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In 1636 Roger Williams founded the First Baptist Church in America in Providence, Rhode Island. It remains the first and oldest congregation in the United States. The meeting house dates from 1775. Roger Williams and John Clarke, his compatriot in working for religious freedom, are credited with founding the Baptist faith in North America. [5]
Originally, Baptists supported separation of church and state in England and America. [1] [2] Some important Baptist figures in the struggle were John Smyth, Thomas Helwys, Edward Wightman, Leonard Busher, Roger Williams (who was a Baptist for a short period but became a "Seeker"), John Clarke, Isaac Backus, and John Leland.
The colonial government was officially neutral in religious affairs, granting toleration to all Christian groups and enjoining them to avoid actions that antagonized the others. On several occasions, "low-church" dissenters among Protestants led insurrections that temporarily overthrew the Calvert rule.
It covered English-speaking countries and swept through the American colonies between the 1730s and the 1770s. Three important preachers of the times were Gilbert Tennent (1703–65), Jonathan Edwards (1703–58), and George Whitefield (1714–70). The Separate Baptists are most directly connected to Whitefield's influence.
Roger Williams was born in London, and many historians cite 1603 as the probable year of his birth. [6] His birth records were destroyed when St. Sepulchre church burned during the Great Fire of London, [7] and his entry in American National Biography notes that Williams gave contradictory information about his age throughout his life. [8]
In the American colonies, the Awakening caused the Congregational and Presbyterian churches to split, while strengthening both the Methodist and Baptist denominations. It had little immediate impact on most Lutherans, Quakers, and non-Protestants, [2] but later gave rise to a schism among Quakers that persists to this day.
The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a dispute over the British Parliament's right to enact domestic legislation for the American colonies. The British government's position was that Parliament's authority was unlimited, while the American position was that colonial legislatures were coequal with Parliament and outside of its jurisdiction.
The First Baptist Church in America located in Providence, Rhode Island. Both Roger Williams and John Clarke are variously credited as founding the earliest Baptist church in North America. [38] In 1639 Williams established a Baptist church in Providence, Rhode Island, and Clarke began a Baptist church in Newport, Rhode Island. According to a ...