Solomon Northup among Baptists and Campbellites in Antebellum Louisiana

SOLOMON NORTHUP AMONG BAPTISTS AND

CAMPBELLITES IN ANTEBELLUM LOUISIANA

STANLEY N. HELTON

First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Hammond, LA

Among first-person slave narratives, Solomon Northup’s is as engaging as

it is historically accurate.1 Northup’s title tells the story: Twelve Years a Slave,

Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New York, Kidnapped in Washington

City in 1841, and Rescued in 1853, from a Cotton Plantation Near the Red

River in Louisiana.2 Generally unknown to Baptist and Stone-Campbell historians

is that several of Northup’s early owners were principal players in a schism

occurring within the Beulah Baptist Church in Cheneyville, Louisiana, in the region

where Northup would endure illegal enslavement for twelve years. During the

early years of his captivity, tension within the Beulah Baptist Church erupted

after years of simmering agitation brought on by the steady encroachment of

Alexander Campbell’s theological program for the “restoration of the ancient

order of things.”

3 Not only were Campbell’s views disseminated through his

journals, the Christian Baptist (1823–1830) and later the Millennial Harbinger

(1830–1866), but also through Baptist preachers enamored with his views in

southern Mississippi and Louisiana.4

1 Solomon Northup, Twelve Years a Slave (ed. Sue Eakin and Joseph Logsdon; Baton

Rouge: Louisiana State University, 1968), x, for other historians who have used Northup’s

narrative. William O’Neal, Life and History of William O’Neal; or, The Man Who Sold His

Wife (St. Louis: Fleming, 1896), tells the story of a slave born in Woodville, MS, who later

lived in Cheneyville, LA. 2 (Auburn, NY: Derby and Miller, 1853). Online: http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/northup

.html. For the purpose of citation, the 1968 edition of Solomon Northup: Twelve Years a Slave,

ed. Eakin and Logsdon, will be used. The historian’s annotations and footnotes alert the reader

to pertinent facts relative to places, people, and events Northup mentions. See the recently

published: Sue Eakin, ed., Twelve Years a Slave: The Autobiography of Solomon Northup

(Longboat Key, FL: Telemachus Press, 2013; available also at http://twelveyearsaslave

.org). Twelve Years a Slave is now a major motion picture directed by Steve McQueen (see

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2024544/). 3 The phrase “restoration of the ancient order of things” derives from a 32-part series by

that name that Campbell began in his Christian Baptist in 1825. (Hereinafter CB.) 4 This was the case with Jacob Creath Jr., who lived for a short time in Woodville, MS,

and was a major Campbellite influence on a number of those eventually residing in the

Cheneyville area. See Peter Donan, ed., Life of Jacob Creath, Jr. (Cincinnati: Chase and Hall,

1877), 76–77, 147; Earl West, Search for the Ancient Order (Nashville: Gospel Advocate,

1950), 1.115–26; Benjamin Griffin, History of the Primitive Baptist of Mississippi from the

78 RESTORATION QUARTERLY 57:2 (2015)

Northup brings a unique perspective on the personalities involved in this

Baptist-Campbellite schism.5 From his unique vantage point, he describes in de-

tail plantation owners, the way they treated one another, their families (including

the intricate interconnections between these families), and their slaves. He also

describes how religion functioned between plantation owners and their slaves,

and, important for this study, he knew well the key people and families involved

in Beulah’s schism—which he never mentions and perhaps he never knew.

The intricacies and theological hairsplitting that separated Baptists from the

Campbellites eluded notable Louisiana historians Sue Eakin and Joseph Logsdon.6

This article seeks to add to their research utilizing key religious source documents,

such as journals, church minute books, and secondary sources related to the

history of Baptists and the Disciples that the historians seem not to have known.7

This article correspondingly has two purposes: to introduce Northup’s narrative as

it discloses details about principle people involved in the schism at Cheneyville

and to identify dissenting Baptists attracted to the embryonic Disciples movement

who precipitated the schism.

First Settlement by the American up to the Middle of the Nineteenth Century (Jackson, MS:

Barksdale and Jones, 1853), esp. ch. 12. 5 The ensuing schism followed the characteristic pattern for Baptist-Campbellite

relationship beginning in the late 1820s and continuing through the 1840s: The Baptist faithful,

if strong enough, would excommunicate the “Christian Baptists” or “Reforming Baptists.”

Shortly after the schism was final, the reformers would begin a church of their own, known

variously as “churches of Christ” or “Christian churches.” The other possible outcome, if the

Campbellite contingent were the strongest, is that the Disciples would take over and the

minority Baptists would regroup elsewhere. See Errett Gates, The Early Relation and

Separation of Baptists and Disciples, (Chicago: Christian Century, 1904); Rodrick Durst, “To

Answer or Not to Answer”: A Case Study on the Emergence of the Stone-Campbell

Movement Amongst the Baptist Churches of Kentucky in the 1820s,” Journal for Baptist

Theology and Ministry 3.1 (Spring 2005): 81–97; and Austin Bennett Amonette, “The

Ambiguous Partnership of Alexander Campbell and the Baptists,” Stone-Campbell Journal 9

(Fall, 2006): 165–86. 6 For example, Sue Eakin, “A Division of Churches in Cheneyville during the 1800s,”

The Bunkie Record (12 Dec. 1996): 3. Additionally, Eakin believed that James A. Randalson

was the primary conduit for Campbell’s thinking in the region. However, Jacob Creath Jr.,

more than any other, is probably that person. Furthermore, the conduits for Campbell’s

thinking, as well as the network of Campbell-sympathizing Baptist ministers, are far more

extensive than either Eakin or Logsdon knew. A similar deficiency occurs in Glen Lee Greene,

House upon a Rock: About Southern Baptists in Louisiana (Alexandria, LA: Executive Board

of the Louisiana Baptist Convention, 1973), who knew the Baptist sources well but not the

Disciples’ sources. Consequently, he misses the key involvement several of his heroes, such as

P. W. Robert and Elisha Andrews, played in disseminating Campbell’s teachings. 7 The use of “Disciples” or “Disciples of Christ” as a denominational label is somewhat

anachronistic at this point. The Campbell-Stone Restoration Movement does not have a clear

denominational identity before the 1830s. However, these Campbellites, or “reforming

Baptists,” eventually became the Disciples of Christ.

HELTON/SOLOMON NORTHUP 79

Northup’s Narrative as Historical Source

When his ordeal in Louisiana was over, Northup returned to his family in

Glen Falls, New York, on 20 January 1853. Soon after local lawyer David

Wilson arranged for the publication of Northup’s absorbing odyssey. By July

the first edition of the book was published,8 and because of its similarity to

Harriett Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the book was an immediate

success. Wilson and Northup acknowledged their dependence on Stowe’s suc-

cess, dedicating the first edition to her and promoting Northup’s narrative as “A

Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”

9 Remarkably, given the temptation to embellish a

story for audience impact, Eakin and Logsdon certify, “At every point where

materials exist for checking [Northup’s] account, it can be verified.”10

Northup’s Odyssey: New York to Louisiana

In 1841 Northup met two “gentlemen of respectable appearance,” who

offered him a job as a fiddler in a nearby circus and later enticed him with an

offer of more work in Washington, D.C.11

When they reached Washington, his

feigned employers drugged several of his drinks. When the effects of the drugs

wore off, Northup found he was chained in a slave pen. His captors had sold

him to James H. Birch (b. ca. 1802), “a well-known slave dealer in Washington.”12

Birch, Northup added, “was a slave-trader—buying men, women and children

at low prices, and selling them at an advance. He was a speculator in human

flesh—a disreputable calling—and so considered at the South.”13

Being part of

a larger network of slave traders, Birch had a partner, the “very amiable” and

“pious-hearted” Theophilus Freeman, in New Orleans.14

Accordingly, Northup

and other captives were transported to New Orleans on the brig Orleans, which

8 Northup, Twelve Years a Slave, xiv. 9 See Northup, Twelve Years a Slave (1853 ed.), xxviii (= Northup, Twelve Years a Slave,

xxvi). The first eight thousand copies sold within a month and thirty thousand were sold

through 1856. Though never selling close to Stowe’s, the book’s success induced the publisher

to undertake other slave narratives, including an expanded edition of Frederick Douglass’s

1845 autobiography. 10 Ibid., xvi: “The official records in Louisiana, which have fortunately survived war,

climate, and human carelessness, also document Northup’s tale. These extant manuscript

records verify every sale of Northup, as well as other property transactions of his masters. The

descriptions of the Bayou Boeuf are unquestionably accurate in their smallest details; in fact,

the recall of time, distance, and people is almost uncanny. The misspellings of individual

names is understandable; even though Northup was literate, as a chattel he seldom saw the

written word and therefore had to depend on phonetics in preparing his account. Few

autobiographers, however, have matched the precision of his recollection.” 11 Ibid., 12. 12 Ibid., 21. Later these “gentlemen” are identified as Alexander Merrill and Joseph

Russell. See Northup, xvii–xxii, for an account of their trial. 13 Ibid., 40. 14 Ibid., 51.


departed on 27 April 1841 from Richmond, Virginia, and arrived in New Orleans

on 24 May 1841.15

William Prince Ford—Baptist Minister

On 23 June 1841 William Prince Ford, a pioneer planter from Cheneyville

in Rapides Parish, bought three slaves from Freeman—Northup, Harry, and

Eliza.16

He paid nine hundred dollars for each of the men and seven hundred

dollars for the woman.17

Northup described Ford as

above the ordinary height, somewhat bent and stooping forward. He was a good-

looking man, and appeared to have reached about the middle age of life. There

was nothing repulsive in his presence; but on the other hand, there was something

cheerful and attractive in his face, and in his tone of voice. The finer elements

were all kindly mingled in his breast, as any one could see. He moved about

among us, asking many questions, as to what we could do, and what labor we had

been accustomed to; if we thought we would like to live with him, and would be

good boys if he would buy us, and other interrogatories of like character.18

Ford transported his chattel two days and three nights up the Mississippi

River and then the Red River on the steamboat Rodolph. When he and his party

disembarked at Alexandria, Louisiana, they took the train to Bayou Lamourie.

They then walked the remaining distance to Ford’s plantation on Bayou

Boeuf.19

At the time Northup met Ford, the latter was, by all accounts, a devoted

Baptist preacher. Northup commends Ford, “Throughout the whole parish . . . and

especially along both shores of Bayou Boeuf, where he is more intimately known,

15 Ibid., 41n1; New Orleans Daily Picayune (25 May 1841). The ship’s manifest can be

viewed online at http://www.fold3.com/page/1517_solomon_northup_kidnapped_sold_into/,

where Solomon is recorded under the name now given to him: Platt Hamilton. His age is given

as 26, his stature as 5′7″, and his skin color as yellow. Another slave, John Brown, also in

Freeman’s pen in the 1840s, describes the pen in Slave Life in Georgia: A Narrative of the

Life, Sufferings, and Escape of John Brown, A Fugitive Slave Now in England (London: M.W.

Watts, 1855), 110–11; online at http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/jbrown/jbrown.html. 16 See ibid., 56n3, where Eakin and Logsdon note, “The terms of sale were recorded in

the Notorial Acts of New Orleans. Harry and Northup were purchased for $900 each and Eliza

for $700. Northup was assigned the name “Platt” and Eliza given the name “Dradey.” Their

ages were obviously lowered—Harry and Eliza were listed at twenty and Northup at twenty-

three—to increase their value since the life expectancy of a slave was not promising in the

climate of Southern Louisiana.” Edward Bennett, Notary, Notorial Acts of New Orleans, June

23, 1841, XVII, 670, as cited in Northup, Twelve Years a Slave, 253. 17 Northup is incorrect here. Each male sold for $900.00 (see previous n.), though

Solomon states that his value was a hundred dollars more than that of the other male slave.

Perhaps a mental slip on his part, Solomon’s increased value rhetorically heightens his

importance in the narrative. See Northup, Twelve Years a Slave, 56n3. 18 Northup, Twelve Years a Slave, 56. 19 This would have been the Red River Railroad, also known as Ralph Smith Smith’s

Railroad. For more information, see Northup, Twelve Years a Slave, 64n5 and 64–66.


he is accounted by his fellow-citizens as a worthy minister of God.”20

Ford

accordingly invested in the religious instructions of his slaves. Northup notes:

We usually spent our Sabbaths at the opening [in front of the plantation house],

on which days our master would gather all his slaves about him, and read and

expound the Scriptures. He sought to inculcate in our minds feelings of kindness

towards each other, of dependence upon God—setting forth the rewards promised

unto those who lead an upright and prayerful life. Seated in the doorway of his

house, surrounded by his man-servants and his maid-servants, who looked

earnestly into the good man’s face, he spoke of the loving kindness of the Creator,

and of the life that is to come. Often did the voice of prayer ascend from his lips

to heaven, the only sound that broke the solitude of the place.21

Northup recounts that a fellow-slave, Sam, became convicted and accepted

the Christian religion of his master. Ford’s wife, Martha (Tanner), gave him a

Bible that he read at every opportunity. Since he had some difficulty reading,

Northup often read to Sam. Northup observes, “Sam's piety was frequently

observed by white men who came to the mill, and the remark it most generally

provoked was, that a man like Ford, who allowed his slaves to have Bibles, was

‘not fit to own a nigger.’”22

Northup held Ford in the highest regard throughout his captivity. In one

passage Northup commended, “I was some time his slave, and had an

opportunity of learning well his character and disposition, and it is but simple

justice to him when I say, in my opinion, there never was a more kind, noble,

candid Christian man than William Ford.” Earlier Northup had quipped that “he

was a model master, walking uprightly, according to the light of his under-

standing, and fortunate was the slave who came to his possession. Were all men

such as he, Slavery would be deprived of more than half its bitterness.”23

At the

end of his time with Ford, Northup remarked, “During my residence with

Master Ford I had seen only the bright side of slavery.”

24 Ford’s kind-hearted

attempts at religious instruction, despite its design to keep slaves subservient,

differed from the approach of his wife Martha’s brother, Peter Tanner, another

principal in the church schism at Beulah.

William Prince Ford—Campbellite

According to Eakin and Logsdon, William Prince Ford (1804–1861) was

among the first recipients of a land patent from the United States in southwestern

Louisiana. He was also a dedicated Baptist minister, associated with the Beulah

Baptist Church in Cheneyville and the Springhill [or, Spring Hill] Baptist Church.

His letters reflect a particularly God-fearing, righteous man who was quite artic-

ulate. Ford was a principal in a doctrinal quarrel over predestination that raged among

20 Northup, Twelve Years a Slave, 62. 21 Ibid., 69. 22 Ibid. 23 Ibid., 62. 24 Ibid., 74.


the Cheneyville Baptists in the 1840’s. He was finally expelled from the Springhill

Baptist church for allowing a Methodist to take communion in the church.25

What is missing in this description is that when he purchased Northup, Ford was

already moving toward the teachings of Alexander Campbell. Louisiana Baptist

historian W. E. Paxton preserved an entry from the Spring Hill Baptist Church’s

minutes that substantiates Ford’s involvement with the Campbellites in the region. 26

SPRING HILL, Saturday, January, 1845

Inasmuch as it has been reported to this church by brethren Wright and Rand27

that our brother Rev. W. P. Ford had been administering the communion of the

Lord’s Supper and himself communing with the Campbellite church at Cheney-

ville, composed, in part, of persons standing excluded from our sister church

called Beulah. And second, That he has ordained elders in said church who are

persons excluded as above and person not holding the mystery of the faith in a

pure conscience. And third, That his course has confirmed divisions, and offenses

contrary to the doctrines we have learned, and inasmuch as the said brethren

Wright and Rand have entreated brother Ford and told him his faults, according to

the Gospel and have not gained our brother.

Therefore we the Church of Christ28 at Spring Hill feel offended by Bro. Ford’s

course, and feel it our duty to entreat and admonish him according the Gospel,

and that Bro. Rand acted in this matter in behalf of the church and that a copy of

this resolution be forwarded to him.

Resolved, That the church set apart Saturday the 25th inst. as a day of fasting and

prayer to God with special reference to the case of brother Ford.

E. G. Robert, Clerk.29

The next pertinent entry in the church minutes records:

25 Ibid., 62n4. 26 W. E. Paxton, A History of the Baptists of Louisiana (St. Louis: C. R. Barns, 1888),

149–50. Paxton notes that Ford was born in Henry County, KY, Jan. 5, 1803. He was baptized

by G. A. Ir[i]on at Cotile in Rapides Parish in 1829. The following year he moved to the area

of Spring Hill and in 1841 constituted a Baptist Church. In 1844 Ford was ordained to the

ministry by Elder B. C. Robert, Thomas Rand, and A. J. Spencer. 27 William Cathcart, ed., The Baptist Encyclopedia: A Dictionary of the Doctrines,

Ordinances, Usages, Confessions of Faith, Sufferings, Labor, and Successes, and of the

General History of the Baptist Denomination in All Lands with Numerous Biographical

Sketches of Distinguished American and Foreign Baptists, and a Supplement (Philadelphia:

Louis H. Everts, 1881), 2.955, notes that Rand, “the son of a minister of the same name,” was

born in West Springfield, MA, July 10, 1813; licensed to preach in 1836; graduated at

Hamilton Theological Seminary in 1838; ordained at Bayou Chicot, LA, in 1841; died at Lake

Charles, LA, July 1, 1869.” See a biographical sketch in Paxton, Baptists of Louisiana, 493. 28 Baptist Churches will sometimes refer to themselves in a generic sense as “Churches

of Christ.” 29 Paxton, Baptists of Louisiana, 169–70.


Sunday, March 16, 1845. The church met in conference. Prayer by Brother Rand.

Whereas Brother W. P. Ford has been admonished and entreated by this church

and has refused to hear us. Therefore, Resolved, that he is no longer with us.30

Furthermore, Ford’s communication with Alexander Campbell as late as 1850

shows clearly his continued involvement with the Disciples:

CHENEYVILLE, Parish of Rapid[e]s, La., Nov. 5, 1850

Brother Campbell: It is known to you that there has existed a church of Christ at

this place for five or six years. There have been but few additions to its numbers

during the last year or two; but I believe, that if an Evangelist would come

amongst us, the church might be revived, and members added to it. There is now

$350 subscribed for the compensation of a minister, either in the capacity of an

Evangelist or Bishop, as may be agreed upon after his arrival. And by the time

that fund is exhausted, as much more can be obtained. I have thought, by giving

this publicity, some proclaiming brother might be induced to come amongst us, or

address me for further particulars.

Yours, in the love of the gospel,

W. P. FORD.31

Ford remained associated with the Disciples until his death on August 23,

1866, six months after Campbell himself died.32

In the summer of 1842, Northup’s fate changed drastically when Ford

“became embarrassed in his pecuniary affairs.” Ford’s only brother Franklin had

become unable to “meet his liabilities,” for which Ford held the security.33

To

pay the debt, Ford sold eighteen slaves, including Northup. Ford sold Northup

to a ruffian carpenter named John M. Tibeats (or Tibauts),34

but retained a

$400.00 note on Northup. When Northup departed with Tibeats, he traveled

along the defining waterway of the region, Bayou Boeuf, which he described as

a sluggish, winding stream—one of those stagnant bodies of water common in

that region, setting back from Red River. It stretches from a point not far from

Alexandria, in a south-easterly direction, and following its tortuous course, is more

than fifty miles in length. Large cotton and sugar plantations line each shore,

30 Ibid., 170. 31 Millennial Harbinger 1.1, ser. 4 (Jan. 1851): 60. Hereinafter MH. 32 Paxton, Baptists of Louisiana, 149–50. Paxton cites a letter, dated 10 May 1869, from

Ford’s son, B. J. Ford: “My father was never reconciled to the Baptist Church, as a church; but

during his last years there was good feelings between him and members of Baptist churches in

this section.” Interestingly, Ford is not buried in the Beulah Baptist Cemetery adjacent the

church nor is he buried in the old First Christian Church cemetery. Instead he and his family

are buried in the Old Cheneyville Cemetery. 33 Paxton, Baptists of Louisiana, 149, notes that Franklin Ford was “a Presbyterian

minister of distinction” who became “President of Minden Female College.” See also Penrose

St. Amant, A History of the Presbyterian Church in Louisiana (New Orleans: Synod of

Louisiana, 1961), 66 (cf. also 85, 103, 105–8 for more information), who notes that Franklin

Ford established a Presbyterian Church in Alexandria, LA, around 1844. 34 Northup, Twelve Years a Slave, 73n16.


extending back to the borders of interminable swamps. It is alive with alligators,

rendering it unsafe for swine, or unthinking slave children to stroll along its

banks.

Northup observed, “Upon a bend in this bayou, a short distance from Cheney-

ville, was situated the plantation of Madam Ford—her brother, Peter Tanner, a

great landholder, living on the opposite side” of the bayou.35

Peter Tanner—Baptist Deacon

Tibeats, Northup’s second owner, later rented Northup to Peter Tanner

(1811–1864). Tanner, according to Eakin and Logsdon, was also a pioneer

planter who owned a plantation of 3,400 acres across Bayou Boeuf from Ford’s

plantation. Later he was a deacon of the Beulah Baptist Church in Cheneyville

and assisted in the founding of several other churches.36

Upon their first meeting,

Northup relates, “Peter Tanner endeavored to impress on me the idea that he

was quite severe, though I could perceive there was a vein of good humor in the

old fellow, after all.”37

Northup vividly recounts his first encounter with Tanner:

“You’re the nigger,” [Tanner] said to me on my arrival —“You’re the nigger that

flogged your master, eh? You're the nigger that kicks, and holds carpenter Tibeats

by the leg, and wallops him, are ye? I’d like to see you hold me by the leg—I

should. You're a ’portant character—you’re a great nigger—very remarkable

nigger, ain’t ye? I’d lash you— I’d take the tantrums out of ye. Jest take hold of

my leg, if you please. None of your pranks here, my boy, remember that. Now go

to work, you kickin’ rascal,” concluded Peter Tanner, unable to suppress a half-

comical grin at his own wit and sarcasm.38

Northup continued, “Peter Tanner prided himself upon his strict religious obser-

vances; he was a deacon in the church.”39

Previously in the narrative Northup

explained,

Like William Ford, his brother-in-law, Tanner was in the habit of reading the

Bible to his slaves on the Sabbath, but in a somewhat different spirit. He was an

impressive commentator on the New Testament. The first Sunday after my

coming to the plantation, he called them together, and began to read the twelfth

chapter of Luke. When he came to the 47th verse, he looked deliberately around

him, and continued—“And that servant which knew his lord’s will,”—here he

paused, looking around more deliberately than before, and again proceeded—

“which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself”—here was another

pause—“prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten

with many stripes.”

35 Ibid., 76. 36 Ibid., 76n4; 96n8. The churches included the Bayou Rouge Baptist Church (1842) in

Avoyelles Parish and Big Cane Baptist Church (1846) in St. Landry Parish. Tanner later was a

representative of Rapides Parish to the state legislature before the Civil War. 37 Ibid., 93. 38 Ibid., 94. 39 Ibid., 96.


“D’ye hear that?” demanded Peter, emphatically. “Stripes,” he repeated, slowly

and distinctly, taking off his spectacles, preparatory to making a few remarks.

“That nigger that don’t take care—that don’t obey his lord—that’s his master—

d’ye see?—that ’ere nigger shall be beaten with many stripes. Now, ‘many’

signifies a great many—forty, a hundred, a hundred and fifty lashes. That’s

Scripter!” and so Peter continued to elucidate the subject for a great length of

time, much to the edification of his sable audience.40

Following the sermon Tanner accused three of his slaves of “melon-stealing”

and “Sabbath breaking” and since he did not approve “of such wickedness, he

felt it his duty to put them in the stocks.” Placing Northup in charge of the other

slaves, Tanner handed him the key to the stocks and then he and his family “en-

tered the carriage and drove away to church in Cheneyville.”41

Northup gives no

hint throughout his close encounters with these fine church people that he is

aware of the turmoil brewing within Beulah Baptist Church in Cheneyville.42

Disciples along Bayou Boeuf

Pioneer preacher Joseph Willis (d. 1854) established Beulah Baptist Church

in Cheneyville on 25 March 1816 and then served as pastor until 1823. Beulah

was the second Baptist Church in the state (not counting those in the Florida

parishes east of the Mississippi River). Charter members included Elder Willis,43

Elder Ezekiel and Mary O’Quin(n),44

John and Mary Grimball, Nathaniel and

Anne Holly, Robert and Providence Tanner and son Robert Lynn Tanner

40 Ibid., 94. Mistreatment of one’s slave could result in the excommunication from a

Baptist church. See, e.g., the case of a “Br. Edds” of the Hephzibah church in the Florida

Parishes. In East Feliciana Parish Louisiana, 2: Hephzibah Baptist Church Records (tran-

scribed by Mary Ann Smith Sagely; Clinton, LA: Mary Ann Robertson, 1985), 14. The

Hephzibah church was located about eight miles from present-day Clinton, LA. In McQueen’s

recent movie, this sermon is incorrectly assigned to Edwin Epps. 41 Northup, Twelve Years a Slave, 95. 42 Ibid., 120–21. On 9 April 1843 Tibeats sold Northup to his cruelest master yet, Edwin

Epps, but Epps was not involved in the church schism. However, he could not have been far

from it since his wife was a niece to P. W. Robert and B. C. Robert.

Cheneyville, located on Bayou Boeuf in Rapides Parish in the middle of Louisiana, is on

the west side of the Mississippi, across the parish line from Avoyelles Parish. The town began

about 1811, when William Feldon Cheney and others migrated there from Beaufort District,

South Carolina, after a short sojourn in Woodville, MS. Around 1812 or 1813, Robert and

Providence (who is a Robert) Tanner also migrated to Woodville from South Carolina and

then on to Cheneyville. 43 Joseph Willis (ca. 1758–14 Sept. 1854), born in Bladen County, NC, was a “Marion”

man. He came to Louisiana in 1804. He organized the first Baptist Church in Louisiana at

Chicot and the second, Beulah, in Cheneyville. He is buried near the Occupy Baptist Church in

the western part of Rapides Parish. See Cathcart, Baptist Encyclopedia, 2.1256; Paxton,

Baptists of Louisiana, 515–16; Greene, House upon a Rock, 51–59. 44 Ezekiel O’Quin(n) (18 Feb. 1781 – 23 April 1823) came to Rapides Parish in 1815.

See Cathcart, Baptist Encyclopedia, 2.872; Paxton, Baptists of Louisiana, 568–69.


(1793–1870), later a deacon at Beulah.45

Among Robert and Providence

Tanner’s twelve children were Martha (William P. Ford’s wife), Peter, and

another son Jabez (1810–1860). Never mentioned in Northup’s narrative, Jabez

would become the primary local leader of the Campbellite faction. Fortunately,

Jabez recorded his version of the schism at Beulah in a pamphlet he entitled “A

Concise History of the Rise and Fall of the State of Affairs in the Religious

World at this Place.”46

Tanner relates that in 1828 Beulah’s pastor, George A. Irion,47

an early

Campbell sympathizer and associate of Jacob Creath Jr. in Woodville,

Mississippi, preached intermittently for Beulah (ca. 1825–33). During this time

Irion challenged the association regarding the fourth article in the church’s

confession of faith.48

He denied that the articles of faith adopted by the

association had any authority and apparently swayed the congregation, but when

Irion moved away, Tanner reports, the church declined, as did Irion’s

theological concerns. After Irion’s departure, the church dwindled “for it is well

known that among the Baptists,” states Tanner, “unless there is a preacher, there

45 “History of Beulah Baptist Church, 1816–1966” (Cheneyville, LA, 1966), 5–6. On

Robert Lynn Tanner, see Cathcart, Baptist Encyclopedia, 2.1132; Paxton, Baptists of

Louisiana, 495–96. 46 As it is called by Sue Eakin, Twelve Years a Slave: The Autobiography of Solomon

Northup (Kindle loc. 5209–5210). Paxton, Baptists of Louisiana, 157–67, inserts a copy of

Tanner’s account in his narrative. Jabez Tanner’s document has also been preserved in

“History of Beulah Baptist Church,” 11–14. See a summary of this document in Sue Eakin, “A

Division of Churches in Cheneyville during the 1800s,” The Bunkie Record (12 December

1996): 3. R. L. Robert’s transcription of this text is kept in a vertical file at Abilene Christian

University’s library. 47 George A. Irion, a Virginian, came to Cheneyville from Wilkinson County, MS, in

1827. Here he met Jacob Creath, Jr. when he resided in Woodville, MS. Jacob Creath, Jr.

noted his work had spawned several congregations and a school called Newtonia. Creath

claims that he “also called out four men, whose names were Andrews, Richland, and

Randolson [sic]), and Ireton [sic], to the work of the gospel ministry.” See Donan, Jacob

Creath, 77. The first mentioned is most likely Elisha Andrews, the third is James A.

Randalson, who was already a missionary, and the last is George A. Irion. According to

Paxton, Baptists of Louisiana, 149, Irion baptized W. P. Ford; see biographical sketch on 520.

I have not yet identified Richland. On Andrews, see Greene, House Upon a Rock, 80–81, 87,

89.

Some of the early movements of Irion and Creath can be traced in The Woodville

Republican, one of the earliest newspapers in Mississippi. See O’Levia Neil Wilson Wiese,

The Woodville Republican: Mississippi’s Oldest Existing Newspaper (nol. 1: Dec. 18, 1823–

Dec. 17, 1839; Westminster, MD: Heritage Books, 2007). Wiese has conveniently abstracted

the contents of that early newspaper. Another source for the early work of Irion, Creath,

Randalson, and others, is T. C. Schilling, Abstract History of the Mississippi Baptist Associ-

ation for One Hundred Years: From Its Preliminary Organization in 1806 to the Centennial

Session in 1906 (New Orleans: J. G. Hauser, 1908; online: http://baptisthistoryhomepage

.com/miss.hist.html). On Irion, see also Greene, House upon a Rock, 107. 48 Paxton, Baptists of Louisiana, 159: “We believe in the eternal and unconditional

election of a definite number of the human family to grace and glory.”


is no meeting.”

49 In 1834 the Baptist Home Missionary Society sent James B.

Smith,50

who added several members but then left after about two years. Until

1841 the Methodists occasionally sent a preacher.51

During this time the elderly P(eter) W(illiam) Robert (1798–1847) was

called upon to baptize a member of the Methodist church (the same charge

leveled against Ford). Robert too was another Campbell sympathizer. In 1818

Robert moved from South Carolina to St. Mary Parish, Louisiana. In 1821 he

became a Baptist under the preaching of Joseph Willis, the founding pastor of

Beulah, and was thereafter ordained by Willis and licensed by the Bayou Salé

(or, Salle) church. Robert was a brick mason and in 1833 moved to Jefferson

(now, the Uptown Garden District of New Orleans) to ply his trade; he

remained there for eight years. While in New Orleans, if he had not met him in

Woodville, he came to know James A. Randalson, still another Campbell sym-

pathizer and associate of Jacob Creath Jr.52

In 1841 Robert baptized John O’Quin(n) and others in St. Landry Parish.

He continued as an evangelist for a few years with the Louisiana Baptist Associ-

ation.53

When Robert arrived in Cheneyville, he found Beulah in a “lamentable”

49 Illustrative is this entry: “January 17th 1818. The members of the church met and

owing to Elder Ezra Courtney’s being sick, there was no meeting.” East Feliciana Parish

Louisiana, 2: Hephzibah Baptist Church Records (transcribed by Mary Ann Smith Sagely;

Clinton, LA: Mary Ann Robertson, 1985), 9. See also Cathcart, Baptist Encyclopedia, 1.282–

83. 50 Cathcart, Baptist Encyclopedia, 2.1068: “Smith, Judge J. B., an eloquent preacher and

distinguished jurist at Clinton, La., believed to have been a native of Virginia, came to

Louisiana in 1832 as a missionary of the American Baptist Home Missionary Society, and

labored in the Red River region: in 1836 he aided in the constitution of the church at Clinton,

La. He located here and engaged successfully in the practice of the law, preaching in the

surrounding country; was district judge for one or more terms; fell a victim to yellow fever in

1868.” 51 This is rather odd given some of the charges that will be raised against W. P. Ford and

P. W. Robert later. See Paxton, Baptists of Louisiana, 158; “History of Beulah Baptist

Church,” 11–12. 52 John T. Christian, A History of the Baptists (1926), 2.342 (online: http://www

.pbministries.org/History/John%20T.%20Christian/vol2/history2_part3_03.htm),

credits Randalson with being the first Baptist missionary in New Orleans in 1816–17. In 1837

Randalson assisted Robert in the reorganization of the African Baptist Church in New Orleans

and ordained two African-American ministers, N. D. Sanders and Richard Satterfield. See

William Hicks, History of Louisiana Negro Baptists and Negro Baptist Beginnings in America

(cover)/History of Louisiana Negro Baptists from 1804 to 1914 (title page) (Nashville:

National Baptist Publishing Board, 1915), 25. Online: http://docsouth.unc.edu/church/hicks

/hicks.html. For an attempted rehabilitation of Randalson, see William W. William Jr., “The

Randalson Legend” (D.Th. thesis, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, 1949). For a

negatives assessment of Randalson’s work, see Greene, House Upon a Rock, 77–81; 84–91. 53 After this, Robert then returned to Jefferson in 1833 (now Uptown New Orleans) for

about eight years before moving back to the Red River area, because, according to Paxton,

Baptists of Louisiana, 517–18, his health had deteriorated and he needed rest, which he sought

in Rapides Parish until he died in 1847.


state. Tanner complimented Robert on his piety and his constant preaching and

teaching. Robert’s work initiated a revival in the areas in which people “who

had not been on friendly terms for years were induced to become reconciled.”

Additionally, adds Tanner, Robert baptized nearly four hundred persons.54

On the first Sunday in August 1841, the same summer Northup arrived,

Robert baptized Tanner and some forty others. This success came to the

attention of Disciple leader Walter Scott, who in The Evangelist copied the

following unsigned letter from the Christian Family Library regarding the

ministry of P. W. Robert.

New Orleans, Nov. 9th 1841.

Since I last wrote you, about three hundred and seventy five persons have bowed

the neck to the yoke of Jesus Christ. Principally under the labors of Father Robert,

in the Parishes of Raids [sic] and Avoyelles. . . .

Brother Robert is a Baptist; though he preaches the word. . . . We have agreed to

keep Father Robert in the field this year. He speaks about 10 times per week. The

people are reading the Bible with as much interest as though it had just dropped

from heaven. He gets every one as soon as they are added, to come forward in

family worship, and be active in every duty. I have never witnessed more interest

in a neighborhood, than in the section where he is laboring, without usual

machinery, such as this age of invention has produced. I am much pleased with

this scriptural manner of proceeding.55

The editorial “we” of the second paragraph indicates that the author and his

group were aligned with Campbell and his vision of restoration.

Paxton believed that Robert never separated from the Baptists, but that he

embraced the views of Campbell. But he ceased to be active after the debacle at

Beulah and never resumed his work.56

Even elder John O’Quin(n) concurred

when he wrote

He was a man greatly beloved, very catholic in spirit, but sound in faith. I have

heard many great men but never listened to a better one as a teacher of Chris-

tianity. He was a natural orator. . . . In doctrine he was not very “hard-shelled”,

and by some he was called a “Campbellite,” but he died a Baptist.”57

Paxton cites none other than W. P. Ford as stating that Robert endorsed the

Campbellite preacher McCall’s doctrine (see below).58

Whatever the case, his

54 Paxton, Baptists of Louisiana, 158–59; “History of Beulah Baptist Church,” 12.

Sometime after 1834 or 1835, P. W. Robert worked toward the establishment of a Baptist

congregation in New Orleans. Cf. Oscar Dubose Bowen, Historical Sketches of the Work of

Baptists on the Mississippi Sea Coast and in New Orleans: The Organization and History of

the Gulf Coast Baptist Association (Handsboro, MS: Gulf Coast Baptist Association, 1882),

18. 55 The Evangelist 10.2 (1 February 1842): 47. 56 Paxton, Baptists of Louisiana, 156–57. 57 See ibid., 517–18. 58 Ibid., 518. Paxton states, “But as he continued with the Baptists until his death, it is

probable that he differed from his brethren in that he opposed the hyper-Calvinistic and


“catholic spirit” apparently kept him working both sides of the divide because as

late as November 1845, “ P. W. R.” made a proposition in the Bible Advocate

that the Disciples have a convention in New Orleans.59

In October 1841 Tanner, though not a delegate, attended the Baptist associ-

ation meeting at Hickory Flat (later called Aimwell). Here Tanner saw the creed

(the Articles of Faith) for the first time. “I was reading,” writes Tanner, “the

articles to a company of some fifteen persons, when I read the Fourth Article.60

Then a “young preacher by the name of A. J. Spencer stopped me and requested

me to read it again. I did so, when he said: ‘If that be true I have no further use

for the Bible,’ to which remark several agreed. This is, in truth, the beginning of

all the strife and discord that has ensued.”

61 More accurately the beginning of

strife most likely goes back to the agitation caused by Irion, maybe as early as

1828.

The association accepted two new churches but almost rejected the Spring

Hill Church for receiving a member whom a Pedobaptist baptized.62

Addi-

tionally the application of the Bayou Rouge church was rejected, because that

church “had not inserted in its creed the doctrines.” Still, A. J. Spencer accepted

the call as a supply missionary to serve the churches.63

When Tanner and the others returned from Hickory Flat, a minister [John

R.] McCall—yet another Campbellite—preached on “spiritual influences.”64

Building on the work of P. W. Robert, McCall galvanized the Campbellite

faction, as Tanner recounts,

Whilst he [McCall] was preaching it appeared to me the whole congregation

were delighted. I judged from the countenances of those I saw. P. W. Robert

appeared to be much pleased. As soon as McCall had finished, Elder B(aynard).

C. Robert

65 arose and complained of being unwell. He went on to say that if what

Antinomian views of many of his brethren, without adopting the peculiar errors of Camp-

bellism.” 59 MH 3.4, Series 3 (April 1846): 235–36, where W. W. Stevenson seconds this motion;

John R. Howard responded that Memphis would be the better location, but neither ever

occurred. 60 Paxton, Baptists of Louisiana, 159. 61 Paxton, Baptists of Louisiana, 159–60; “History of Beulah Baptist Church, 12. 62 See Northup, Twelve Years a Slave, 62n4. 63 Paxton, Baptists of Louisiana, 163; “History of Beulah Baptist Church,” 13. 64 John R. McCall had ministered in Mississippi; see Letter, 16 February 1834 from

Grand Gulf, MS, in MH 5.4 (April 1834): 186–87; and Letter, 16 April 1834 from Claiborne

County, MS, in MH 5.6 (June 1834): 268–70]. McCall had written Barton W. Stone on May 4,

1841 from New Orleans, where he associated with “a little band of Baptists of the liberal

order,” as noted in the Christian Messenger 11.10 (June 1841): 356–57; see also letter dated

16 June 1843 also from New Orleans in Christian Messenger 13.3 (1843): 94. 65 B. C. Robert is a brother to P. W. Robert. Years later the brother will again part

company on the issue of universalism/Unitarianism. On Baynard C. Robert, see Cathcart,

Baptist Encyclopedia, 2.991; Paxton, Baptists of Louisiana, 503–05; and Greene, House Upon

a Rock, 59


he just heard [was] the truth, he had been preaching error for twenty years, and sat

down without appointing a time to teach us the right way. On which P. W. Robert

arose and said what we had heard was the truth. He then went on and preached a

severe sermon against the old way of doing business. Now the campaign may be

said to be fairly opened. There was a number of persons present who wished to be

baptized, but the church was declared to be out of order, and they were not

baptized. P. W. Robert and McCall were denounced as Campbellites, and that,

too, by individuals who had previously compared the preaching of P. W. Robert

to that of Apostle Paul. Affairs were now in a very bad way.66

At the next meeting of the church, the articles were read, though Tanner

complained that they had “formerly been shelved.” Many, according to Tanner,

were amazed, stating their belief that Baptists had no creed but the Bible. The

split ran generationally, with the older members putting off any further discus-

sions regarding the articles. Each side denounced the other as respectively

“Campbellites” or “Hardshells.” Tanner, though, in typical Campbellian illusion,

disavowed any dependence on Campbell.67

However, P. W. Robert, McCall,

Irion, and a number of others were certainly familiar with Campbell and his

journals.68

Now polarized, the church still called A. J. Spencer—who had earlier opposed

the creed. Several members, including Tanner, abstained. Not surprisingly

Spencer's ordination was conditioned on his signing the creed; thus he was not

ordained at that time, according to Tanner, but later he “changed his doctrine”

and was correspondingly ordained.69

Both parties within Beulah Baptist wanted a hearing at the upcoming

association meeting at the Bluff Creek Church (Louisiana) in October 1842.70

Spencer, who later did attend, warned that it would be a “stigma” on the church

66 Paxton, Baptists of Louisiana, 161; “History of Beulah Baptist Church,” 12. 67 Paxton, Baptists of Louisiana, 161–62; “History of Beulah Baptist Church,” 13.

Tanner wrote, “At this time I do not suppose there was an individual in the neighborhood who

knew Mr. Campbell or the tenets he taught. For my part I did not, never having read a page of

his writing in my life. I did not know in what century he lived, but being denounced as a

Campbellite I inquired what Mr. Campbell taught, and was told that baptism was all he taught

for salvation; for instance, catch a man, pull him into the water, duck him and he would be

saved. I was induce to write for some periodicals in order to find out whether I was a

Campbellite or not, and lo! such as they call Campbellites I am, for any one who had no creed

but what is contained in the Bible is a Campbellite. Well be it so. But at this time I was for a

creed. The party with which I acted was willing to have a moderate creed, one that was

according to the Bible.” 68 Barton W. Stone listed Js. D. McCoy of Alexandria, Louisiana as an agent for his

Christian Messenger as early as 1831 (see Christian Messenger 5.10 [1831]: 239). George

Irion (misspelled Irim), then of Woodville, MS, was an agent for Campbell’s CB in 1827 as

was Elisha Andrews of Hephzibah Church in East Feliciana Parish (CB 2.5 [1827]: 27).

William H. Erwin of Baton Rouge became an agent in 1829 (CB 10.6 [1829]: 228). J. W.

Edwards, Woodville, MS, replaced Bishop Irion (again misspelled this time as E. Iram) as

agent for the Christian Baptist in 1829 (CB 12.6 [1829]: 302). 69 Paxton, Baptists of Louisiana, 163; “History of Beulah Baptist Church,” 13. 70 Schilling, Abstract History, 58–59.


for them to send the young members as delegates. Tanner, however, used his

influence to withhold the votes needed to appoint delegates. Tanner even

considered withdrawing from Beulah, but again W. P. Ford (who would sell

Northup later that same year) convinced Tanner to wait until after the associ-

ation meeting.

Ten churches were represented at this meeting. A. J. Spencer, now the new

pastor of Beulah, brought the introductory sermon. W. P. Ford was elected the

association's clerk. The second resolution of the meeting was that Baptist

ministers be duly appointed and be considered “authorized” agents of the

association.71

A warning quickly followed that there were “certain persons” who

were Baptist preachers but “who do not hold to Baptist doctrine.” From that

point forward Baptist ministers needed to carry documentation that would be

“the best evidence of their standing.” Furthermore churches were encouraged to

oversee their ministers carefully.72

Clearly, this move was an attempt to check

the encroachments of Campbellite influence. Tanner later reflected on this

meeting:

But when the association convened the breach was widened, if possible, for

instead of preaching Christ and him crucified it was doctrine and doctrine and

such like; and that handled so poorly that nothing was effected. The meeting

continued six days. Several preachers were present, and obtained one convert,

who had been previously convicted by P. W. Robert. Suffice it to say, the associ-

ation over and no reconciliation, we determined to make one more effort for

liberty of conscience and peace; for I can safely say that there was not an indi-

vidual who wished to be separated from the Baptists. Our friends, our relations

and our interests were with them. But we could not remain without liberty of

conscience.73

Following the association meeting, Tanner called a private meeting at his

home inviting several of the opposing party, including deacon Henry Jackson,

who was invited to chair the meeting and so opened the meeting with prayer. In

the end the standoff continued. 74

71 “History of Beulah Baptist Church,” 10. 72 Ibid., 10–11. 73 Paxton, Baptists of Louisiana, 164–65; “History of Beulah Baptist Church,” 13. 74 Paxton, Baptists of Louisiana, 165; “History of Beulah Baptist Church,” 13–14. The

minutes of the association meeting held October 9, 1842, representing the following Baptist

churches: Aimwell (Hickory Flat) of Calcasieu Parish, Beulah of Bayou Boeuf, Calvary of

Chicot, Zion Hill of St. Landry Parish and Occupy of Rapides Parish, showed a total of 396

members. Two new churches were admitted: Bayou Rouge of Avoyelles Parish (formed July

25, 1841) and Spring Hill (formed August 9, 1842) of Rapides Parish. Among those attending

were Joseph Willis, Benjamin Garlington, B. C. Robert, W. B. Wilborn, as well as licentiates

John L. O’Quinn (Cathcart, Baptist Encyclopedia, 2.872; Paxton, Baptists of Louisiana, 569–

70: Green, House Upon a Rock, 59) and A. J. Spencer. In Northup, Twelve Years a Slave,

145n2, Eakin and Logsdon noted that Baynard Robert “owned a sugar plantation in St. Mary

Parish and a cotton plantation in Rapides” and upon his death in 1850 his slaves from St. Mary

Parish were removed to Rapides.” See Esther G. Wright Boyd notes in Jesse Wright Papers,


Yet another meeting was called. Only the Campbellites were present this

time. Ironically these dissenters now drew up new articles and committed to

bring them up at the next meeting to replace the older ones. However, the older

members of Beulah rejected the new articles and called on the dissidents to

leave. Tanner asked for a letter of dismissal for his wife and himself, as did

J[oseph] B[enjamin] Robert.75

The Baptist leaders refused because they would

not be joining another Baptist church nor had the church voted to exclude them

on the basis of any immoral conduct or heresy. “I then observed to them,”

writes Tanner, “they had better erase our names, which they did.”76

Church

secretary Henry Jackson confirmed this in Beulah’s minutes: “Saturday before

the first Lord’s Day in November, 1842, brother Jabez Tanner and lady, and

brother J. B. Robert’s names were erased from this book at their request,

accompanied by their declarations that they do not hold all the doctrines as set

forth in our Confession of Faith.”77

The dissidents continued to attend Beulah until May 1843 when Disciple

evangelist G. W. H. Smith came to the region and a new church was organized;

by January 1844 the membership, according to Paxton, had increased to fifty.78

Tanner, at the time of his narrative, claimed eighty members with one bishop

(John W. Pearce), two deacons (himself and Andrew Jackson) and an evangelist

(Smith). Among the founding members of the Christian Church of Cheneyville

were John W. Pearce and wife;79

W. P. Ford and wife, Andrew Jackson and

wife, Jabez Tanner and wife, Josiah Scott and wife,80

Bordeaux Robert and

LSU Archives, as cited in Eakin, ed., Twelve Years a Slave: The Autobiography of Solomon

Northup, Kindle loc. 5490–91. 75 Joseph Benjamin Robert is mentioned twice by Northup, Twelve Years a Slave, 123

(cf. also n. 2) and 183. Joseph B. Robert was the uncle of Mary Elvina Epps, the wife of

Northup’s final owner Edwin Epps. Robert owned a plantation on Bayou Huff Power

(Huffpower or Huffpauir), a waterway through the southern end of Avoyelles Parish (123n2).

Northup, Twelve Years a Slave, 123, notes that Robert’s “principal business was raising

cotton.” 76 Paxton, Baptists of Louisiana, 167; “History of Beulah Baptist Church,” 14. 77 From extracts from the minutes of the Beulah (Cheneyville) Church as transcribed by

R. L. Roberts, ACU vertical files. 78 Paxton, Baptists of Louisiana, 169. 79 Extract from Beulah’s minutes: “Saturday before the first Lord’s Day in September,

1843, by the request of brother J. W. Pearce that the names of himself and sister E. J. Pearce be

erased from the church book, the church do hereby withdraw their fellowship from them,” in

Paxton, Baptists of Louisiana, 167–68. 80 See Donan, Jacob Creath, 147. Alexander Campbell himself visited Cheneyville in

March 1857 on his second tour in the South, which he began 26 Feb. 1857. By this time, the

separation between the churches had been complete for short of a decade. He reports: “Our

first meeting in Louisiana was at Cheneyville. The cause of Christianity in its sectarian

attitudes had almost expired in that vicinity. The Baptist church formerly existing there had

ceased to be, and one individual of the Methodist persuasion was the sole representative of that

denominational form of religion. The Christian Church alone survived and consisted of some

hundred members white and black. Finding there brother Myers, a graduate of Bethany


wife, and a Mrs. Andry.81

William P. Ford, the first owner of Solomon Northup,

as previously mentioned, presided over the installation of the elders of the new

church.82

In 1849 Ford married his second wife, Mary Boaz Dawson, the widow

of William H. Cureton, who donated the land on which the Christian Church

built its meeting place.83

Tanner concluded his account with a typically Campbellian ecclesiological

concern: “Our manner of conducting our meetings is to assemble every Lord’s

Day for the purpose of prayer, praise, exhortation, breaking of bread and fellow-

ship.” Then he closed his account, “Now, fellow citizens, you have a concise

and fair statement of the rise and progress of the present state of things.”84

In October 1843 the Baptist association met at the Antioch church in

Calcasieu Parish. The association elected R[obert] L[ynn] Tanner—who missed

most of the conflict because he had been in Texas—moderator that session.

Beulah confirmed division had occurred. Henry Jackson noted in Beulah

minutes: “Saturday before the first Lord’s Day in October, 1843, after praise

and prayer by brother B. C. Robert (brother of P. W. Robert and uncle to the

wife of Edwin Epps, the last owner of Northup), the state of the church was

inquired after, when it was found that some members of this church had joined

churches of a different faith.”

85 A month later, November 1843, the Baptists

excommunicated these members.

In 1846 the association met at Zion Hill church near Many, Louisiana, with

Beulah reporting continued skirmishes with the Campbellites and their attempts

to quiet their own people with Campbellite tendencies. Pastoral leadership came

from B. C. Robert and L. Scofield, with deacon Peter Tanner as a licentiate. 86

College, we had a meeting of several days, with quite a respectable auditory, and after a

discourse on education and the claims of Bethany College, we obtained subscriptions of 1300

dollars—brother J. Tanner subscribing $1000, and brother A. Jackson $300” (MH 7.6, ser. 4

[June 1857]: 312). Campbell, of course, is wrong about the fate of Beulah Baptist Church. The

following year in the MH 1.10, Series 5 (Oct. 1858): 595, he reported, “We rejoice to hear of

the prosperous condition of the congregation at Cheneyville.” See also Robert Richardson,

Memoirs of Alexander Campbell (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1870), 2.627–28. 81 Unsigned letter from Cheneyville, 15 Sept. 1908, in J. V. Coombs, “A Church with a

Marvelous History,” Christian Standard (30 March 1918): 839. Mrs. Irene Johns listed by

Coombs (of Danville, Indiana) is claimed to be the only charter member alive in 1918. 82 Eakin, “Division of Churches,” 3. 83 See Northup, Twelve Years a Slave, 76n4; 93nn5, 6 and 7; et al. 84 Ibid., 167; “History of Beulah Baptist Church,” 14. 85 Paxton, Baptists of Louisiana, 168. Those mentioned are William Hetherwick, Mitilda

Hetherwick, Andrew Jackson, Eliza Jackson, and N. C. Chambers. 86 Ibid., 200, 208, 504. Apparently, earlier in the year the Baptist leaders formed a com-

mittee on the “Abstract of Faith.” They reported to the association on Oct. 1, 1846, that they

“favored a creed entirely in Bible language.” They appointed a committee of four to draft such

a creed. The result was “a compilation of quotations of Scripture on fourteen different

doctrines, two quotations for each doctrine.” The creed was adopted but rejected the following


By 1848 the Baptists in Louisiana stabilized with the formation of the Louisiana

Baptist Convention, choosing James Scarborough as their first president. By this

point the process of division between the Baptists and Campbellites was as good

as over.

Conclusion

Peter’s and Jabez’s plantations sat adjacent to each other on the same side

of Bayou Boeuf. The schism divided the family and gave rise to the regional

slogan that “the up-the-Bayou Tanners didn’t speak with the down-the-Bayou

Tanners.”

87 Across the bayou from the Tanners was the plantation of William

Prince Ford—where several of the scenes from Northup’s narrative took place.

Northup had been nearby throughout the church schism. In 1852 an itinerant

Canadian carpenter named Samuel Bass befriended Northup and assisted

Northup to get a message to family and friends in New York. By the time

Northup regained his freedom in 1853, the Baptists and Campbellites along

Bayou Beouf had gone their separate ways.

We can see the relevance of Northup’s Twelve Years a Slave in providing

historical background for some of the main characters involved in the schism at

Beulah Baptist Church and the emergence of the earliest Disciples in the state.

This article has argued for a much deeper encroachment of Campbell’s

influence among Louisiana Baptists than usually acknowledged in the litera-

ture—including such notable characters as Jacob Creath Jr., James A.

Randalson, George A. Irion, John R. McCall, P. W. Robert, William Prince

Ford, and Jabez Tanner.

year. That B. C. Robert was the primary author of the attempted “scriptural creed” may

indicate he shared more of his brother’s Campbellite tendencies than Paxton allows. 87 Sue Eakin, “A Division of Churches,” 3.

Solomon Northup among Baptists and Campbellites in Antebellum Louisiana

Documents