"Oliver Hart was arguably the most important evangelical leader of the pre-revolutionary South. For thirty years the pastor of the Charleston Baptist Church, Hart's energetic ministry breathed new life into that congregation and the struggling Baptist cause in the region. As the founder of the Charleston Baptist Association, Hart did more than any single figure to lay the foundations for the institutional life of the Baptist South, while also working extensively with evangelicals of all denominations to spread the revivalism of the Great Awakening across the lower South. One reason for Hart's extensive influence is the uneasy compromise he made with white Southern culture, most apparent in his willingness to sanctify the institution of slavery rather than to challenge as his more radical evangelical predecessors had done. While this capitulation gained Hart and his fellow Baptists access to Southern culture, it would also sow the seeds of disunion in the larger American denomination Hart worked so hard to construct. Oliver Hart and the Rise of Baptist America, Eric C. Smith has written the first modern biography of Oliver Hart, while at the same time interweaving the story of the remarkable transformation of America's Baptists across the long eighteenth century. It provides perhaps the most complete narrative of the early development of one of America's largest, most influential, and most understudied religious groups"--

Baptists in America began the eighteenth century a small, scattered, often harassed sect in a vast sea of religious options. By the early nineteenth century, they were a unified, powerful, and rapidly-growing denomination, poised to send missionaries to the other side of the world. One of the most influential yet neglected leaders in that transformation was Oliver Hart, longtime pastor of the Charleston Baptist Church. Oliver Hart and the Rise of Baptist America is the first modern biography of Hart, arguably the most important evangelical leader in the pre-Revolutionary South. During his thirty years in Charleston, Hart emerged as the region's most important Baptist denominational architect. His outspoken patriotism forced him to flee Charleston when the British army invaded Charleston in 1780, but he left behind a southern Baptist people forever changed by his energetic ministry. Hart's accommodating stance toward slavery enabled him and the white Baptists who followed him to reach the center of southern society, but also eventually doomed the national Baptist denomination of Hart's dreams. More than a biography, Oliver Hart and the Rise of Baptist America seamlessly intertwines Hart's story with that of eighteenth-century American Baptists, providing one of the most thorough accounts to date of this important and understudied religious group's development. This book makes a significant contribution to the study of Baptist life and evangelicalism in the pre-Revolutionary South and beyond.

Baptists in America began the eighteenth century a small, scattered, often harassed sect in a vast sea of religious options. By the early nineteenth century, they were a unified, powerful, and rapidly-growing denomination, poised to send missionaries to the other side of the world. One of the most influential yet neglected leaders in that transformation was Oliver Hart, longtime pastor of the Charleston Baptist Church. Oliver Hart and the Rise of Baptist America is the first modern biography of Hart, arguably the most important evangelical leader in the pre-Revolutionary South. During his thirty years in Charleston, Hart emerged as the region's most important Baptist denominational architect. His outspoken patriotism forced him to flee Charleston when the British army invaded Charleston in 1780, but he left behind a southern Baptist people forever changed by his energetic ministry. Hart's accommodating stance toward slavery enabled him and the white Baptists who followed him to reach the center of southern society, but also eventually doomed the national Baptist denomination of Hart's dreams. More than a biography, Oliver Hart and the Rise of Baptist America seamlessly intertwines Hart's story with that of eighteenth-century American Baptists, providing one of the most thorough accounts to date of this important and understudied religious group's development. This book makes a significant contribution to the study of Baptist life and evangelicalism in the pre-Revolutionary South and beyond.

The first book-length study of the vital role Regular Baptists played in creating the modern Southern Baptist denomination The origins of the Southern Baptist Convention, the world's largest Protestant denomination, is most often traced back to the colorful, revivalist Separate Baptist movement that rose out of the Great Awakening in the mid-1700s. During that same period the American South was likewise home to the often-overlooked Regular Baptists, who also experienced a remarkable revitalization and growth. Regular Baptists combined a concern for orderly doctrine and church life with the ardor of George Whitefield's evangelical awakening. In Order and Ardor, Eric C. Smith examines the vital role of Regular Baptists through the life of Oliver Hart, pastor of First Baptist Church in Charleston, South Carolina, a prominent patriot during the American Revolution, and one of the most important pioneers of American Baptists and American evangelicalism. In this first book-length study of Hart's life and ministry, Smith reframes Regular Baptists as belonging to an influential revival movement that contributed significantly to creating the modern Southern Baptist denomination, challenging the widely held perception that they resisted the Great Awakening. During Hart's thirty-year service as the pastor of First Baptist Church, the Regular Baptists incorporated evangelical and revivalist values into their existing doctrine. Hart encouraged cooperative missions and education across the South, founding the Charleston Baptist Association in 1751 and collaborating with leaders of other denominations to spread evangelical revivalism. Order and Ardor analyzes the most intense, personal experience of revival in Hart's ministry—an awakening among the youths of his own congregation in 1754 through the emergence of a vibrant thirst for religious guidance and a concern for their own souls. This experience was a testimony to Hart's revival piety—the push for evangelical Calvinism. It reinforced his evangelical activism, hallmarks of the Great Awakening that appear prominently in Hart's diaries, letters, sermon manuscripts, and other remaining documents. Extensively researched and written with clarity, Order and Ardor offers an enlightened view of eighteenth-century Regular Baptists. Smith contextualizes Hart's life and development as a man of faith, revealing the patterns and priorities of his personal spirituality and pastoral ministry that identify him as a critically important evangelical revivalist leader in the colonial lower South.

"In this first book-length study of Hart's life and ministry, Smith reframes Regular Baptists as belonging to an influential revival movement that contributed significantly to creating the modern Southern Baptist denomination, challenging the widely held perception that they resisted the Great Awakening"--Back cover.

"This is a comprehensive examination of the Baptist movement in South Carolina from its founding to the eve of the Civil War. The author argues that from the beginning, the Baptist impulse and organization were driven by elites, who closely valued hierarchy and from the earliest times mounted a Christian defense of slavery. While the ideology of Baptists tended to emanate from the lowcountry, and there was some resistance to its details in the upcountry, Baptists ministers throughout the state fashioned a Christianized version of slavery that legitimized the institution"--

John Leland (1754-1841) was one of the most influential and entertaining religious figures in early America. As an itinerant revivalist, he demonstrated an uncanny ability to connect with a popular audience, and contributed to the rise of a democratized Christianity in America. A tireless activist for the rights of conscience, Leland also waged a decades-long war for disestablishment, first in Virginia and then in New England. Leland advocated for full religious freedom for all-not merely Baptists and Protestants-and reportedly negotiated a deal with James Madison to include a Bill of Rights in the Constitution. Leland developed a reputation for being mad for politics in early America, delivering political orations, publishing tracts, and mobilizing New England's Baptists on behalf of the Jeffersonian Republicans. He crowned his political activity by famously delivering a 1,200-pound cheese to Thomas Jefferson's White House. Leland also stood among eighteenth-century Virginia's most powerful anti-slavery advocates, and convinced one wealthy planter to emancipate over 400 of his slaves. Though among the most popular Baptists in America, Leland's fierce individualism and personal eccentricity often placed him at odds with other Baptist leaders. He refused ordination, abstained from the Lord's Supper, and violently opposed the rise of Baptist denominationalism. In the first-ever biography of Leland, Eric C. Smith recounts the story of this pivotal figure from American Religious History, whose long and eventful life provides a unique window into the remarkable transformations that swept American society from 1760 to 1840.