Copyright by Robert C. Rogers and the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board.

   Although Mississippi had grown to a population of nearly 800,000 by the Civil War, the vast majority lived in rural areas. Like the citizens, Mississippi Baptist churches were more often in rural settlements than towns, and few were on the Gulf Coast. Pearl River Baptist Association only had one church in a coastal county, Red Creek Baptist Church (Harrison), and Red Creek was a rural area inland from the coast. By 1860, though, several towns in Mississippi had over 1,000 residents: Natchez was the largest, with 6,619 residents, followed by Vicksburg with 4,591, Columbus with 3,308, Jackson with 3,199, Holly Springs with 2,987, and Port Gibson with 1,453. Clinton, home of Mississippi College, had 289 citizens.¹

     Although the Columbus Baptist Church, Columbus (Lowndes) was thriving, the Mississippi Baptist Convention recognized the need to plant churches in many of the other emerging cities and towns. In 1848, the convention gave $100 each to pastors in Yazoo City, Jackson, Vicksburg and Grenada. That year, S.I. Caldwell, pastor of First Baptist Church, Jackson (Hinds), reported the house of worship had been completed and that the membership had increased by 15 White members and 11 Black members.  In 1853, I.T. Hinton, in the report of the Southern Baptist Domestic Mission Board, pointed out the need for placing missionaries in the state capital and the chief commercial towns, including Jackson, Vicksburg, Natchez, Biloxi and the Gulf Coast, all of which received aid. The Domestic Mission Board reported that the minister of the “church in Jackson, the capital received a commission from this Board. A large revival of religion has added very greatly to the strength of the church, however, rendering our aid unnecessary.”²

    Natchez Baptist Church, Natchez (Adams) was restarted by Ashley Vaughn in 1837 and began to prosper under the pastorate of W.H. Anderson in the 1840s, but they were never able to build a meeting place of their own. They met at a Presbyterian church, at the courthouse, and at the Natchez Institute. In 1848, they called Rev. T.G. Freeman as pastor, but the church underwent a bitter split in 1849, and Freeman led in the formation of a new Baptist congregation, Wall Street Baptist, Natchez (Adams) in April 1850. The new congregation moved rapidly to build a sanctuary, breaking ground a month later at the corner of Wall Street and State Street, across from the Adams County Courthouse. They reported to the 1852 meeting of the Central Baptist Association that they had “erected a house of worship at a cost of $7,000 and paid for—the first ever owned by the Baptists in this city.” That year, Wall Street had 41 White members and three Black members, while Natchez Baptist Church had 34 White members and 412 Black members. Three years later, Wall Street had grown to 131 White and 105 Black members and held services four Sundays a month. Wall Street continued to grow, and proudly hosted the 1860 Mississippi Baptist Convention, whereas Natchez Baptist Church dissolved in 1857; its Black members were absorbed into Rose Hill Baptist Church, Natchez (Adams) an independent Black congregation that met on Madison Street. In 1918, Wall Street Baptist Church adopted the name First Baptist Church, Natchez, which remains to this day.³

     By 1859, several town churches reported strong membership numbers to the state convention, including First Baptist Church, Jackson (Hinds) with 309 members, Canton Baptist Church, Canton (Madison) with 197 members, and Vicksburg Baptist Church, Vicksburg (Warren) with 160 members. An indirect result of the Baptists taking control of Mississippi College in 1850 was that a Baptist church was developed in Clinton. In the nine years afterward, Clinton Baptist Church, Clinton (Hinds) became the second largest of the five churches in the town. In May 1860, W. Jordan Denson described the church this way: “At present the Baptist Church of Clinton is enjoying one of those powerful revivals of religion, that she has so frequently been blessed with since the location of the college in that village. Last Sunday twenty-two were baptized, a large part students. Others will be baptized in two weeks—many others, we have reason to hope.”⁴

    Although outside of the state, Mississippi Baptists took a special interest in reaching the city of New Orleans. The earliest Baptist churches in Louisiana were started by ministers from Mississippi, and those churches were affiliated with associations in Mississippi. New Orleans was an international port and was important to the entire Mississippi River Valley. In 1843, First Baptist Church, New Orleans was organized there with 10 members. It had great difficulty maintaining itself until Isaac T. Hinton became pastor. Under his leadership, the church made remarkable progress, increasing its membership from 27 to 122 members. A yellow fever epidemic in 1847 took the life of the pastor and many members, after which the church declined rapidly, and in 1851 the congregation lost its building to its creditors. The Mississippi Baptist Convention was distressed at this news and adopted resolutions urging the Southern Baptist Convention to help raise funds for a new church building in New Orleans. Several members of the convention made donations or pledges for this project. Finally, in 1861, First Baptist Church, New Orleans had another sanctuary.⁵

Dr. Rogers is the author of Mississippi Baptists: A History of Southern Baptists in the Magnolia State, to be published in 2025.

SOURCES:

¹ Minutes, Pearl River Baptist Association, 1860; U.S. Census, “Population of the United States in 1860: Mississippi,” accessed on the Internet 30 April 2022 at https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1860/population/1860a-22.pdf.

² Minutes, Mississippi Baptist Convention, 1848, 13.

³ Robert C. Rogers, “From Alienation to Integration: A Social History of Baptists in Antebellum Natchez, Mississippi” (Th.D. diss.,, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, 1990), 53-59.

⁴ Minutes, Mississippi Baptist Convention, 1859, 14-15; 1860, 37.

⁵ Glen Lee Greene, House Upon a Rock: About Southern Baptists in Louisiana (Alexandria, LA: Executive Board of the Louisiana Baptist Convention, 1973), 41-51, 81-84; Minutes, Mississippi Baptist Convention, 1852, 31; Baptist Record, June 5, 1969.