At the close of the Revolutionary war Robert Carter was one of the wealthiest men in Virginia, owning 70,000 acres. He was a friend of other rich and powerful people including Thomas Jefferson.
On this day (September 6) in 1778, Carter faced an audience of about 400 and clearly explained his conversion experience. He had been saved by the grace of God through the ministry of Lewis Lundsford. Lunsford then led him into the waters of Totuskey Creek and baptized him. Carter’s friends and neighbors thought he had lost his mind by rejecting the church of his ancestors and aligning himself with the despised Baptists. His conversion had been remarkable and obvious. His world had been literally turned upside down – he had rejected the religion of Thomas Jefferson and embraced the religion of Jefferson’s slaves.
A few months earlier, in July of 1778, Carter wrote to his friend Jefferson: “I had imbibed the very destructive notion touching the religion of revelation that it was of human institution only, and that the civil powers had closed in with it for temporal advantage; only it does not appear fit to mention here the probable motives that led to this deistical opinion. I do now disclaim it and do testify that Jesus Christ is the Son of God; and that through Him (only) mankind can be saved…”
