Baptist Minister

Religious Freedom.

Isaac Backus's service as minister of the Baptist church in the small country town of Middleborough, Massachusetts, would not ordinarily ensure a place for him in the history books. Yet despite this modest position, Backus became one of the most widely known evangelical preachers in early America. He was also a key figure in the debate over the separation of church and state in the period after the American Revolution. Backus had a vision of religious freedom that complemented an intense piety, a view shared by many in these formative years of American society.

Awakening to Faith.

Backus was born on a Connecticut farm on 9 January 1724. Like many other New Englanders, he experienced a dramatic conversion during the Great Awakening, a series of religious revivals that swept through American churches in the early 1740s. These revivals emphasized the importance of...