The Antipedo Baptists of Georgetown County, South Carolina, 1710–2010 by Roy Talbert Jr., Meggan A. Farish (review)

This book is the history of what is now the First Baptist Church of Georgetown, South Carolina. Building on the foundation of earlier South Carolina Baptist historians such as Leah Townsend, Joe Madison King, and Robert A. Baker, the authors have dug deeply into the personal papers of ministers, local newspapers, and surviving church records. Covering three centuries of local church history, the book also contributes to the historiography examining the relationship between religion and society in the American South.

The first half of the book chronicles William Screven’s journey to South Carolina, the development of Georgetown, the constitution of the Antipedo Baptist Church in 1794, and the ministry of its first long-term pastor, Edmund Botsford. In these early years, the Particular Baptists stood apart from other denominations with their doctrinal positions on adult baptism, closed communion, and election. They drew animosity from other religious groups, were skeptical of emotionally charged interdenominational revivals, and “disliked anything resembling Anglicanism,” such as organs and fancy buildings, while “[t]he services themselves were much different from Baptist services of today” (pp. 45, 46).

One major theme throughout the book is population demographics. During the antebellum years, slaves made up approximately 90 percent of Georgetown’s population, and within the church membership slaves outnumbered whites by as many as thirty-seven to one. Botsford was known for his outreach to slaves, as well as his writings in defense of slavery as a “positive good” (p. 56). Before the Civil War, church membership exceeded a thousand believers, but since most of the members were enslaved, and most wealthy local whites preferred Anglicanism, the church struggled financially. According to the authors, personnel, location, and demographics were all to blame. With few tithing members, it was difficult to hire pastors who were willing to remain in the swampy environment. After the Civil War, when black members left to form their own churches, membership declined to single-digit lows. The church ceased to assemble in its meetinghouse for years and entered a state of dormancy but not extinction.

The second half of the book describes the church’s growth since the 1880s. The authors link church growth and economic growth. Simply put, “Jobs brought people” (p. 93). Prominent members rose to the forefront of Georgetown’s social scene with their fund-raisers, teas, musical presentations, holiday parties, and youth activities. World War II industry brought another boost for the church. Impressive new buildings were erected in 1914, 1949, and 1997. The changes were qualitative as well as quantitative, and doctrinal distinctiveness gradually gave way to interdenominational inclusiveness.

Roy Talbert Jr. and Meggan A. Farish tell an important story that is both celebratory and reflective. Their short account of Baptist origins is admittedly inconclusive; “Particular Baptists” such as Screven would have denied the authors’ popular modern assumption that they had recently evolved as just “one among many branches of Protestantism,” insisting rather on a heritage that predated the Reformation in Wales, the Alps, and other places (pp. 5, 6). In addition, the focus on economic causation overlooks the role of religious belief itself in numerical growth. Did a decline in church discipline (as I have argued), compromise in doctrine, or a rise in social respectability also contribute to the church’s growth? Such analytical questions aside, this work is a valuable testament to a church with a rich history even in its poor beginnings.