Kimberly R. Kellison is Associate Professor of History & Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Baylor University. This interview is based on her new book, Forging a Christian Order: South Carolina Baptists, Race, and Slavery, 1696–1860 (University of Tennessee Press, 2023).
JF: What led you to write Forging a Christian Order?
KK: The title Forging a Christian Order captures the vision of white Baptist ministers as they constructed a denominational presence in South Carolina. White ministers underscored the importance of preaching and conversion, but they also emphasized a larger Christian social order that legitimized white supremacy and the enslavement of African Americans. Should all South Carolinians follow the tenets of a white-constructed model of Christian slavery, white Baptists believed, a harmonious society could be achieved, and order and stability would reign supreme.
JF: In 2 sentences, what is the argument of Forging a Christian Order?
KK: As white Baptist leaders built a denominational presence in South Carolina, they emerged as some of the earliest white evangelicals to advance a model of Christian proslavery paternalism. White Baptist ministers in the Lowcountry articulated publicly and forcefully the centrality of a Christian model of slavery in the early 1800s, earlier than most evangelicals, arguing that following biblical injunctions about the master-slave relationship would lead to Christian order not just within families and churches, but within society as a whole.
JF: Why do we need to read Forging a Christian Order?
KK: Forging a Christian Order nuances our understanding of Baptist history in the South. It shows that Baptist congregations in South Carolina developed in different ways, depending often upon leadership and location. White Baptists in the Lowcountry built a denominational model forged upon missionary work and an educated ministry. White Baptist ministers in inner portions of the state disagreed with their Lowcountry brethren about denominational education and missionary outreach, but the two groups converged in their support of white supremacy and, by the nineteenth century, of a Christian model of slavery. African American Baptists were drawn to white-led Baptist churches for different reasons, including the hope of salvation and a sense of Christian community. Through their actions within churches, African American Baptists challenged notions of racial inequality, but their presence in white-controlled churches also underscored to whites the efficacy and legitimacy of the Christian model of slavery.
JF: Why and when did you become an American historian?
KK: I’ve always had a passion for history. After starting law school and staying for only three days (because I wasn’t convinced I wanted to be a lawyer), I was fortunate to enter the M.A. and Ph.D. programs in history at the University of South Carolina where I could explore my strong interest in the history of the American South.
JF: What is your next project?
KK: My next project examines a Methodist minister turned freethought advocate named James Dickson Shaw who lived in Waco, TX in the late 1800s. Through Shaw’s eyes I examine both the growth of organized religion in a rapidly growing urban environment, and the vociferous opposition to such growth as articulated by Shaw and the secular organization he founded. The study details contrasting visions for leading a moral life, arguing that a rich interchange of cultural and intellectual views often existed in what we typically think of as “frontier towns.”
JF: Thanks, Kimberly!
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