Welcome to the BAPTIST HISTORY HOMEPAGE: A Source for Original Baptist Documents! This Website was begun ten years ago and the response has been pleasing. When I began this project with some Circular Letters, I did a google search and got only one response to "Baptist Circular Letters" - on a British site.
There is lots of Baptist history available but much of it was limited to special library collections before the Internet became so accessible. Many of the documents have had limited distribution. I have located information in various places; I have often used the Southern Baptist Seminary Library in Louisville, which has a "gold mine" of Baptist history. The archivists there are extremely helpful.
There are now several thousand documents on the site, also there are several hundred links to Baptist documents via Google Books. They are an eclectic assortment; their quality is uneven - some are well-written articles while others are less so. Some are very important, some not so important. I have left the documents "as they are" except where I use [ ] to show a change or at the end of the article I indicate a change of the title or that I've added a title to a document that had no title. The grammar and spelling of the original are retained. I give the page numbers for the source so that you may check it out if necessary [I began doing this in 2005 and all items are not paginated yet]. These Baptist documents are interesting to me and I hope many will be to you too. The items posted here are "public domain" material. Sometimes people post material to their websites from other websites and claim it is copyrighted, but when it is public domain material they can't officially do that. None of these is copyrighted, though if anyone should use this material somewhere else on the Internet it will be appreciated if credit to this site is given. Essays I have written are not copyrighted; the same courtesy of acknowledgement is appreciated.
I graduated from Campbellsville (KY) University with a BA in History/English and received the MA in history from Austin Peay State University, Clarksville, Tennessee. I pastored more than twenty-two years and have worked in pharmaceutical sales. I have been interested in Baptist history for many years and have been collecting Baptist historical items for some time.
Thanks for visitng the site; come back often to view additional items being posted and if you have comments I will appreciate hearing from you. The most recently posted documents are here.
James R. Duvall
The EditorBaptist History Homepage
