W.H. Whitsitt

Nurtured in a Baptist home, the grandson of a pioneer Baptist preacher and church starter, William Whitsitt grew up knowing and admiring the principle leaders of Landmarkism. His Civil War experiences and studies brought him to broader views and converted him to the historical-critical approach to historical and biblical studies, placing him at odds with narrow denominationalism and the popular myth of an unbroken succession of Baptist churches all the way back to the New Testament. Whitsitt was a key leader in the original effort to mobilize the white Baptist churches of the South into an effective and centralized denominational organization to support missions and Christian education. Whitsitt's diaries and letters reveal a man ahead of his times, whose opinions on such matters as the temperance movement, tobacco, professional evangelists, the history of religions, and Baptists exclusivism would have shocked his contemporaries.