Introduction

The assortment of political views held by Baptists was as diverse as any other denomination in the early United States, but they were bound together by a fundamental belief in the inviolability of the individual conscience in matters of faith.

In a nation where civil government and religion were inextricable, and in states where citizens were still born into the local parish church, the doctrine of believer's baptism was an inescapably political idea.

As a result, historians have long acknowledged that Baptists in the early republic were driven by their pursuit of religious liberty, even partnering with those who did not share their beliefs. However, what has not been as well documented is the complexity and conflict with which Baptists carried out their Jeffersonian project.

Just as they disagreed on seemingly everything else, Baptists did not always define religious liberty in quite the same way.

Let Men Be Free offers the first comprehensive look into Baptist politics in the early United States, examining how different groups and different generations attempted to separate church from state and how this determined the future of the denomination and indeed the nation itself.