Talk:John Stark Ravenscroft

message: I researched the older second-sentence reference to Ravenscroft's "opposition to the American Bible Society and the theology of baptism promoted by Baptists in particular." I found references (cited) describing in great detail his big fight with the Bible Society of North Carolina, and about his belief that performing baptisms required the authority of an established church (he was a bull in a china shop, it seems), but nothing about opposition to the Baptist denomination in particular. His most public foe in the controversy was John Rice, a Presbyterian. I leaned pretty hard on Google Books to find these sources, but got zero hits on anything linking Baptists to the controversy. If anyone finds specific references to the contrary, by all means, add them to the reference list and update the article appropriately. Bridgman 06:26, 27 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Baptists' dog not in this hunt, it seems

message: I don't have time for further research on/sorting out of Ravenscroft's views concerning slavery, which may well have evolved; plus he died just before a major slave rebellion. The Lunenberg historical society book I cited doesn't mention Ravenscroft at all, though it does say an Episcopal Chapel was built around Bricktown around 1813, and possibly rebuilt in 1839 as St. John Episcopal. It also says that Henderson Lee of Charlotte County, after service in the War of 1812, joined the Republican Movement in the Methodist Church which preached against social vices and against slavery and which didn't survive in Lunenburg County, its members eventually joining with the Presbyterians. It also  says the area Baptists allowed whites and blacks to mingle, which I know in other areas caused more controversy than baptismal practices. According to Jeffrey and Kathryn St. John's Brief history of Mecklenburg County, at p. 48-50) Boydton (founded in 1814) had become known for its horse-racing, although I thought I read somewhere it was also known for slave trading (losing gamblers selling slaves to pay their debts, presumably). By 1830 the Virginia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church bought the racetrack and on it constructed Randolph-Macon College (named after U.S. Rep. John Randolph of Roanoke who in his will freed his slaves, and U.S. House Speaker Nathaniel Macon of North Carolina). The NRIS for Ravenscroft's former home in Virginia gives the "mad Jack" moniker, as well as says the Republican Methodists were a small sect led by James O'Kelly which believed in the equality of all members of the ministry and was absorbed in the United Church of Christ. It also says that by 1820 Lunenberg had one of the highest proportion of slaves within its borders.Jweaver28 (talk) 23:46, 12 April 2016 (UTC)
thread_title: Ravenscroft and slavery

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thread_title:  External links modified