Growth.

Although the revolutionary period as a whole was a time of religious disaffection, two groups in particular resisted that tendency. Along with the Methodists, the Baptists laid the groundwork in these years for the spectacular growth that they experienced in the early national period. In 1740 there were only thirtythree Baptist churches in the New England colonies and few elsewhere. Most of these predated the Great Awakening, and they did not adhere to the revivalistic principles that soon became popular. Many were so-called General Baptists, who were much less rigid in their thinking about salvation than most of their Calvinist neighbors. By 1784 there were more than 150 Baptist congregations in New England alone, with more than 8,000 communicants, and by 1790 Virginia had more than 200 churches. Most of these were of a different character than the General Baptists. These were the Separate Baptists, named this because many emerged...