The Inclusive and Exclusive Democratic Voice of the Southern Baptist Pulpit and Pew

The poster will highlight the ascension of Southern Baptists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Southern Baptists do not typically conjure up ideas of religious material culture. Examining the Baptist pew as a space of prominent political influence opens a dialogue of the historical value of Baptist material culture. The exclusive images and material culture analysis of Baptist pews will reveal insight into the power and presence of Baptists as both accommodationists and active agents in the antebellum Southern culture. The poster will provide a focal point for discussion and prompt investigation into the vast archival repositories of Baptist material culture. The foundation of Baptists as active participants in the conservative evangelical movement can be established by an analysis of the material objects during the era.

Postbellum Southern Baptists attempted to preserve their core beliefs including the Bible as the source of authority, the separation of church and state, and religious autonomy for individuals and congregations. Intense spiritual individualism combined with the simplicity of the pulpit and pew material culture drew considerable numbers of converts from both ethnic cultures in the postbellum South into the twentieth century. The numeric increase spawned institutional and bureaucratic structures capable of political and social influence beyond the church walls. Previous Baptist historiography approached Baptists organizationally from a hierarchical approach of the upper echelon leadership and key denominational decisions. However, the inverted authority structure placed viable power in the Baptist pew. The decisions of the pew hold the key to understanding Southern Baptists.

A material culture analysis that includes Baptist ideology, historical context, social distinctions, and material culture analysis establishes reveals how the Baptist pew wielded the power to include and exclude with significant social consequences. The collective force of the pew endorsed the rising bureaucracies and violated the Baptist principle of individual autonomy before the divine. The social influence of the Baptist pew manifests in distinctly different ways for both white and African American Baptists. Within white culture the Baptist pew adopted an accommodationist perspective, whereas the pew in Black culture aligned with African religious precedents demonstrating agency and inclusion in the struggle for equity. A wealth of university and denominational archives, digital repositories, local libraries, and church records invite analysis of Baptists from the pew.

Scholars, archivists, and Southern historians, and others interested in material culture, religious history, Southern studies, and comparative racial experiences will appreciate the dialogue around the poster presentation.