From Whence They Came ─ Origins of the Missionary Baptists in Southwest Georgia, 1865-1900

The spiritual realm has been the resort of countless Blacks during their sojourn in America. Black Missionary Baptists' history blossomed in Reconstruction and matured in Jim Crow Southern society. However, research on Black Baptists at the regional and local levels has been largely neglected. In obscurity are pioneers who blazed a trail of faith in God and set in motion what Carter G. Woodson and others have called the Negro Church. What began many years ago as their religious experience lives on today, but the stories of their time have not been told. Because religion has been a significant influence on Black people it is important to reconstruct and preserve local and regional religious history. Knowledge of the past is vital to understanding the present. William Montgomery, Under Their Own Vine And Fig Tree: The African American Church in the South, 1865-1900, asserted that this time frame deserved more scholarly attention. Southwest Georgia is fertile ground for Black religious history. Not since W. E. B. Du Bois' The Black Church, has there been a focus on Blacks and religion in the region. This book resurrects from invisibility's custody Blacks embrace of Christianity in local and regional settings. Its contents explore denomination identity formation and religion as a means of uplift and advancement in the microcosm of Southwest Georgia. Through it all, Black Baptist ministers were pivotal actors in the religious drama. Although myths and stereotypes about Black ministers of the past abound, they, nevertheless, led the way down freedom road. This book tells of Black preachers of the past, their efforts to uplift and advance the race, and reveals the depth of their creativity, that was repeatedly demonstrated in the founding of local churches and associations that are vibrant today.