In the nineteenth century, Baptists in North Carolina were in danger of disappearing as a denomination. In 1840, only slightly m ore than 24,000 of the state's more than 750,000 residents were Baptist. In order to ensure that the denomination would continue, Baptists decided they needed a publication to promote themselves.
The publication, called the Biblical Recorder, was a weekly newspaper. The newspaper competed with other secular publications in the state by providing regular news while at the same time promoting issues that were peculiarly Baptist, such as infant baptism. The paper's editors had to find the proper audience to make sure Baptists were not swallowed up by Methodists, Presbyterians, and other groups. A newspaper alone, however, could not ensure denominational success in North Carolina, which was 98 percent rural.
The newspaper had to appeal not only to the male pastors, it also had to become a part of families' lives. To be successful, the Biblical Recorder had to be an instrument of news, entertainment, and growth for the entire family. And, it had to be targeted at the one audience that could guarantee the prosperity of the denomination. For that reason, the editors of the Biblical Recorder appealed to and promoted women because females represented the majority of the weekly church congregations and served as central figures in homes.
This research looks at the way in which the editors of the Biblical Recorder used the paper's pages to build up the denomination by promoting selfless service by women and education for women from the newspaper's inception in 1832 to the beginning of the Civil War. The paper also explores ways in which other information in the Recorder was geared to a female audience and reaches the conclusion that it was this plan of appealing to woman that delivered on the promise of the first Biblical Recorder editor, Thomas Meredith, that the paper would be "the prosperity of the Denomination."
Last updated: November 24, 1997
comments to: commdept@cecasun.utc.edu
