Redeeming the South: Religious Cultures and Racial Identities Among Southern Baptists, 1865-1925 (Fred W Morrison Series in Southern Studies)

720 Pages·1997·1.81 MB·English

by  Paul Harvey

REDEEMING THE SOUTH
The Fred W. Morrison
Series in Southern Studies
Redeeming the South : Religious Cultures
and Racial Identities Among Southern
title:
Baptists, 1865-1925 Fred W. Morrison
Series in Southern Studies
author: Harvey, Paul.
publisher: University of North Carolina Press
isbn10 | asin: 0807823244
print isbn13: 9780807823248
ebook isbn13: 9780807861950
language: English
Baptists--Southern States--History--19th
century, Baptists--Southern States--History-
-20th century, African American Baptists--
subject Southern States--History--19th century,
African American Baptists--Southern
States--History--20th century, Southern
States--Race
publication date: 1997
lcc: BX6241.H37 1997eb
ddc: 286/.175/089
Baptists--Southern States--History--19th
century, Baptists--Southern States--History-
-20th century, African American Baptists--
subject: Southern States--History--19th century,
African American Baptists--Southern
States--History--20th century, Southern
States--Race
PAUL HARVEY
Redeeming the South
Religious Cultures
and Racial Identities
among Southern
Baptists, 1865-1925
The University ofNorth Carolina Press
Chapel Hill and London
Page iv
© 1997 The University of North Carolina Press
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
The paper in this book meets the guide-lines for permanence and
durability of the Committee on Production Guide-lines for Book
Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Harvey; Paul, 1961
Redeeming the South: Religious Cultures and Racial Identities among
Southern Baptists, 1865-1925 / by Paul Harvey.
p. cm. (The Fred W. Morrison series in Southern studies) ISBN 0-
8078-2324-4 (cloth: alk. paper).
ISBN 0-8078-4634-1 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. BaptistsSouthern
StatesHistory 9th century. 2. BaptistsSouthern StatesHistory20th
century. 3. Afro-American BaptistsSouthern States History19th
century. 4. Afro-American BaptistsSouthern StatesHistory 20th
century. 5. Southern StatesRace relations. 6. Southern StatesChurch
history19th century. 7. Southern StatesChurch history20th century. 8.
Southern Baptist ConventionHistory. 9. National Baptist Convention
of the United States of AmericaHistory. 1. Title. II. Series.
BX6241.H37 1997 96-32882
286'. 175'089dc20 CIP
01 00 99 98 97 5 4 3 2 1
Page v
For my parents,
William Gipson and
Willie Maude Harvey,
two Southern Baptists
who have lived out the
best of their tradition
Page vii
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Southern Baptists and Southern Religious History
PART ONE Religion, Race, and Reconstruction
1Redeemed by the Blood: White Baptist Organizing in the South,
1865-1895
2A Wall of the Lord 'Round Me: Black Baptist Organizing in the
South, 1865-1895
PART TWO Religious Cultures and the Social Order in the New
South
3These Untutored Masses: Spirituality and Respectability among
White Southern Baptists
4God Stepped in My Soul: Spirituality and Respectability among 107
Black Southern Baptists
5The Character of Ministerial Manliness: White Southern Baptist 137
Ministers, 1870-1925
6Intriguers and Idealists: Black Southern Baptist Ministers, 1870- 167
1925
PART THREE Southern Baptist Progressivism
7Scientific Management in Our Church-Craft: White Southern 197
Baptist Progressivism, 1895-1925

Page viii
8The Holy Spirit Come to Us and Forbid the Negro Taking a Second 227
Place: Black Southern Baptists in theAge of Jim Crow
Conclusion: Religion, Race, and Culture in the South 257
Notes 261
Index 317
Page ix
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am deeply indebted to the libraries and archivists who made my
research both possible and fruitful, including the following: the North
Carolina Baptist Historical Commission in the Smith-Reynolds
Library, Wake Forest University; the Records Room of the Foreign
Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention; the Howard
University Library; the American Baptist Historical Society Library,
Rochester, New York; and the Boyce Library at the Southern Baptist
Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky. Interlibrary loan
personnel at the University of California at Berkeley, Valparaiso
University, Belmont University, and The Colorado College expedited
an inordinate number of requests with efficiency. My deepest debt is
to the Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives in Nashville,
Tennessee. The librarians and archivists there provided me with a
research home, ferreted out obscure documents from the depths of
their vaults, searched out places for me to live, directed me to the
closest lunch bargains, and endured my overdue book lapses. For all
this and more, thanks go to Bill Sumners, Pat Brown, Mary Jo
Driscoll, Lynn May, and Charles DeWeese.
My research was also made possible by grants and fellowships that
allowed me extended time for travel to numerous archives and
libraries. At the University of California at Berkeley the Max Farand
Fund afforded me two travel grants, and the Humanities Research
Grant funded a separate research outing, which provided invaluable
information for this work. After completing the dissertation on which
this book is based, the Louisville Institute provided summer research
monies that kick-started the process of revising it into a book. I thank
James Lewis, Dorothy Bass, and the members of the Louisville
Institute Grant committee for their encouragement. A National
Endowment for the Humanities Seminar directed by Charles Reagan
Wilson at the University of Mississippi allowed me to test out many
ideas. From 1993-95 the Lilly Fellows Program in Humanities and the
Arts at Valparaiso University generously provided me with a two-year
teaching postdoctoral fellowship. Final revisions on the manuscript
were funded by a grant from the Pew Program in Religion and
American History at Yale University, whose directors, Harry "Skip"
Stout and Jon Butler have provided a tremendous resource for
younger scholars in the field of American religious history. At the
University of North Carolina Press, David Perry has been a constant
source of encouragement, and Mary Caviness was a model copyeditor.