In Subjection: Church Discipline in the Early American South, 1760-1830

This study of church discipline cases describes a system of subjection with obligations for all—men, women, parents, children, masters, and servants. Although many historians have mistaken this for "oppression," most Southerners accepted the idea of "subjection," regarding it as a divinely ordained system for their mutual governance and benefit. Using Baptist church record books from across North and South Carolina, the author invites readers to sit in on business meetings of the past to see how churches regulated the behavior of their members. Complete with a map and statistical tables, this book argues that church discipline bound everyone together in mutual subjection to a shared code of conduct rather than empowering white men exclusively with a position of authority over others.