The Antipedo Baptists of Georgetown,
South Carolina, 1710–2010
Roy Talbert, Jr. and Meggan A. Farish
The Antipedo Baptists of Georgetown, South Carolina, 1710–2010 is the history of the
First Baptist Church of Georgetown, South Carolina, as well as the history of Baptists in
the colony and state. Roy Talbert, Jr., and Meggan A. Farish detail Georgetown Baptists’ long and tumultuous history, which began with the migration of Baptist exhorter
William Screven from England to Maine and then to South Carolina during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Screven established the First Baptist Church in Charleston in the 1690s before moving to Georgetown in 1710. His son Elisha laid out the town in 1734 and helped found
an interdenominational meeting house on the Black River, where the Baptists worshipped until a proper edifice was constructed in Georgetown: the Antipedo Baptist
Church, named for the congregation’s opposition to infant baptism.
Three of the most recognized figures in Southern Baptist history—Oliver Hart,
Richard Furman, and Edmond Botsford—played vital roles in keeping the Georgetown
church alive through the American Revolution. The nineteenth century was particularly
trying for the Georgetown Baptists, and the church came very close to shutting its
doors on several occasions. The authors reveal that for most of the nineteenth century
a majority of church members were African American slaves.
Not until World War II did Georgetown witness any real growth. Since then the
congregation has blossomed into one of the largest churches in the convention and
rightfully occupies an important place in the history of the Baptist denomination. The
Antipedo Baptists of Georgetown is an invaluable contribution to Southern religious
history as well as the history of race relations before and after the Civil War.
December 2014, 192 pages, 14 b&w illus.
Method of payment:
_____ Check or money order (payable to USC Press in United States dollars)
Roy Talbert, Jr., is a professor of history at Coastal Carolina University.
Talbert’s publications include FDR’s
Utopian: Arthur Morgan of the TVA and
Negative Intelligence: The Army and the
American Left, 1917–1941.
Meggan A. Farish is a graduate of
Coastal Carolina University and a
history doctoral candidate at Duke
University. She is the coeditor of The
Journal of Peter Horry, South Carolinian:
Recording the New Republic, 1812–1814
(University of South Carolina Press).
Send me ______ copy/copies
(hc, 978-1-61117-420-5, $34.95 each) ______
Credit Card: ____ American Express ____ Discover ____ Mastercard ____ Visa
Account number: _____________________________________ Exp. date: ________
Signature: ____________________________________________________________
SC residents add 8% sales tax ______
Name (please print): ________________________________ Phone: ____________
Shipping address: ______________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
*add $7.50 for first book,
$2.00 for each additional book
Shipping and handling* ______
TOTAL ______
CODE AUFR
718 Devine Street, Columbia, South Carolina 29208
800-768-2500 • Fax 800-868-0740 • www.uscpress.com