Latest news with #DianeBadger
CBS News
11-07-2025
- General
- CBS News
Document discovered in Massachusetts shows Baptist ministers took early stand against slavery
A scroll where Baptist ministers took an early stand against slavery has been rediscovered in Groton, Massachusetts. The document was written in 1847 and signed by 16 Baptist ministers. "They wanted to go on record as saying that they were against slavery," says Rev. Diane Badger, the administrator of the American Baptist Church of Massachusetts. "They thought that slavery was an abomination, so they came up with this declaration and protest against slavery." Document written before Civil War The document was written 14 years before the start of the Civil War and 16 years before the Emancipation Proclamation. Badger says the ministers carefully considered what they were doing. "They had sent out to the association a question... would you be able to support someone as a Missionary who was also a slaveholder," Badger says. "And the answer came back overwhelming, 'no, we could not.'" The church held on to the document but did not carefully track its location. It was packed and moved with the church's archival material. In the 20th century alone, the room full of papers shifted from Boston to Newton to Groton. When Badger launched a search for the document, she started far from home. Spots in Atlanta, Providence, Boston and Cambridge were all checked, but the document was not there. It was ultimately found by accident. "It was one of these serendipitous moments," Badger told WBZ-TV. "One of the women that was working in the archives helping move things around while they were building some more shelves opened the box." The scroll was sitting right on top of the box. The church has held some public viewings of the scroll. The plan now is to restore it and make a reproduction which can be put on permanent display. The original will be stored in a more secure place.
New York Times
09-07-2025
- General
- New York Times
Discovery of 178-Year-Old Baptist Antislavery Document Elates Faith Leaders
The Rev. John Odams, pastor of the oldest Baptist church in Boston, was building shelves for the American Baptist archives on a Saturday in May when a volunteer brought him something unusual that she had just found in a box. 'It looked like a prop from a Christmas pageant or something, a little scroll rolled up — but then we opened it,' Mr. Odams said. He recognized a name on the list of signatures as that of the pastor who led his church, the First Baptist Church of Boston, in the 1800s. He instantly knew that this was a momentous document from Baptist history — one that was thought to have been lost. The scroll was handwritten in 1847, just two years after Baptists in the United States split, with the Southern congregations breaking off over their Northern counterparts' condemnation of slavery. Using forceful language, 116 Baptist ministers in Massachusetts had signed their name to what they called 'A Resolution and Protest Against Slavery,' condemning the system as 'entirely repugnant.' The document had largely been forgotten until the Rev. Diane Badger, an American Baptist minister in Massachusetts who works to record and preserve the Church's history, read a copy several years ago in a book that was published in 1902. She searched in vain for the scroll in archives across New England but did not find it. The discovery in May, reported earlier by The Associated Press, was a surprise, as was the fact that the 178-year-old scroll was in pristine condition. 'The ink on the signatures was really strong,' Ms. Badger said. The discovery has elated American Baptists and faith leaders in Massachusetts, who say they draw inspiration from the document, which is emblematic of the nation's evolving attitude toward slavery. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
