Anti-slavery document from 1847 reveals American Baptists' commitment to
abolition
[July 03, 2025]
By MICHAEL CASEY
GROTON, Mass. (AP) — Jennifer Cromack was combing through the American
Baptist archive when she uncovered a slim box among some 18th and 19th
century journals. Opening it, she found a scroll in pristine condition.
A closer look revealed the 5-foot-long (1.5-meter-long) document was a
handwritten declaration titled “A Resolution and Protest Against
Slavery," signed by 116 New England ministers in Boston and adopted
March 2, 1847. Until its discovery in May at the archives in Groton,
Massachusetts, American Baptist officials worried the anti-slavery
document had been lost forever after fruitless searches at Harvard and
Brown universities and other locations. A copy was last seen in a 1902
history book.
“I was just amazed and excited,” Cromack, a retired teacher who
volunteers at the archive, said. “We made a find that really says
something to the people of the state and the people in the country. ...
It speaks of their commitment to keeping people safe and out of
situations that they should not be in."
The document offers a glimpse into an emerging debate over slavery in
the 18th century in the Northeast. The document was signed 14 years
before the start of the Civil War as a growing number of religious
leaders were starting to speak out against slavery.
Split over slavery
The document also shines a spotlight on a critical moment in the history
of the Baptist church.
It was signed two years after the issue of slavery prompted southern
Baptists to split from northern Baptists and form the Southern Baptist
Convention, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. The split in
1845 followed a ruling by the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society
prohibiting slave owners from becoming missionaries. The northern
Baptists eventually became American Baptist Churches USA.

“It comes from such a critical era in American history, you know, right
prior to the Civil War,” said Rev. Mary Day Hamel, the executive
minister of the American Baptist Churches of Massachusetts.
“It was a unique moment in history when Baptists in Massachusetts
stepped up and took a strong position and stood for justice in the
shaping of this country,” she said. “That’s become part of our heritage
to this day, to be people who stand for justice, for American Baptists
to embrace diversity.”
A risky declaration
Deborah Bingham Van Broekhoven, the executive director emerita of the
American Baptist Historical Society, said many Americans at the time,
especially in the North, were “undecided” about slavery and weren't sure
how to respond or were worried about speaking out.
“They thought it was a southern problem, and they had no business
getting involved in what they saw as the state’s rights,” Van Broekhoven
said. “Most Baptists, prior to this, would have refrained from this kind
of protest. This is a very good example of them going out on a limb and
trying to be diplomatic.”
The document shows ministers had hoped “some reformatory movement” led
by those involved in slavery would make their action “unnecessary,” but
that they felt compelled to act after they “witnessed with painful
surprise, a growing disposition to justify, extend and perpetuate their
iniquitous system.”
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Historian Jennifer Cromack points out the word "Slavery" on a
recently found, 178-year-old anti-slavery scroll at Grotonwood, the
home mission of The American Baptist Churches of Massachusetts,
Thursday, June 26, 2025, in Groton, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

“Under these circumstances we can no longer be silent,” the document
states. “We owe something to the oppressed as well as to the
oppressor, and justice demands the fulfillment of that obligation.
Truth and Humanity and Public Virtue, have claims upon us which we
cannot dishonor.”
The document explains why the ministers “disapprove and abhor the
system of American slavery.”
“With such a system we can have no sympathy,” the document states.
“After a careful observation of its character and effects and making
every deduction with the largest charity can require, we are
constrained to regard it as an outrage upon the rights and happiness
of our fellow men, for which there is no valid justification or
apology.”
Who signed the document?
Rev. Diane Badger, the administrator of the American Baptist Church
of Massachusetts who oversees the archive, teamed up with Rev. John
Odams of the First Baptist Church in Boston to identify what she
called the “Holy Grail” of abolitionist-era Baptist documents. Her
great-grandfather was an American Baptist minister.
Since its discovery, Badger has put all the ministers' names on a
spreadsheet along with the names of the churches where they served.
Among them was Nathaniel Colver, of Tremont Temple in Boston, one of
the first integrated churches in the country, now known as Tremont
Temple Baptist Church. Another was Baron Stow, who belonged to the
state's anti-slavery society.
Badger also is working to estimate the value of the document, which
is intact with no stains or damage, and is making plans to ensure it
is protected. A digital copy could eventually be shared with some of
Massachusetts' 230 American Baptist churches.
“It’s been kind of an interesting journey and it’s one that’s still
unfolding,” Badger said. “The questions that always come to me, OK,
I know who signed it but who didn’t? I can go through my list,
through my database and find who was working where on that and why
didn’t they sign that. So it’s been very interesting to do the
research.”

Rev. Kenneth Young — whose predominantly Black Calvary Baptist
Church in Haverhill, Massachusetts, was created by freed Blacks in
1871 — called the discovery inspiring.
“I thought it was awesome that we had over hundred signers to this,
that they would project that freedom for our people is just,” Young
said. “It follows through on the line of the abolitionist movement
and fighting for those who may not have had the strength to fight
for themselves against a system of racism.”
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