I was surprised to learn that my 4-g great grandfather was both a Baptist preacher and a slaveholder. Wondering if that was unusual, I did some research and learned that, at a time when only 1 out of 11 white southern men owned slaves, fully 40 percent of Baptist ministers in
Bartemous Reynolds (whose name was spelled many different ways in official records) was born in Patrick County , Virginia , and lived in Pickens County , South Carolina , during his young adulthood, before moving (with his slaves) to the area that is now Hall County ,Georgia, in 1804.
At the time of Bartemous’ death at the age of 85, he had only 280 acres left… the remainder had been sold off and/or transferred to his eldest son Sharp. He had barely enough slaves left to run an old man’s household and the much-reduced farm. His remaining slaves were listed by the Hall County
1 NEGRO MAN, DICK, FORTY YEARS OLD $700.00
1 NEGRO MAN, DAN, SEVENTY YEARS OLD $50.00
1 NEGRO MAN, WILL, VERY OLD AND SIMPLE $00.00
1 NEGRO WOMAN, SELIA, FORTY-ONE YRS OLD $500.00
1 NEGRO GIRL, SOPHIA, TEN YEARS OLD $600.00
1 NEGRO GIRL, MANDI, NINE YEARS OLD $500.00
1 NEGRO GIRL, MARY, THREE YEARS OLD $300.00
1 NEGRO BOY, THOMAS, FIVE YEARS OLD $300.00
Dick, Dan, Selia, Will and the four children, like their forebears, probably went to church with their white master and preacher. Bartemous founded and, at various times, pastored Timber Ridge Baptist Church and Mud Creek Baptist church.
Sermons of other southern slave-holding Baptist preachers of that era were rife with politics, and often—directed at the slaves themselves—used scripture to justify their bondage, including such verses as:
Colossians 3:22-25, Colossians 4:9, Deuteronomy 24:7, Ephesians 6:5, Exodus 12:44, Exodus 21:1-7, Exodus 21:7-11, Exodus 21:20-32, Exodus 22:2-3, Ezekiel 27:12,13, First Kings 2:39, First Kings 11:26-35, First Peter 2:18, First Peter 2:21-25, First Samuel 25:10, First Timothy 6:1-5, Gen.9:20-25, Genesis 9:25-27, Genesis 17:12,13, Genesis 37:27,28, 36, Genesis 41:1-45, Leviticus 22:11, Leviticus 25:40-46, Luke 12:46-47, Philemon 1:10, Numbers 31:28-40, Revelation 18:13, Second Samuel 8:2, and Titus 2:9-10,15.
Sermons of other southern slave-holding Baptist preachers of that era were rife with politics, and often—directed at the slaves themselves—used scripture to justify their bondage, including such verses as:
Colossians 3:22-25, Colossians 4:9, Deuteronomy 24:7, Ephesians 6:5, Exodus 12:44, Exodus 21:1-7, Exodus 21:7-11, Exodus 21:20-32, Exodus 22:2-3, Ezekiel 27:12,13, First Kings 2:39, First Kings 11:26-35, First Peter 2:18, First Peter 2:21-25, First Samuel 25:10, First Timothy 6:1-5, Gen.9:20-25, Genesis 9:25-27, Genesis 17:12,13, Genesis 37:27,28, 36, Genesis 41:1-45, Leviticus 22:11, Leviticus 25:40-46, Luke 12:46-47, Philemon 1:10, Numbers 31:28-40, Revelation 18:13, Second Samuel 8:2, and Titus 2:9-10,15.
Whether those slavery justifications were part of Bartemous Reynolds’ sermons, I don’t know. No manuscripts, outlines or notes of his sermons remain, as far as I know.
Both of the churches he founded are still active.
