“In the Tub of Diogenes”

Abstract

Abstract Because of his controversial, contrarian individualism, John Leland spent his final decades marginalized from Baptist and evangelical life in America. The antebellum period was a golden age of evangelical expansion and organization in America, a day of unprecedented numerical growth, institution-building, and cultural influence. But Leland aggressively opposed the evangelical alliance of moral crusader Lyman Beecher. He saw in Beecher’s “moral societies” yet another attempt by New England elites to gain social control, wed the church and the state, and suppress individual consciences. He was particularly vocal in his opposition to Sunday mail legislation. Leland also criticized the denomination-building Baptists of the era, especially their efforts at missions fundraising and the establishment of educational institutions. Leland was one of the most prominent voices in a dissident grassroots movement against organized, denominational Christianity in antebellum America, and became a guiding spirit for the Primitive Baptists.