: Baptists, Authority, and the Rift over Slavery in the Upper South

Abstract

In 1808, a crisis occurred in the Mount Tabor Baptist Church of Kentucky. In the ten years since its 1798 constitution, the members had communed closely, addressing each other as brother and sister, ritually washing each other’s feet in keeping with early Christian practice, watching over each other’s conduct, remonstrating one another when necessary, and celebrating the Eucharist. Their fellowship was shattered in April 1808 when John Murphy, clerk of the church, rose from his seat and “declared non-fellowship with the church on account of slavery.” Following Murphy’s lead, Elijah Davidson then rose and withdrew from the church because it tolerated slaveholding among its members. In the following five months, two men and four women left the church for the same reasons.¹ Far from a singular event, this rupture was repeated in churches across the state and was the culmination to a decades-long debate within Baptist churches in the Upper South over the issue of slaveholding. Before the crisis was settled, Baptists would be forced to rethink their doctrines, worldview, and relationship to the new republic.