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Review
| Baptist Faith in Action: The Private Writings of Maria Baker Taylor, 1813–1895, by Kathryn Carlisle Schwartz. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2003.399 pages. $39.95, cloth.
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| The life and times of Maria Baker Taylor, a nineteenth-century southern evangelical wife, mother, thinker, and plantation mistress, have come to light thanks to the fruitful efforts of Kathryn Carlisle Schwartz, Taylor's great-granddaughter. Using letters, diaries, poems, and miscellaneous writings, Schwartz divides the material into sections that deal with Taylor's childhood, her early adult life in South Carolina, her middle years in Marion County, Florida, and her closing years in Gainesville, Florida. Schwartz addresses nearly every aspect of Taylor's life and masterfully demonstrates the importance Taylor placed on educating children, engaging in domestic activity, negotiating financial, family, and personal crises, and dealing with geographical, spiritual, and psychological change. And while Schwartz offers glowing praise of her great-grandmother, she does not forego criticism, noting that despite her knowledge of important reform movements, Taylor did not challenge the "social arrangements of gender and race" (336) of her time and place. |
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According to Schwartz, two aspects of Taylor's life are noteworthy because they demonstrate "a stable and powerful personality" (335) and reveal a southern woman whose "unquestioning faith was housed in a mind that was both inquiring and capacious" (336). While Taylor typified Southern white, female planter mistress life, she possessed a notable appetite for learning and intellectual cultivation. From Taylor's diary, Schwartz notes that she read English and American literature (e.g., Cyclopedia of English Literature, Coleridge, Longfellow), theological writings by people like Martin Luther, English Baptist Charles Haddon Spurgeon, and Congregational minister Henry Ward Beecher, denominational periodicals (including Roman Catholic literature and works about Islam), national magazines like Harper's Monthly Magazine, among other literature. Perhaps not surprisingly, Taylor read the Bible on a daily basis and commented extensively on Genesis, the Psalms, Isaiah, and Daniel. Schwartz vividly describes how Taylor marshaled this massive amount of information into various realms, including public discussions with ministers and politicians and the education of children and young people. |
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Taylor's comments on slavery are also worthy of note. She held representative southern views of slaves and slavery and in a brief but detailed 1854 essay, "Some crude thoughts on Slavery," offered an apologia for the institution based not only on the Bible, but also from African missionary accounts and contemporary literature. "I go out upon the broad ground that slavery was ordained by God," Taylor argued, "regulated by Him through Moses, St. Paul & others, for the benefit of society & the well ordering thereof.... [Slavery] has been a great blessing to the African, who by coming from a land of barbarism, is being Christianized, & more or less, civilized. I have heard many of them bless God for having been brought to the South" (93). Taylor concluded with these poignant questions: "Moral evil? What is moral evil? Sin? Slavery is no "moral evil" (94). Taylor's comments typify the general southern white conception of slavery, demonstrate her broad intellectual interests and familiarity with vast amounts of literature, and above all, reveal the religious lens through which she interpreted life and society. |
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Schwartz perceptively captures the actions and ideas of a southern woman who conformed generally to the expectations of her social class and social station, yet expanded her mind in directions that illuminate the complexity of white southern female existence in the nineteenth-century American South. Schwartz's account of Taylor walks a middle way between women's history and religious history. Baptist Faith in Action fits women's history not only because a southern religious female is the subject, but also because Schwartz grants Taylor agency for her time and place and effectively shows how Taylor adapted to (and created) life in her milieu. Baptist Faith in Action is also religious history because Baptist convictions shaped Taylor's thoughts and actions and were part of larger (southern) Baptist culture. Baptist Faith in Action is appropriate for the advanced high school classroom, an undergraduate audience, and graduate students. Schwartz's chapter divisions (e.g., faith, family, politics, social issues) make it accessible for discussions about nineteenth-century religion, political life, and social structure. Also, Schwartz's narrative, interwoven with Taylor's words, effectively provides a context for Taylor's comments and observations. Schwartz brings her great-grandmother back to life and gives voice to a woman who had much to say and has much to teach. |
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| Second Baptist School, Houston, Texas |
Phillip Luke Simitiere |
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