Friends of Humanity
Religious Camp Meeting. Watercolor by J. Maze Burbank, c. 1839. Old Dartmouth Historical Society-New Bedford Whaling Museum, New Bedford,
Some time ago, I wrote about my five-times great-grandfather Thomas Longley, who moved his family from New York City down the Ohio River to Kentucky in 1788. Thomas was a Baptist. I don’t know if he was raised in the denomination or converted at some point, but I know he attended the First Baptist Church of New York City, where he served as a deacon from 1787 until his departure to Kentucky (Parkinson 1846).
I also believe that his decision to move to Kentucky was influenced by the fact that the pastor of his church, Rev. John Gano, himself moved to Kentucky in 1787, albeit to Fayette County rather than to Mason County where Thomas and his family ended up (Spencer 1885). What I know for sure is that Thomas continued to practice his Baptist faith in Kentucky, joining the Mays Lick Baptist Church as one of its earliest members (Goins 1980).
English, and later American, Baptists began as dissenters from the Anglican church. Like other Protestants, they embraced the idea of a direct connection to God, rather than one mediated through clergy, but like their European Anabaptist counterparts, they also believed that baptism as a sacrament should be reserved for adults who understood the faith to which they were committing This set them apart from the Lutheran and Calvinist branches of Protestantism, which continued to practice infant baptism. For this reason, Baptists were unwelcome in the 17th century Puritan colonies of New England. The first Baptist church in North America was founded by Roger Williams in Rhode Island in 1638, but New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey were also havens for Baptists because of their religious toleration. Membership in North American Baptist churches grew substantially during the 18th century, as the denomination’s evangelical emphasis on revivals and conversion resonated with people looking for a more direct and personal religious experience (Mead et al 2005).
The growth of the Baptist denomination in Kentucky followed a similar pattern. In the late 18th century, Baptist ministers like Rev. John Gano and his son, Rev. Stephen Gano, undertook mission trips to frontier areas such as Western Kentucky and often succeeded in planting the seeds for future Baptist churches in these areas. This trend was furthered by migration to Kentucky following the American Revolution from states like New York and New Jersey that had significant Baptist populations (Benedict 1813; Spencer 1885). The Mays Lick Baptist Church, for example, was established in November 1789 by settlers from New Jersey. Despite being without a settled minister for the first seven years of its existence, the Mays Lick Baptist church grew quickly as new residents like Thomas Longley chose to become members (Goins 1980).
Early in the 19th century, the Mays Lick Baptist Church, and other Kentucky congregations, were confronted with internal dissension over the practice of enslaving Black Americans. The denomination’s emphasis on the right of conscience and the daily practice of religious values pushed some Baptists to question the morality of enslaving other human beings. This issue came up in the Elkhorn Baptist Association, which included Mason County, as early as 1789, but fearing it would alienate members who were enslavers, the association voted to avoid discussion and table the issue. In 1805, the association took a stronger stand, ruling that it was “improper for ministers, churches, or associations to meddle with emancipation from slavery, or any other political subject” (Masters 1953, p. 128). Following this decision, the association also began to take action to expel ministers who preached against enslavement (Spencer 1885; Masters 1953; Najar 2005).
The actions of the association did not stop the question of slavery from creating conflict within Baptist congregations in Kentucky. At Mays Lick Baptist Church, the matter came to a head in July 1805, when Thomas Longley asked the congregation to consider “whether unmerited, Involuntary, Hereditary slavery is supported by the word of god or not” (Traylor 2015, p.169). At first, it seemed that the congregation would take an abolitionist stand. Mays Lick had, in fact, welcomed Black members from its earliest days. Some members pushed back, however, citing the position of the association, and Mays Lick ultimately did not condemn the practice of slavery, leading 15 members, including Thomas Longley, to leave the church. A few years later, Mays Lick also fired its minister, Rev, Jacob Grigg, after he denounced the association’s position on slavery.[1] Jacob Grigg, Thomas Longley, and others then became part of what was known as the “Baptized Licking-Locust Association, Friends of Humanity,” an association of abolitionist Baptist congregations in northern Kentucky that did not allow enslavers to become members (Benedict 1813; Najar 2005; Traylor 2015).[2]
The story of the schism in Mays Lick Baptist Church, and Thomas Longley’s role in it, is an interesting illustration of the ways in which religious values and the practice of human enslavement came into conflict in the United States well before the Civil War. While the most well-known abolitionist movements didn’t really get started until the 1830s, religious objections to slavery began with the Quakers in 1688, when Quakers in Germantown, Pennsylvania, submitted a petition urging the abolition of slavery. Although this petition had little impact, many Quakers continued to oppose slavery over the next century, and various Quaker associations warned members against enslaving human beings (Haverford and Swarthmore 2010). Debates over the morality of enslavement arose in many denominations during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and well-known ministers, including John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, argued against the practice. For the most part, however, these debates yielded little action (Carden 1986). The formation of the Baptized Licking-Locust Association in Kentucky was one of the first instances where support for the abolition of slavery led to an actual church schism.
Later in the 19th century, the situation changed and the question of the morality of enslaving human beings led to major schisms in several of the largest and most active religious denominations in the United States. In 1845, the central Baptist mission board began to refuse to allow slaveholders to participate in mission work. The southern Baptist churches objected and formed what ultimately became the Southern Baptist Convention, which continues as a leader of the religious right to this day. A year earlier, the Methodist Episcopal Church had split over the expulsion of a bishop who had inherited enslaved people (Carden 1986). Although the Presbyterian General Assembly had issued a statement opposing slavery in 1818, the church split twice, with pro-abolition congregations in the Midwest withdrawing from the Assembly in 1837 and Southern pro-slavery congregations withdrawing in 1860 (Adams 1992). All the efforts of these religious denominations to keep the peace and mediate between abolitionist and pro-slavery factions proved useless.
Thomas Longley’s role in precipitating the Mays Lick schism, however small, shows clearly that he was a man of both faith and conscience. His commitment to the Baptist denomination can be seen in the names he gave his two youngest sons—Stephen Gano Longley and Jacob Grigg Longley. In addition, several of his sons and grandsons, while not sharing his Baptist faith, did share his commitment to the abolition of slavery. My four-times great-grandfather Abner Hixon Longley, a Universalist minister, and his oldest son Elias Longley were particularly active abolitionists in the years leading up to the Civil War while Abner’s son Cyrenius fought in the war as a lieutenant in the 11th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Thomas Longley’s influence can, I think, be seen in their actions.
Excerpt from the inventory of Thomas Longley’s estate, including a sermon by Jacob Grigg. 1818. Photo by author.
[1] This was not the first time Grigg ran into trouble because of his abolitionist views. Before arriving in the United States, Grigg served as a missionary in Sierra Leone, Africa, and was expelled from that country because of his public critique of the slave trade (Hyde 1952).
[2] Using the term “Friends of Humanity” was a signal of the association’s abolitionist stance as that term was strongly associated with the Quaker anti-slavery movement (Fisher 1935).
Works Cited
Adams, Elizabeth T. 1992. “Divided Nation, Divided Church: The Presbyterian Schism, 1837–1838.” The Historian 54 (4): 683-696.
Benedict, David. 1813. A General History of the Baptist Denomination in America, and Other Parts of the World. London: Lincoln & Edmands.
Carden, Allen. 1986. “Religious Schism as a Prelude to the American Civil War: Methodists, Baptists, and Slavery.” Andrews University Seminary Studies 24 (1):13-29.
Fisher, Miles Mark. 1935. “Friends of Humanity: A Quaker Anti-Slavery Influence.” Church History 4 (3): 187-202.
Goins, E.C. 1980. “History of Mays Lick Baptist Church.” The Kentucky Baptist Heritage. 7 (1): 7-9.
Haverford and Swarthmore Colleges, 2010. Quakers and Slavery Project.
Hyde, Kenneth E. 1952. “The Union Church at Launceston, Cornwall.” Baptist Quarterly 14 (5): 203-212.
Masters, Frank. M. 1953. A History of Baptists in Kentucky. Louisville, KY: Kentucky Baptist Historical Society.
Mead, Frank S., Samuel S. Hill, and Craig D. Atwood. 2005. Handbook of Denominations in the United States. 12th Edition. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press.
Najar, Monica. 2005. "’Meddling with Emancipation’: Baptists, Authority, and the Rift over Slavery in the Upper South.” Journal of the Early Republic 25 (2): 157-186.
Parkinson, William. 1846. Jubilee Sermon Containing a History of the Origin of the First Baptist Church of New York City. New York: John Gray, Printer.
Spencer, John Henderson. 1885. A History of Kentucky Baptists. Volume 1. Cincinnati, OH: J.R. Baumes.
Traylor, Richard C. 2015. Born of Water & Spirit: The Baptist Impulse in Kentucky, 1776-1860. Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press.
Weaver, Doug. Winter 2008. “The Baptist Story.” Baylor Magazine.