[Looking at why our area has its unique political and religious attitudes.]

Where did the first churches in the south develop?

Let us time travel back to the period between 1720 and 1920. You are living in the area around Virginia or further out. Suppose you are an eleven-year-old youngster and hear your parents talking about moving.

What is happening? In 1720, the total number of people in the British Colonial America colony of Virginia was 87,000. There are none in Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, or further south and west. Virginia had about 2,000 Native Americans and North Carolina region around 5,000.

Where are your parents going? The merchant society was in the “cities” northward hugging the coast. The same is true today.

If you were south and west of Virginia, your survival depended on the land and nature. Since your dad had a family, he was likely a farmer or worked in the timber enterprise or other natural resources like mining. The legendary life of trappers was mostly single guys for obvious reasons.

Where is Dad taking you? As a farmer or timber harvester, he is looking for more land when the crops played-out. Tobacco and cotton caused land to deteriorate in 6-10 years. Because they did not use fertilizer and did not lay-fallow, the old, used land required time for restoration. Timber is also a crop, and requires about a generation to regrow after reforestation.

The reality of nature required continually moving to the new frontier on the edge of the wilderness. The lifestyle required independence, self-reliance, and freedom of thought and action.

Dad explains your family is going to have a great new experience and your uncle, aunt, and their children are moving also. Oh, that is great, cousins are special.

Why is your dad or mom’s brother going also? Another reality is physically, it takes at least two able-bodied men to move logs, build a house, and clear ground.

Why are you moving in the winter? Dad had to harvest the last crop and needs to relocate, so he can plant the next crop in the spring. Dad brings home a covered-wagon filled with flour, beans, syrup, and salt stashed in between the axes and farming tools. You walked and slept under the sky until you get there. My great-great grandfather’s record said they travelled for six-weeks through the swamps and forest.

What happens when you get to “the promised land?” The men and older kids got to work cutting trees to clear the land and building the first house, a double-pen, dog-trot. Your family lives in one side, your cousins in the other. Then everyone builds a second similar house a mile or so down the road, so the two families have their own space. You worked daylight to dark six-days a week. But after planting and before harvest, there was some time for observing the deer and turkey and harvesting fresh, organic, free-range meat.

Sunday was a day of much-needed rest, the Lord’s day. Mom would tell stories from the Bible. If Dad could read, he would. Otherwise, whoever could read had the privilege, then Mom and Dad would talk about the reading. The other family joined together for worship and have the traditional Sunday dinner.

When another neighbor moved within 5-miles, they received an invitation to get together for worship. Depending on distance, it may not be every week. There were no brands or denominations. Whatever the background, they would settle their differences and go about worship.

With just a few large families, a separate meeting place became necessary. Someone would donate an acre or two and the men constructed the building of local material. In Oklahoma, it was sandstone, in Louisiana it was cypress. Many of these 1800s buildings are still in use.

Although the older men consented, one of the younger men would realize he should preach. If there were other churches within a few days ride, their pastors received a request to come question the young man, to ordain him as a minister. He still had to work as a farmer.

These frontiers people built their church on three-principles. First each church was independent of others. They may associate, but each congregation did it their way. Second, each person was responsible for himself and his family. Third, the Bible was the only reference. As a practical matter, it may have been the only book in the neighborhood, early on. In fact, it was the book used to teach children to read.

The exigencies meant no hierarchal denomination was willing to come in. Priests from either the Catholic or Anglican seldom migrated to these far-out regions. Presbyterian did not work-out well, since they were under outside control and mandates. These groups built on formality and ritual; traits not common on the frontier.

What religious tradition did these churches become? Their three principles became the core Baptist tenets. The people did not build a congregation because they were Baptist. Baptist is a tradition which developed because of the people and their independent way of doing church.

Based on their history, one can reasonably argue that no two Baptist congregations are the same. There are more types of Baptist affiliations than ice-cream. The people of this way of thinking may not be hung-up on brands. They may have various labels such as Bible or Community Church or none at all. Their free-thinking independence makes difference of opinions inevitable. Consequently, groups split to make a new assembly.

Each group is really a maverick. Because of their strong opinions, a common mis-perception is there are too many rules. There are three. A particular assembly will likely have their own expectations, but the next one down the road does none of that.

Now we see why there is a small Baptist assembly every few miles in the rural areas of the southern states.

Think about the traditions passed down and its influence on the Bill of Rights.

Our happy protagonist is no longer 11-years old. Do you think she/he will be a free-thinking maverick, still realizing we are each personally responsible for our choices and the consequences?

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Excerpts from our book:

No Man’s Land Pioneers, Louisiana’s Wild, Wild West, ISBN: 9781694632128.