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“The Baptist Interest”

Oliver Hart faced a crisis of decision when the Charleston Baptist Church extended an invitation for him to return as pastor there in 1783. Hart repeatedly equivocated in his correspondence with them, but ultimately blessed the appointment of his young friend Richard Furman to the post, thus sealing the union of Regular and Separate Baptists in the South. In Hopewell, Hart continued to lament the absence of revival in his apathetic congregation, as well as his own physical decline and old age. He found his greatest encouragement during these years in the “rising glory” of the young American republic, which he believed to be uniquely blessed by God. He celebrated the federal Constitution and urged his skeptical Baptist colleagues to support its ratification. This chapter also explores Hart’s change of perspective on the issue of slavery.