There are “foreign mission fields,” even on the North American Continent. Baptist churches, their preachers and missionaries are “foreign” to the Roman Catholics of Quebec even today, and this is somewhat true in Louisiana as well.
The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 brought some or all of the territories of what are now thirteen states under the rule of the United States. Prior to that time, under the French and Spanish, Roman Catholicism was the legal and only religion tolerated.
The first Baptists in Louisiana were thought to be a few who emigrated from Mississippi as early as 1780, but the first historically known Baptists came with Pastor Bailey Chaney from South Carolina in 1798. Almost immediately he was arrested and imprisoned in Baton Rouge.
The first Baptists in Louisiana were thought to be a few who emigrated from Mississippi as early as 1780, but the first historically known Baptists came with Pastor Bailey Chaney from South Carolina in 1798. Almost immediately he was arrested and imprisoned in Baton Rouge.
Fourteen years later, on this day in 1812, after the Louisiana Purchase, the Half Moon Bluff Baptist Church was organized in the Frankland, Louisiana area by Pastor Ezra Courtney. The church struggled to survive due to the remaining illegal persecution and disappeared from history about 1870. Following that, the Calvary Baptist Church in Evangeline Parish was established in 1812 and is now the oldest church in the state with a continuous history. It has been a struggle, but today there are about 1,600 Baptist churches in the state, however that is fewer than in Alabama, Mississippi or Texas
– Source: “This Day in Baptist History II” by Cummins and Thompson