Journal: Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal
Volume: DBSJ 25:1 (NA 2020)
Article: Baptists, Jeremiah Bell Jeter, And “The Blighting, Withering Curse”
Author: Jeffrey P. Straub

DBSJ 25 (2020) p. 97

Baptists, Jeremiah Bell Jeter, And “The Blighting, Withering Curse”

Jeffrey P. Straub1

In December 2018, the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary of Louisville, Kentucky, released a study, Report on Slavery and Racism in the History of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. It was the latest attempt in recent Southern Baptist history to deal full-on with the record of an era in American Baptist life that many would like to forget. Chattel slavery came to the United States in 1619, and through more than two and a half centuries Americans owned, used, and oft-times abused slaves. The report reviewed the history of the seminary’s founders—James Petigru Boyce, John Albert Broadus, and others—plus key supporters like Joseph Emerson Brown, Confederate governor of Georgia, who had been slaveholders and, some, exploiters of slaves, despite being professing Christians. Under current president R. Albert Mohler, the holder of the Joseph Emerson Brown Chair of Christian Theology, the seminary has been assessing ways to deal with its sordid past.2 Recommendations might include renaming his endowed chair3 and the payment of reparations.4

DBSJ 25 (2020) p. 98

The story of Baptists and slavery is a familiar one for anyone acquainted with the history of thralldom.5 Many Southern Baptist ministers owned slaves.6 Some vigorously defended the practice for a variety of biblical, theological, and social reasons.7 Others owned slaves but expressed a certain reluctance toward the practice. Still other Southern Baptists intensely opposed slavery and either left the South or were driven from it because of their opposition, as was the case of James Madison Pendleton,8 or agitated against the practice within their sphere of influence, as in the case of David Barrow9 and William Hickman.10

DBSJ 25 (2020) p. 99

This essay will discuss the middle group—reluctant slave owners—individuals who owned slaves but expressed a resistance to the practice, yet seemed to be caught in an era where they thought they had few options but to retain slaves. An exemplar of this group is Virginia Baptist Jeremiah Bell Jeter (1802–1880).You must have a subscription and be logged in to read the entire article.
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