This is a reprint of the original 1845 book about the scriptural legitimacy of slavery. ""Domestic Slavery"" originated in the nineteenth century as a literary debate between two Baptist leaders over the Bible's teachings on slavery. The chapters were originally letters published in a Baptist newspaper in Boston, Massachusetts. Southern pastor Richard Fuller and Northern educator Francis Wayland were each able defenders of their respective positions. These men were also good friends who believed that a difference of opinion about slavery should not necessitate a breaking of Christian fellowship. Unfortunately, these two Baptists leaders proved naive in this regard. Just weeks after the publication of the correspondence in book form, Fuller's Southern Baptist Convention broke away from the larger Baptist denomination and formed a new ecclesiastical body. A number of issues factored into the division, though the slavery debate was what ultimately led to the creation of a separate Baptist denomination in the South. Historians of Southern religion consider ""Domestic Slavery"" to be one of the major contributions to the nineteenth-century debate over the peculiar institution. This critical edition of ""Domestic Slavery"", which includes annotations and an appendix of related documents, represents the first reprint of this important work to be published since the mid-nineteenth century. Scholars of Southern culture and religious history will benefit from a close examination of what was undoubtedly the most significant Baptist contribution to the slavery debate in the years leading to the Civil War.

As the story goes, an itinerant preacher once visited the Bluegrass region and proclaimed heaven to be "a mere Kentucky of a place." The Commonwealth's first Baptists certainly thought so as they began settling the region a decade before statehood. By 1785 a group of pioneering preachers formed the Elkhorn Association, widely regarded as the oldest Baptist association west of the Alleghenies. Often portrayed in the historiography as the vanguard of a new frontier democracy, the Elkhorn Association, on closer inspection, reveals itself to be far more complex. In A Mere Kentucky of a Place, Keith Harper argues that the association's Baptist ministers were neither full-fledged frontier egalitarians nor radical religionists but simply a people in transition. These ministers formed their identities in the crucible of the early national period, challenged by competing impulses, including their religious convictions, Jeffersonian Republicanism, and a rigid honor code-with mixed results. With a keen eye for human interest, Harper brings familiar historical figures such as John Gano and Elijah Craig to life as he analyzes leadership in the Elkhorn Association during the early republic. Mining the wealth of documents left by the association, Harper details the self-aware struggle of these leaders to achieve economic wealth, status, and full social and cultural acceptance, demonstrating that the Elkhorn Association holds a unique place in the story of Baptists in the "New Eden" of Kentucky. Ideal for course adoption in religious studies and students of Kentucky history, this readable work is sure to become a standard source on the history of religion on the Kentucky frontier.

Among Southern Baptists no name commands more respect than Charlotte Digges "Lottie" Moon. Her self-sacrificing spirit, gritty determination, and commitment to bring Christianity to China have been legendary within denominational ranks for well over a century. Indeed, many know of her work, but few know of her life.

Send the Light: Letters from Lottie Moon is a collection of letters written by the most beloved of all Southern Baptist missionaries. These letters offer a rare glimpse into the daily routine of a woman who challenged nearly every missionary preconception that Baptists cherished at the turn of the century. She faced wars, anti-American animosity, and cultural alienation with a quiet dignity and faith that inspired her fellow missionaries and eventually won the hearts of her Chinese neighbors. She urged her denomination to support their missionary enterprises with the same type of zeal that motivated her. Moreover, Lottie Moon was never bashful about chiding, even scolding them when she thought they were not doing enough to support missions.

Beyond her numerous admonitions to Southern Baptists in general and the Foreign Mission Board in particular, Moon's personal correspondence captures a sensitive, caring woman who loved children and valued education. Always one who maintained deep family roots, these letters offer an intimate look into her desire for her family members to live happy, productive lives. They also reveal a woman whose sober, common sense approach to life was tempered by a subtle, often unexpected, sense of humor. All told, Send the Light reintroduces the world to a devoted missionary who forever changed the way Southern Baptists viewed missionaries.