James A. Rogers; Foreword by John Boles

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As a traveling evangelist, advocate of religious freedom, leader of the patriot cause, Charleston minister, and pioneer educator, Richard Furman became an important figure in American religious history and a potent political force in South Carolina.

After his conversion in 1770 Furman devoted himself to Bible study and preaching. In 1774 he was ordained into the Baptist ministry. While he volunteered to fight in the American Revolution, South Carolina's leaders valued him more as a preacher. It was said that Lord Cornwallis feared Furman's prayers more than the armies of Francis Marion and Thomas Sumter.

After the revolution, as a Baptist minister in Charleston, Furman began laying the foundation for an organized program of Baptist education and missions in the South and throughout the United States. By 1814, when he was elected president of the first Triennial Convention of American Baptists, he was perhaps the most influential Baptist leader in America.

James A. Rogers was editor emeritus of the Florence, South Carolina, Morning News, a paper he served with distinction since 1939. He graduated from Furman University in 1927, and held an honorary doctorate from his alma mater as well as from Francis Marion College, the College of Charleston, and Lander College. He also published other works of regional history, including Theodosia and Other Pee Dee Sketches and Ebenezer, The Story of a Church.

John B. Boles, author of the foreword, is William P. Hobby Professor of History at Rice University. He is also the managing editor of the Journal of Southern History. He has published numerous books on Southern religion, including The Irony of Southern Religion and The Great Revival, 1787-1805: The Origins of the Southern Evangelical Mind.

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