Just found out that an ancestor testified in the Salem Witchcraft Trials

[csziggy]

23. Nearly all my Mom's ancestors were slave owners

She came from west central Alabama - her ancestors arrived there between 1817 and 1834 and all came originally from North or South Carolina, some bringing their slaves with them. I've written other messages about her family during the Civil War and how many of them died.

The really disturbing ancestor as far as I am concerned was one of the earliest and most influential Baptist ministers in Alabama. The church where he was ordained in South Caroline prohibited their elders and ministers from being slave owners - I think that is one reason he left and went to Alabama. He started one church, then left that one to start another. While he was not pastor of the first church, a slave got permission to preach to other slaves who could not get to the church to worship. Then my ancestor returned to the church and prohibited that slave from preaching. The end result was that that slave left that church - I don't know what happened to him since this story comes from the history of that church.

That same preacher ancestor was responsible for the formation of the Alabama Baptist Convention and encouraged the formation of the Southern Baptist Convention though it was not actually formed until after his death. When I think of the evil that has been done in the name of the Southern Baptist Convention, I wish my ancestor had been a wiser, more tolerant man.