For of such is the kingdom of heaven": institutionalizing youth benevolence among Southern Baptists, 1890-1920.

In 1912, Victor I. Masters surveyed America's social and cultural landscape only to find what he deemed "social unrest." As the editor of Our Home Field, a missionary magazine for Southern Baptists, Masters had a sizeable audience with whom he shared his views. He claimed that Christians were responsible for America's turmoil, but rather than fear society's problems, Christians--particularly Southern Baptists--should look on contemporary social woes as a unique opportunity to create a more equitable world. "The social unrest of today," he said, "is because Christianity in the hearts and minds of the people has created higher standards of living, correcter [sic] ideas of human brotherhood, and a deeper conviction that justice must rule in society." (1) He urged his own denomination to help shoulder the burden of aiding society's dispossessed.

Masters's challenge did not go unheeded. Indeed, between 1890 and 1920, Southern Baptists showed an increasing awareness of and willingness to address social problems. In 1913, the Southern Baptist Convention established the Social Service Commission to highlight the fact that Christians had a sacred duty to be God's champions for civic decency. Moreover, the Social Service Commission sought to provide examples of moral rectitude in family and community matters, as well as in industrial and race relations. (2) During its early years this agency primarily denounced alcohol and rallied around Prohibition as its main social reform. In 1953, however, the Social Service Commission became the Christian Life Commission, an agency with a broader scope than its predecessor, in addition to alcohol abuse, the Christian Life Commission addressed a host of issues that smacked of moral decay ranging from rising divorce rates to the impact motion pictures had on society. (3)

For some, the idea of a special Southern Baptist agency dedicated to addressing social concerns may seem peculiar. After all, Southern Baptists are usually more closely associated with missionary enterprises and starting new churches than solving social problems. While there is some truth in this image, it does not mean that Southern Baptists are devoid of either social awareness or concern for the needy. Between 1890 and 1920, Southern Baptists addressed a variety of social issues, but they were especially interested in maintaining orphanages and building schools in the South's mountain regions. By institutionalizing their benevolent enterprises, Southern Baptists committed themselves to a sustained involvement in socially oriented ministry.

Orphanages

Turn-of-the-century Southern Baptists exhibited a keen interest in orphaned children. The apostle James admonished, "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world" (James 1:27, KJV). Southern Baptists apparently agreed. By 1920, each southern state had its own Baptist orphanage (some states had two), and each home was unique. Still these homes all shared important features. In each case, the Baptists in the state identified orphanhood as a distinct social problem that demanded their attention. Early twentieth-century southern state governments were either unwilling or reluctant to provide orphan relief. Believing that Christians, or more specifically churches, had a divine mandate to care for orphans, Baptists in the South demonstrated a remarkable willingness to assume the burden. (4) Their specific origins varied from state to state, but the basic motivation to start a Southern Baptist orphanage was always the same. On the one hand, the Bible required them to have compassion for orphans. On the other hand, the orphans were a pitiful lot and simply could not be ignored.

Baptists cast caring for homeless children as a specialized type of missionary activity, and orphanages depended on individual contributions for their financial survival. Southerners found ingenious ways to fund these institutions. Of course, the most obvious way to raise money was through direct appeal. Once organized, orphanages usually gave reports to their respective state conventions. (5) There the messengers from local churches throughout the state heard about the institution's needs and learned of the previous year's successes or failures. It was then up to the messengers to report back to the churches. For example, when the Georgia Baptist Convention met in 1900, the orphanage report stated, "We have at present sixty-five children in our keeping. Shall we close our doors upon other friendless little ones, for want of help from our Christian friends?" (6) Once the institutions published their needs, churches responded in a variety of ways. Some sent monthly support to the institutions. Others received special offerings during the year, especially at Thanksgiving and Christmas. Some churches did both.

Another method by which orphanages solicited support was to request that churches or interested individuals assume responsibility for supporting one child. Facility administrators could estimate the monthly cost for supporting one child. Then, rather than make broad appeals on the institution's be hall representatives for the home could submit this estimated cost to interested individuals or churches and ask them to support one child. For example, administrators at South Carolina's Connie Maxwell Home estimated that it cost about $6.00 per month to sup port one child. It was a reasonable figure, and in 1892, A. T. Jamison, an early superintendent of the Connie Maxwell Home, reported that eight of his institution's twenty-six children received support through this method of giving. (7)

Baptist orphanages also received nonmonetary gifts ranging from barrels of flour and sugar to boxes of clothing and toys. Most Southern Baptist orphanages were rural, thus livestock was another popular gift. R. C. Buckner, founder of the Buckner Orphans Home in Texas, once thanked a certain Mrs. Dinwiddie for the basket of eggs she had donated to the home. He promised her that the eggs were receiving special attention "under a fine large hen." (8) As insignificant as this gift may appear, the homes greatly appreciated the support they received. Assisting orphanages became an enterprise that assumed a variety of forms; anyone could support a state's orphanage.

This willingness to commit resources to benevolent institutions is highly suggestive. Obviously, Southern Baptists wanted to assist orphans, but there was more to it. Individuals like Mrs. Dinwiddie were helping to forge a denominational awareness that was interested in more than individual conversion to Christianity. Turn-of-the century Baptists were beginning to see their mission in terms of both evangelism and social outreach to the needy. Likewise, they were laying the foundation for expanding their missionary horizons to include social ministries.

If financing their orphanages says some thing about Baptist denominational consciousness, daily life in the homes says something about their concern for children. In each case, Baptist orphanages sought to provide a family-like atmosphere for the children they sheltered. Traditionally, Baptists have maintained that the family is a God-ordained institution. Since orphaned children had lost their families, orphanage administrators and staff tried to create a home-like atmosphere for their children. They saw orphaned children not as societal castaways but as children needing special attention, a quality their facilities tried to provide. (9)

Building an orphanage was never easy, and housing was an especially difficult issue. Although physical facilities varied from one home to another, Southern Baptists generally housed orphans according to either one of two plans. The barracks or dormitory plan placed children in a barracks-like facility. This arrangement required a minimal number of buildings to get the orphanage started. It was also relatively inexpensive. The "cottage plan," however, was more elaborate. Each cottage served as a self-sustaining unit complete with a house-mother. Additionally, each cottage functioned according to its own schedule, which was determined independently from the other cottages. The Connie Maxwell Home enthusiastically supported the "cottage plan" because the administration believed it approximated a genuine home environment as closely as possible. (10)

These institutions reflected their home-like atmosphere in numerous, subtle ways. For example, institutional reports to their respective state conventions usually referred to their children as "family members." An early Buckner Orphans Home Annual for 1891-92 reported that its "family" numbered 202. Individuals in the home came from diverse backgrounds anal circumstances but functioned as nearly like a family as they could. "The children," wrote Buckner, "work as members of a family, play as members of a family, go to the table as members of a family, meet and sing and worship as a family, and are instructed to regard their interests as blended." (11) Buckner stressed, however, that each child was treated as an individual especially regarding property rights, temperament, tastes, capacities (abilities), and responsibilities. (12)

In addition to offering a home-like setting, Baptist orphanages in the South sought to provide children with an education. Some, like the Tennessee home, favored "industrial education." Others opted for a more classically oriented curriculum. The Louisville Baptist Orphans' Home operated a school where children, male and female, studied spelling, arithmetic, geography, and English grammar. In North Carolina, the curriculum was even more ambitious. In addition to reading, writing, and geography, children studied Latin, algebra, composition, Greek, and Bible, a course which all orphanage schools taught. (13)

Existing records suggest that orphanage schools tried to keep abreast of contemporary educational trends. They adjusted their calendars to keep pace or exceed state standards. They also added grades as the curriculum for secondary schools became standardized. Ultimately, though, rising costs and the proximity of state-funded schools forced most orphanages to close their schools. (14)

Even though most Southern Baptist orphanages were rural, there is no solid evidence suggesting that Baptists were overly suspicious of urban areas. Placing children in rural areas might simply have been a matter of space. Urban land was too expensive to purchase if one wanted enough room for children to have recreational areas. There may also have been other, more practical considerations. Rural homes could help defray institutional expenses by raising some of their own food. Homes frequently boasted of the eggs from their hen houses, the milk from their dairies, and the fruit from their orchards. In some cases, they sold their produce surplus for modest revenue. In 1903, The Alabama Children's Homes reported that their agricultural assets totaled about $175.00 for the year. (15)

Southern Baptist orphanages also tried to provide medical attention for sick children. Some homes even had their own infirmary. In Louisville, the home's infirmary had its own bathroom with hot and cold running water. Female residents staffed the infirmary, which boasted four beds and four chairs. Apparently a number of doctors, members of Louisville Baptist churches, also donated their attention to sick orphans. The 1910 Louisville Baptist Orphans' Home report to the Kentucky Baptist Convention specifically mentioned J. B. Marvin as having rendered service to the home's sick children. (16)

Not all institutions were so fortunate as the Louisville Baptist Orphans' Home. Tight finances forced some facilities to relegate infirmaries to their "wish list." Even so, other institutions probably enjoyed medical attention that was either donated by Baptist doctors or rendered for a nominal cost. The Mississippi orphanage enjoyed the services of a certain Dr. Fulgham until he died in 1911. Three years later, G. L. Todd replaced Fulgham and records indicate that four nurses from Jackson, Mississippi, churches likewise donated their time. (17)

Education

Finding a biblical mandate to establish orphanages was easy. Building schools was a different matter. Nonetheless, between 1890 and 1920, Southern Baptists zealously assisted numerous schools and colleges in the Appalachian and Ozark Mountains. These mountain schools provide what may be the best example of the Baptist attempt to fuse social concern and missionary enterprise. On the one hand, Baptists wanted to use these schools as training centers for mountain ministers. On the other hand, they could scarcely claim a biblical mandate to build schools that offered "secular" education. This ambition to educate mountain children is especially curious if, as their critics claim, Southern Baptists espoused no social ethic.

Despite their interest in educating mountaineers at the turn of the century, Southern Baptists were not the first religious group to build schools in the mountains. In Appalachia on Our Mind, Henry D. Shapiro argued that after the Civil War northern Protestant missionary agencies quickly moved into mountainous areas of the South because they saw potential gains for their respective denominations. Northern missionaries to Appalachia believed that mountaineers had been particularly isolated from mainstream American life and consequently lacked schools and churches, the institutions they most needed for "proper" socialization. (18) They articulated their perceived differences between Appalachia and the rest of America as a set of social problems that could be cured through education and religion. "If these were provided," Shapiro noted, "then the mountaineer could literally be `uplifted' into modern American life, and that danger to American homogeneity and unity implicit in the very existence of `exceptional populations,' be eliminated." (19)

According to Shapiro, northern missionaries turned to education as the primary means of uplifting mountaineers. Southern Baptist thinkers and educators likewise desired to bring education and uplift to the mountaineers. Baptist newspapers and magazines, particularly the Home Mission Board's Our Home Field, never concealed its delight that graduates from mountain schools made significant contributions to their respective communities. Nor did they mask their resentment over what they perceived as a smug, arrogant assessment of mountaineers on behalf of northern missionaries. One writer accused northern missionary agents of exaggerating mountain ignorance and cultural dissimilarities between mountain people and northern urbanites. "The missionary literature on the whole," he said, "is an exploitation of missionary effect." (20) He further argued that the touchstone for assessing mountaineer "ignorance, poverty, or loneliness" should not be "that of Beacon Street." (21)

While they may have resented northern cultural condescension, Southern Baptists had their own agenda in the mountains. Mountaineers, indeed, had their own particular problems. Still, Southern Baptists built mountain schools on two basic assumptions. First, they believed mountain people had descended from "pure Anglo-Saxon stock." Consequently, they were victims of geographic circumstances because rugged mountain terrain had hindered them from building churches and schools. Without these socializing institutions, white mountaineers "needed" someone to help them find their place in modern society. John White, a representative of the Home Mission Board, made his racial bias clear when he said mountain "backwardness" was not because of "ancestral degeneracy" or "stubborn racial background." (22) That is to say, Baptist schools were intended to elevate white mountaineers only.

New South economic boosterism furnished the second foundation for these schools. White saw sweeping changes coming to the mountains. He believed that Appalachia possessed tremendous wealth in coal, iron ore, and various metals, as well as timber and abundant water to power machinery. In addition, railroads were making travel easier, rendering mountaineers less isolated. The question was: What would mountain people do in the face of socioeconomic upheaval? White believed that education was essential to ushering mountaineers into an increasingly complicated social and economic world. (23)

White ultimately convinced his fellow Baptists that mountain schools were both necessary and feasible. His next problem was finding someone to head the project. He finally settled on Albert E. Brown, assistant corresponding secretary of the North Carolina Baptist State Convention. Brown served the Home Mission Board as the first superintendent of the Department of Mountain Schools and led Southern Baptist educational endeavors in the mountains from the early 1900s until his death in 1924. He was well equipped to serve his constituency in both a ministerial and educational capacity. His father William Albert Gallatin Brown was the first president of Mars Hill College in North Carolina. Moreover, he had four siblings, all of whom were teachers and three of whom were ordained ministers. (24)

Brown wanted mountain schools to be as self-sufficient as possible, and he challenged communities to help support their local schools. (25) He believed this practice had several benefits. The Home Mission Board could spread its resources across a broader spectrum if communities contributed to their school's upkeep. By not concentrating aid to any particular institution, board administrators could assist more schools, thereby maximizing resources. Additionally, Baptists believed their philosophy fostered greater community involvement. That is, when people supported their community school they committed themselves to both the school and the community. This philosophy also emphasized self-help and minimized dependence on funding outside the mountain region. Nevertheless, in 1909, White lamented that in the 153 counties he identified as "mountain" there were only twenty-six schools, roughly one school for each seven counties. (26)

Much like White, A. E. Brown saw mountaineers suffering from what he perceived as undeveloped potential and being worthy of special attention. Many churches paid their pastors a paltry fifteen or twenty dollars a year--a fact Brown interpreted as ignorance of a church's duty to its pastor. (27) Brown also believed mountaineers deserved special attention because of who they were. He said mountain people were "pure Americans who are descendants of the original settlers of Virginia and the Carolinas; in religion they are evangelical; they are white people; a rural country people; and they are a Baptist people." (28)

Southern Baptist leaders saw the mountains as an area where they had a mandate to extend their influence--and they were not alone. Presbyterians, Mormons, and others likewise sought converts among mountain people. Some Baptist leaders believed mountaineers had "Baptist roots" and "pure" Anglo-Saxon blood lines. Mountain schools were vital if mountaineers hoped to be rescued from would-be proselytizers and fully integrated into American society.

These schools also offered opportunities for individuals who saw education as a means of preparation for more efficient service. Many mountaineers believed that religion and education both possessed intrinsic value that could not be calculated. Testimonials from the early twentieth century suggest that numerous mountaineers believed that education, when combined with religion, illumined the pathway to a better life. (29)

Baptist evangelical zeal merged with a strong sense of family to build institutions that benefitted numerous local communities. Brown's reports to the Home Mission Board especially stressed the overall value of the mountain schools. In addition to training mountain ministers, the schools also strengthened their local communities by graduating students who submitted themselves to local laws. Additionally, since local communities were at least partially responsible for maintaining their schools, these same communities had to work together to keep the schools functioning. This doubtless helped foster stronger community ties.

The concern to create community cohesiveness was rooted in paternalism. Baptist leadership believed that mountain folk were culturally isolated and needed to be ushered into a modern world they could not find by themselves. Implicit in this assumption was another that maintained that with the proper sort of help, mountaineers could build a better life for themselves and their children. Victor Masters, editor of numerous Baptist newspapers, noted, "Their number is millions. Their blood is the most pure Anglo-Saxon blood in America. Their habits and manners are simple; THEY ARE LIKE CHILDREN." (30) As Masters saw it the mountains presented unique opportunities for development and training, but he believed it had to be given under Christian influences. (31)

Baptist missionary schools also reflect the progressive drive for social efficiency. For example, John White wanted A. E. Brown to oversee the mountain schools largely because of his background. He was a native of western North Carolina and had served the churches of that area. In White's estimation, Brown was the individual best suited for the job because as a mountaineer he could readily empathize with mountain needs. Mountaineers could also identify with Brown for the same reasons. Much like their counterparts in the business community, Baptists wanted the "best man for the job." (32) In this case, Brown was best equipped to lead in educating mountain children.

This drive for efficiency extended beyond Mountain Mission School leadership. One of the main reasons for building mountain schools was to help prepare mountain people to meet the challenges of a changing economic structure. Southern Baptist leaders foresaw changes in the Southern economy. They believed the region would soon be rich and also that they should use their money wisely as good stewards of God. By spreading their resources thinly, Southern Baptist leaders believed they were instilling self-reliance in their constituency. True, some were ambivalent about the future. In 1910, A. E. Brown expressed his fear that unless Appalachian resources were managed wisely, the land would lose the wealth that should benefit mountaineers. (33) In the meantime, however, he wanted to see Appalachian children receive both the religious training and education he believed they deserved. True to his progressive roots, Brown believed these two keys would open a new door in mountain spirituality, culture, and well-being.

Conclusions

In reflecting on these institutions, one might wonder why the period between 1890 and 1920 was a time of pronounced social Christianity for Southern Baptists. There are a couple of possible answers. First, these three decades mark a time when Southern Baptists were becoming increasingly conscious of their own denominational identity as well as their own place within southern society. Rapid population increases tantalized Baptists with prospects of new members. Technological innovations such as the typewriter and linotype raised journalistic standards. Southern Baptist agencies, especially the Sunday School Board, took advantage of these innovations and used them to advance their respective causes. (34)

Populism also made a profound impact on the South between 1890 and 1900. For Southern Baptists, however, Populism was less significant for its politics than for its particular "movement culture" which emphasized democracy, egalitarianism, and mutual self-help. (35) These tenets well suited Baptist polity, which emphasized local church autonomy and democratic church membership. Second, Baptists were ready to meet the challenges of a new century thanks to the legacy of the Second Great Awakening. In a thought-provoking article, Donald G. Matthews suggested that the primary characteristics of the Second Great Awakening were unity and organization that resulted in new "institutional forms" and standardization of "what had once been spontaneous." (36) Messengers to the first Southern Baptist Convention in 1845 created two agencies dedicated specifically to evangelism: the Foreign Mission Board and the Domestic and Indian Mission Board that later became the Home Mission Board. (37)

Baptists in the South spent considerable thought and energy defending slavery in the antebellum period. (38) Once slavery was no longer an issue, Baptists faced new challenges including race relations, education, and, of course, evangelism. But rather than creating entirely new institutions to address these issues, Southern Baptists turned once again to existing institutions, most notably local churches and the Home Mission Board, to find answers to the "New South's" socioeconomic problems. Moreover, when Baptists did build new institutions such as orphanages and schools, they centered them around church and family life. Hence, the seeds sown in the Second Great Awakening sprouted, grew, and blossomed for Baptists between 1890 and 1920 as they defined themselves denominationally and culturally.

Another logical question is: What does all of this mean? Robert D. Linder has suggested a three-fold distinction between. Christian social concern, action, and ministry that may be helpful in answering this question. According to Linder, social concern is "a general interest in society's problems," particularly those issues touching on interpersonal relationships, social issues, and explicit Bible commandments. He equates social action with "organized effort at any level--personal, nonpolitical and political"--seeking to bring prevailing socioeconomic conditions more into conformity with Bible principles. Finally, he suggests that social ministry addresses Christian efforts, individual or collective, to assist "those individuals harmed by adverse social conditions." (39) Linder summarizes the essential differences between social ministry and social action by saying, "Social action is more concerned with the causes of harmful social conditions; social ministry is more concerned with their effects." (40)

Between 1890 and 1920, Southern Baptists displayed social concern, social action, and social ministry. Baptists may have understood their primary duty to be evangelism, but when they institutionalized benevolence they synthesized evangelical outreach and social concern in a way that encompassed social action and social ministry as defined by Linder. They believed legislative reform was superficial at best and insisted that the only way to create a better world was by changing its people's character. Thus, their benevolent institutions were not mere custodial repositories. They sought to convert souls and in so doing change society by furnishing it with better, that is to say converted, people.

Moreover, once Southern Baptists began institutionalizing their benevolent ventures, they demonstrated several things about themselves. Clearly they were not "captives" to their culture. Their orphanages and mountain schools provide strong evidence that Southern Baptist leaders believed they could shape their world in a positive manner. Nor were they overly committed to a bygone, mythical South. Their world was changing. They knew it. Yet, they were confident that the "new South" promised a bright, if sometimes challenging, future. (41) Southern Baptists, particularly their leadership corps, believed that the gospel of Jesus Christ could address sufficiently any social, cultural, or economic problem looming on the horizon. In fact, it was a challenge they welcomed.

By combining social concern with the impulse to evangelize the world, Baptist leaders enlisted rank-and-file church members to donate their money and focus their attention on perceived southern socioeconomic problems. This approach enabled Baptists to build a variety of new institutions including orphanages, schools, hospitals, and settlement houses. It also encouraged ministers to address social issues with an almost "noblesse oblige" spirit. Consequently, Baptist social ministries generally tended to be conservative and paternalistic. Even so, Baptists made remarkable efforts to help the needy despite the economic hardships of the day.

Endnotes

(1.) Victor I. Masters, "The Church and Social Unrest," Our Home Field 23 (January 1912): 10-13. Hereafter referred to as OHF. For more information on Masters, see Leo T. Crismon, "Masters, Victor Irvine, Sr.," Encyclopedia of Southern Baptists, 2 (1958), 836. Hereafter cited as ESB.

(2.) A. C. Miller, "Christian Life Commission, The," ESB, 1 (1958), 260-61.

(3.) Ibid. See also H. Leon McBeth, The Baptist Heritage: Four Centuries of Baptist Witness (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1987), 656; Robert A. Baker, The Southern Baptist Convention and Its People, 1607-1972 (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1974), 414-16; John Lee Eighmy, Churches in Cultural Captivity: A History of the Social Attitudes of Southern Baptists (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1972. Reprint, 1987), passim.

(4.) In this article the term "South" generally refers to the former Confederate states.

(5.) Southern Baptist churches work cooperatively to support missionary projects. Churches in a given area, usually a state, meet annually to conduct business relating to Southern Baptist interests within the area or state. Once a year Southern Baptists meet in a "convention" to conduct business that bears directly on Southern Baptist work at large. In either case, local churches send "messengers" to vote on those issues the convention raises.

(6.) Annual, Baptist Convention of the State of Georgia, 1900, 64.

(7.) A. T. Jamison, Forty Years of Connie Maxwell History (Greenwood: Published by the Board of Trustees, Connie Maxwell Orphanage, 1932), 8-9. See also Annual, Baptist Convention of South Carolina, 1892.

(8.) Buckner to Dinwiddie, "R. C. Buckner Papers," file no. 84-007, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas.

(9.) Thomas E. Pugh, As a Grain of Mustard Seed (Roanoke: Progress Press, 1983), 15-16. See also A. T. Jamison, Forty Years, 181-85.

(10.) Jamison, Forty Years, 185-86.

(11.) The Buckner Orphans Home Annual, 1891-92, 3-4.

(12.) Ibid.

(13.) Mary A. Hollingsworth, "Education," The Orphans Friend 1 (March 1872): 1; Bernard Washington Spilman, The Mills Home (Thomasville, N.C.: Mills Home, 1932), 95.

(14.) See Annual, Mississippi Baptist Convention, 1910, 29, and Jamison, Forty Years, 140-41. By the mid-1930s, most orphanages sent their children to public schools.

(15.) Jamison, Forty Years, 186, and Annual, Alabama Baptist State Convention, 1903, 21.

(16.) Annual, General Association of Baptists in Kentucky, 1910, 59-60.

(17.) Annual, Mississippi Baptist Convention, 1914, 42.

(18.) Henry D. Shapiro, Appalachia on Our Mind: The Southern Mountains and Mountaineers in the American Conscience, 1870-1920 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1978), 32-58, esp. 33. See also Joe M. Richardson, Christian Reconstruction (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1986).

(19.) Ibid., 57.

(20.) John E. White, "The Southern Mountaineer," OHF 21 (August 1909): 16.

(21.) Ibid.

(21.) Ibid., 15.

(23.) Ibid., 17.

(24.) W. H. Williams, "Brown, Albert Erskine," ESB 1 (1958), 200.

(25.) John Angus McLeod, From These Stones: Mars Hill College 1856-1967 (Mars Hill College: n.p., 1968), 204.

(26.) White, "Ten Years of Partnership," OHF 21 (October 1909): 11-12.

(27.) A. E. Brown, "Mountain School Notes," OHF 22 (December 1910): 15.

(28.) A. E. Brown, "The Mission and Value of Our Mountain Schools," Home and Foreign Fields 3 (March 1919): 6-7.

(29.) Oscar M. Drennen, "Testimonial," Una Roberts Lawrence Collection, SBHLA, Nashville, Tennessee, box 16, folder 37.

(30.) Victor I. Masters, "The Mountain People," OHF 20 (April 1909): 19. Emphasis mine.

(31.) Ibid.

(32.) George B. Tindall, "Business Progressivism: Southern Politics in the Twenties," The South Atlantic Quarterly 62 (1963): 93-106.

(33.) Ronald D. Eller, Miners, Millhands, and Mountaineers: Industrialization of the Appalachian South, 1880-1930 (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1982), 110-12.

(34.) Baker, The Southern Baptist Convention, 287-319. See also McBeth, The Baptist Heritage, 392-463, and W. W. Barnes, The Southern Baptist Convention (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1954), 166-79.

(35.) Lawrence Goodwin, Democratic Promise: the Populist Movement in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1976). For an interpretation of populism's impact on Baptist polity see Keith Harper, The Quality of Mercy: Southern Baptists and Social Christianity, 1890-1920 (Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 1996), 15-27.

(36.) Donald G. Matthews, "The Second Great Awakening as an Organizing Process, 1780-1830: An Hypothesis," American Quarterly 21 (Spring 1969): 31.

(37.) Baker, The Southern Baptist Convention, 204-07.

(38.) Lynn E. May Jr., "Southern Baptist Social Consciousness, 1845-1855" (M.A. Thesis, Vanderbilt University, 1968).

(39.) Robert D. Linder, "The Resurgency of Evangelical Social Concern (1925-1975)," in The Evangelicals, ed. David F. Wells and John D. Woodbridge (Nashville: Abingdon Press Co., 1975; reprint, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1977), fn. 6, 226-27.

(40.) Ibid., 227. Samuel S. Hill noted this distinction in the 1987 edition of Eighmy, Churches in Cultural Captivity (Knoxville, University of Tennessee Press, 1972). Hill wrote the introduction, conclusion, and bibliography to this work because Eighmy had suffered a fatal heart attack in 1970. At any rate, Hill said that Southern Baptists manifested considerable social concern and social ministry, but little social action (see Hill's Introduction to Churches in Cultural Captivity, xii-xiii).

(41.) For a statement of the "cultural captivity thesis," see John Lee Eighmy, Churches in Cultural Captivity. For an explanation of "Lost Causeism," see Charles Regan Wilson, Baptized in Blood: The Religion of the Lost Cause, 1865-1920 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1980).

Keith Harper is associate professor of church history at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, North Carolina.