And Why Not Everyman An account of slavery, the Underground Railroad, and the road to freedom in New York's Southern Tier. by Helene C. Phelan 1987 Seventh Day Baptists Page 57-60 The Western Association of the Seventh Day Baptists of which Alfred was a part, as early as 1836 also passed strong resolutions against slavery. In 1843 they resolved: That the condition of over 2,000,000 people held in bondage demands our sympathies and prayers; that we disclaim any religious connection with the institution of slavery; and exhort any members of this conference who are concerned in the practice to abandon it immediately. The history of the Seventh Day Baptists Association says in part: In the agitation that followed for the next twenty years, our people took a prominent part, both privately and publicly and when the Civil War came they were among the first to enlist. From this group Darwin Maxson, then aged 39, enrolled as a chaplain in 1861. This was not an isolated gesture among clergy in western New York. In Friendship Walter B. Gillette, who had started out as a school teacher, became in 1832 a Seventh Day preacher and an active abolitionist. In his early days he was captain of Militia. In the spring of 1841, Mrs. Susan Spicer, an Alfred Seventh Day Baptist wrote: The engrossing subject throughout the North was the slavery question . . . . The recapture of slaves was a common occurrence in the North and a case of that kind had recently occurred, accompanied with more than unusual atrocities. Mrs. Spicer then describes the young Jonathan Allen, then 18 years old (later to become president of Alfred University and a Seventh Day Baptist minister) dramatizing the case of such a recaptured slave before the student body at Alfred and she says of Allen in conclusion: He predicted with unbelievable accuracy the events of the next twenty years which brought about the abolition of slavery. The Jonathan Allen forecast of 1841 read as follows: God will not permit such an institution [slavery] to exist in America much longer. Even now I seem to hear its death knell. God's repressing hand is laid upon you. The days of slavery are already numbered though it will die only after a hard struggle. It will only die after a baptism of our whole country in blood. Twenty years from now an anti-slavery President will be elected. You of the south will rebel and endeavor to establish a slave-holders oligarchy. The North will not submit to the dissolution of these states and a fearful carnage will follow. Slavery will be abolished and God will preserve the nation. May God be merciful to the people. God save the poor and oppressed. In 1857 Maria Whitford of Alfred, a farm wife, briefly noted in her diary June 29th. Went to the centre [Alfred] to the Alleganian Session together with the Ladies Literary Society . . . . The Orophillian [society] held their session. Their speaker was Frederick Douglass, a colored man from Rochester; it was very good. The 1861 Conference of the Seventh Day Churches as held in New Market, New Jersey, (evidently in the autumn after the war had started) and Historical Paper Volume I reports "eight resolutions were discussed that set forth slavery as the cause, and its overthrow as the desired result of the Civil War" and pledged to the Union "loyal support whatever it may cost!" In Independence and Little Genesee, the Reverend James Barley, as well as the Reverend Sherman S. Griswold, the Seventh Day Minister (a convert from the Baptists) were ardent anti-slavery and temperance reform leaders. Whitney Cross tells us that although religion became a more potent factor in national life" . . . with strength sufficient to enter the arena and engage in combat with . . . dueling, intemperance and slavery" it is not for many churches either a clear cut matter, or one which always produced union and harmony. G.Maria Davis-Johnson mjohnson80@adelphia.net Yuma, Arizona USA Researching DAVIS of Welsh descent in PA, RI, NJ, NY, WVa, and WI. Allied Seventh Day Baptist (SDB) families. Babcock, Burdick, Cartwright, Clarke, Coon, Crandall, Crumb, Greene, Lanphere, Maxson, Rogers, Stillman. Also Eckstrom, Henry, Kent, Money, Moon, Pettit, Straight, Wex, and Zemple. http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~davisfam/Index.htm