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This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the Duplication Policy section for more information.
This collection was processed with support from the Randleigh Foundation Trust.
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Collection Overview
| Size | 6 volumes (1 reel of microfilm) |
| Abstract | Microfilm only. Sawyers Creek Baptist Church, Camden County, N.C., founded circa 1790, was an interracial church affiliated with the Chowan Association and later with the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina and the Southern Baptist Convention. Primarily minutes of church conferences held every month in the early years and quarterly in later years, with special called meetings as needed. The minutes record transactions of church business and finance; matters relating to the admission, discipline, expulsion, or removal of members; the calling of pastors and the election of church officials; the care of church property; and relations with other Baptist churches. Also included are lists of members indicating gender and race, lists of contributions, and the church covenant and rules of decorum. |
| Creator | Sawyers Creek Baptist Church (Camden County, N.C.) |
| Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection. |
| Language | English |
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Information For Users
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Processing Information
Processed by: Suzanne Ruffing, August 1996
Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008
This collection was processed with support from the Randleigh Foundation Trust.
Conscious Editing Work by: Nancy Kaiser, July 2020. Updated abstract, subject headings, scope and content note, and container list.
Since August 2017, we have added ethnic and racial identities for individuals and families represented in collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.
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Subject Headings
The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.
Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.
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Historical Information
Sawyers Creek Baptist Church, Camden County, N.C., founded circa 1790, was an interracial church affiliated with the Chowan Association and later with the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina and the Southern Baptist Convention.
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Scope and Content
Six volumes of records (on microfilm) of the interracial Sawyers Creek Baptist Church, Camden County, N.C., are primarily minutes of church conferences held every month in the early years and quarterly in later years, with special called meetings as needed. The minutes record transactions of church business and finance; matters relating to the admission, discipline, expulsion, or removal of members; the calling of pastors and the election of church officials; the care of church property; and relations with other Baptist churches. Also included are lists of members indicating gender and race, lists of contributions, and the church covenant and rules of decorum.
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Sawyers Creek Baptist Church Records, 1815-1937.
| Reel M-3724/1 |
Volume 1: 31 July 1815-13 November 1853Minutes of monthly and quarterly meetings of the church, and also preparatory meetings every quarter, dealing with church business, discipline of church members, deaths, new members received by transfer from other churches or by baptism; relations with other Baptist churches; calling a pastor; granting letters of dismissal to members wishing to join other Baptist churches; and election to church offices (few in number). There are references to African-American members, whose status is not usually specified, but probably includes both enslaved and free people. In February-March 1846, there are references to the sale of pews. The last entries for 8 October and 13 November 1853 are duplicated in volume 2, which also includes other entries for October 1853. Several loose papers enclosed in this book include lists of ballots for persons nominated for church office and items dealing with discipline cases. At the back of the book, an account of a meeting "at the new meeting house on Sawyers Creek" on 11 September 1790 to "form an abstract of our principles" is recorded under the title "Rules for the Government of the Church at Sawyers Creek." There is also the church covenant, lists of white male members, white female members, African-American male members, and African-American female members (undated). Sometimes the writing is difficult to read with poor spelling. The disciplinary cases show concern on the part of the church for the conduct of members. |
Volume 2: 8 October 1853-12 March 1872Loose papers from volume 2 include lists of white female members of the church, 1853, 1859, 1869, and lists of contributions for "general benevolence" to 10 June 1871, white male and female members. Early entries in this volume, in pencil and very dim, are out of order. There are minutes of 7 October 1854; lists of members, some received in August 1873; unidentified list of women; minutes for 21 September 1866; an item, 2 January 1854, wherein the trustees of Wake Forest College granted Sawyers Creek Church a scholarship until 1904 in return for a gift of $500; covenant of the church; rules of government; list of white male members in 1854; list of white female members in 1860 and in 1854; and in 1864, list of African American male and female members. Conference minutes begin with 8 October 1853, which is a duplicate of that in volume 1, and include others for October and an entry for 13 November, which is also a duplicate. Business for the period of this volume is much like that recorded in volume 1 except that it includes the awarding to an individual of the Wake Forest scholarship. For the early part of the Civil War period, the minutes make no mention of the war, though it may have been a reflection of unsettled conditions that an unusually large number of members were expelled for immoral conduct. In September 1862, the entries are kept in pencil and continue to be so through the rest of the volume. In September 1864, a member gave $10 for the benefit of soldiers, and, in December, a committee appointed to determine if any persons on the church roll had joined the U.S. Army reported that none were found. Towards the end of the war, financial arrangements, especially the payment of the pastor's salary, showed the influence of inflation. In September 1866 the African American members were granted letters of dismissal to join other churches. On the end pages, there are lists of contributors. |
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Volume 3: 7 March 1872-1 July 1882, 6 June 1886This volume includes the church covenant, rules of government, and minutes from 7 March 1872 to 1 July 1882 and one entry from 6 June 1886, also located in volume 4 under 5 June 1886. On the end pages are undated lists of members and amounts they contributed. |
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Volume 4: 5 August 1882-3 November 1900The first pages of this volume contain undated lists of members and contributions. The minutes are concerned, to a large extent, with the personal conduct of members, but disciplinary cases also deal with members who have not paid their dues, which were usually assessed by a committee of deacons, and with person who do not attend the conference. The church also displayed concern for the prohibition of the sale of liquor. |
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Volume 5: 1 December 1900-May 1928The minutes in this volume are similar to previous ones, but many of the practices of the church had changed. Dues were still assessed and there were many special collections to take care of rather small expenses. In late 1901, the committee on assessments was told to make the total amount large enough to cover all incidental expenses, but there were still rather frequent special collections. In April 1902, the church defined revelry, which was forbidden to members by the covenant, and there was emphasis on efforts to stop members from dancing. On 30 September 1905, the church passed a resolution disapproving the running of trains on Sunday. In 1911, the church agreed to change the practice of calling the pastor annually to calling him for an indefinite period. On 4 November 1911, the church received a gift for an individual communion service. On 6 September 1913, the church gave a member permission to go to court in regard to some land in controversy. On 6 June 1914, the church appointed a committee to investigate the envelope system for missions, expenses, etc. In January 1915, a committee was appointed to investigate charges of dancing and drinking against some of the members. By 1917, the church was apparently working on a system of pledges supplemented by assessment of those members who did not pledge, but the transition to the new system is not entirely clear from the minutes. In September 1918, the church got a telephone for the parsonage and began to dispense with the calling of the roll at some conferences. In 1920, electric lights were installed in the church and parsonage by a private system. By this year, regular conferences were held quarterly only with short called ones for special purposes. In the 1920s, members were expelled for failing to pay dues and for immorality. There are no minutes recorded for 1923, and pages 328-331 of the volume are blank. The roll was called at conferences in 1926, but nothing was said about absentees or excuses for absences. From 1927 on, there were no roll calls and no cases of discipline for personal conduct. The minutes in this volume end 31 March 1928 and are followed by reports of the Sunday School superintendent for April and May 1928. There is also an undated loose copy of the church covenant. |
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Volume 6: 30 June 1928-22 September 1937The minutes of this volume are concerned, to a large extent, with financial matters; in 1929, members were expelled for non-payment of dues. In 1933, the pastor was authorized to canvass members to contribute chickens as a means of getting money to buy batteries for the electric plant. Members cut wood for use by the church in heating. In January 1926, a committee was appointed to visit some of the members in regard to their church relations, but no details were given. |
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Microfilm (M-3724/1)
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