Book Review

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Book Review | The Journal of American History, 86.2 | The History Cooperative

Alabama Baptists: Southern Baptists in the Heart of Dixie. By Wayne Flynt. (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1998. xxiv, 731 pp. $29.95, isbn 0-8173-0927-6.)

Wayne Flynt has written the definitive history of Southern Baptists in Alabama. A distinguished historian of southern religion, Flynt is also a native Alabamian and a Southern Baptist who trained for the ministry before becoming a professional historian. Flynt is well aware of both the benefits and dangers posed by his status as a religious insider, and he has avoided the pitfalls and profited from the advantages of his heritage and faith. 1

He examines Alabama Baptists from three perspectives: individual, congregational, and denominational experience. He also explores the relationship of believers to the larger society and pays particular attention to economics, politics, and race relations. Drawn primarily from white plain folk and African American slaves, the Baptists increased rapidly on the Alabama frontier in the wake of the Great Revival. As they grew in wealth and status, white Baptists promoted missionary efforts to slaves, but "often as a form of social control." Enslaved Baptists sought greater autonomy and sometimes worshiped in independent congregations. When the issue of slavery divided northern and southern Baptists, Alabamians led in the creation of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1845. . . .

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