Baptist Faith in Action: The Private Writings of Maria Baker Taylor, 1813-1895

Supplying a wealth of material from locales and a time for which few primary sources exist, Baptist Faith in Action brings to print the writings of Maria Baker Taylor (1813-1895), a strong-minded plantation mistress who spent her life in South Carolina and Florida. The granddaughter of Richard Furman, South Carolina's foremost nineteenth-century Baptist minister, Taylor was a well-educated and sophisticated member of South Carolina's second-tier planter class. She was also a most fervent Baptist. Notable for its geographical and temporal breadth, this collection of letters, diary entries, essays, and poems affords an unmatched view into the life of a woman living on the South's interior frontier during the nineteenth century. Born in Sumter County, South Carolina, Maria Baker married John Morgandollar Taylor in 1834. Throughout their marriage the couple lived on the geographical frontier, first in Beaufort District, South Carolina, and then in Marion County, Florida. The mother of thirteen children, Taylor taught her children and grandchildren at home, devoted large amounts of time to church work, and read voraciously. She also wrote voluminously, keeping diaries, exchanging letters, and occasionally publishing anonymous articles in Baptist publications. These writings document the spiritual life of an evangelical Baptist woman and explore the impact of the American Civil War on her world. Of particular interest, these writings reveal how Taylor's day-to-day experiences differed dramatically from the stereotypical image of southern plantation life.