Churches along rural roads often appear as distinctive landmarks, marked by the size of the building, the surrounding parking lots, and other facilities. Yet, they are often seemingly isolated and disconnected from their surroundings. Mt. Gilead Baptist Church on Shannon Hill Road illustrates this pattern. The church is located at a crossroads, but is apparently far from any other community center or local services. Despite this apparent isolation, Mt. Gilead Baptist Church has a history that extends back almost two hundred years, to a moment when Protestant religious enthusiasm transformed the relationship between Virginians and their faith. This moment, the Second Great Awakening, was connected to broader themes related to religious tolerance, political movement, the reform of slavery, and the role of women in American society. These historical themes are also connected to contemporary issues related to the role of religion in present-day American life. An exploration of the history of religion in eighteenth and early nineteenth century Virginia thus connects this church to broader themes encountered by cyclists riding along route 76 as they pass by churches and perhaps wonder about their past, present, and future.
Welcome to episode 10 of the Virginia Bikecentennial Route 76 Podcast. This episode is connected to the community of Shannon Hill, located just over 150 miles from Yorktown, the starting point for the westbound route, and nearly 400 miles from the Kentucky border, where eastbound riders enter Virginia. This podcast is a production of Virginia Tech, a public land grant university located in Blacksburg, just three miles from Route 76 in southwest Virginia. I am your narrator, Grace Kostrzebski, and this podcast is produced by the digital humanities program in Virginia Tech University Libraries, under the direction of media manager Joe Forte, in collaboration with Project Director Tom Ewing.
In many small towns, like those found along Route 76 in rural Virginia, churches appear as remarkably stable institutions, with substantial buildings, ample parking lots, often playgrounds or outdoor meeting spaces, and possibly additional buildings. Often several churches are concentrated in historic downtowns, possibly sharing addresses on Church Street, or even more frequently along Main Street or near a town square. The prime locations of these buildings are durable reminders of how central religion has been to the history of Virginia. Yet the seeming durability of these buildings does not adequately reflect the contentious role of religion in the early history of Virginia, particularly when connected to issues such as political representation, individual liberty, the institution of slavery, and the role of women. For more than a century after European colonization, religion was the center from which every other facet of life extended. It brought colonists to the New World and inspired documents foundational to the government of the United States. It spurred on movements like Abolition which transformed the United States in the nineteenth century. It drew members to create and maintain Mt. Gilead Baptist Church on Shannon Hill Road – still a center of the community nearly two centuries after its founding in 1831. The spatial location of church buildings at the center of rural communities remains an effective metaphor for the centrality of religion in the early history of Virginia.
The origins of the Christianity in the Americas were shaped by politics as well as faith. The Spanish monarchy funded Columbus’s exploration to further the glorification and expansion of the Catholic faith. More than a century later, English colonists settled in the New World in part for commercial reasons, but also to escape religious persecution. Puritans seeking new land to practice their religion settled in New England, where they became known as the Pilgrims. In Virginia, the Anglican Church was established by the British Crown as the state’s only religion in 1619. Virginia’s government maintained religious uniformity across the state for decades.
English colonists made claims on land previously occupied by indigenous Americans. Although the early years of European expansion allowed for some co-existence in religious as well as social life, relations worsened as the English sought either to convert Native Americans to Christianity or to suppress the faith of indigenous communities. Even as religion became a defining and unifying force for English settlers, it exacerbated ideological divisions with Native Americans who were physically displaced from their lands.
In eighteenth century Virginia, religion evolved along with other elements of colonial society. The Enlightenment, associated with a growing interest in logic and reason and a willingness to challenge the established order, contributed to the revolutionary momentumk that created the United States. Rationalism was the core of the intellectual revolution that followed the Enlightenment. Supporters believed that reason was the only way to know reality. Faith alone was dismissed as unreliable and insufficient as a guide to action or path to salvation. Deism is the belief in a supreme being that created the universe and the associated faith that this supreme being does not interfere with the universe past its initial creation. Deism found favor with the upper class in colonial America, including Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, whose controversial position in eighteenth century religious debates have been obscured by their heroic reputations as founding fathers of the United States.
Establishment churches reacted harshly to new ideas that threatened their control of society. The First Great Awakening was a reaction to the Enlightenment’s emphasis on reason. The main focus of the revival was on restructuring the authority of the church, challenging those who had power and the sources of this power. During this era of enslavement Baptist and Methodist missionaries had great success with enslaved communities due to their message of spiritual equality. This outreach established a link between African American communities and religion that continued well beyond the Second Great Awakening.
Enlightenment thought became central to the Revolutionary War. The essentially conservative role in American life that the establishment church had occupied since Plymouth was replaced with revolutionary politics. The religious revival burnt out as the churches finished their internal restructuring and religious politics gave way to the movement to establish an independent UnitedStates.
The dividing line between church and state was as contentious in the revolutionary era as it is in today’s political climate. In urban communities, multiple Christian denominations dwelled within a short distance of each other, thus encouraging a degree of familiarity and even common purpose among church leaders and congregants. Laws promoting tolerance reflected these social conditions. Maryland, with a large urban population located in port cities, passed the first ever law affirming the right to religious freedom to all Christians in 1648. In many rural areas, particularly across the South, communities were frequently one denomination with little room or desire for tolerance of other faiths.
The Anglican Church was the only church in Virginia for more than a century, from the founding of Jamestown through the 1760s, In 1766, George Mason drafted the Virginia Bill of Rights, establishing religious freedom as an important right for Virginians and beginning the process of restricting the Anglican Church’s claim to rule over the state. James Madison later took inspiration from this document when drafting the United States Bill of Rights which assured all citizens would have the right to religious freedom. Inspired by these documents, Thomas Jefferson drafted the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom to separate the Anglican church from the state. These laws revealed an emerging consensus that while Christian churches and the government shared similar goals, no single denomination or leadership had the right to impose a set of beliefs on the population as a whole.
American society after the success of the war for independence was marked by anxiety about the new order. No one knew what the future had in store for the new nation. Uncertainty brought people back to the church, as many sought simple solutions in a structured system. Whereas the First Great Awakening emphasized the revitalized faith of the person, the Second Great Awakening focused on the reform and expansion of established churches. Romanticism, an intellectual movement that emphasized subjectivity and the appreciation of nature, replaced Rationalism as driving principles. New denominations were created as churches began to split based upon different visions of appropriate and allowed religious practices.
Missionary work became of great importance in the Second Great Awakening. The morality of the new American society had been called into question due to its embrace of reason-based forms of Christianity. The churches turned their focus to frontier towns, small agrarian communities, and enslaved people. In Virginia, missionaries brought new religious beliefs to enslaved communities reluctant to join the church of Anglican slave-owners. As Christian denominations such as Baptists or Methodists spread, churches brought common teachings into these remote communities.
Social reform movements found footings in the broader political discourse as advocates addressed social issues within their congregations. Churches were also able to mobilize large swaths of society that had been previously isolated. Women found opportunities through the increasing need for social work, one of the few pathways to work outside the home deemed socially acceptable for women. Advocates for Temperance, a movement calling for legislation banning alcohol, included many women activists. The Abolition Movement, which called for the elimination of slavery and the liberation of African Americans, was greatly supported by women activists.
Mt. Gilead Baptist Church was founded within this context of debate about the role of religion in American life. The church was organized in 1831 with 37 members worshiping in a simple wooden church. Within three years, in the context of the Second Great Awakening, membership had nearly tripled to more than one hundred members. The current brick building was constructed in the 1850s and has been used for services continually ever since.
The church has provided many services to the congregation and the community for nearly two hundred years. The church provided a focal point for a rural community, bringing families together for regular Sunday services as well as special occasions such as holidays, weddings, and funerals. Initially, enslaved people were allowed to worship in the church. After emancipation, African Americans in the region formed a separate Baptist church for their congregation.
Women have always been heavily involved in Mt Gilead Church. The Women’s Missionary Society organized missions to proselytize to local poor communities. Women in M Gilead Church also expanded services related to education, including the creation of a lending library and programs for children. In the 1880s and 1890s, the church sponsored the creation of a school for the community.
Mt. Gilead remains active in the community, even as its membership has decreased. In fact, the current membership in the church is lower than it was almost two hundred years ago when the church was founded. Despite the decline in membership, Mt. Gilead continues to serve the congregation and the local community. A preschool program is very active and the congregation collects school supplies for needy children. A community food pantry serves primarily elderly residents caring for their children. The church hosts annual celebrations connected to religious holidays and the changing seasons. The commitment to serve the congregation and the community, just as much as the buildings themselves, connect Mt. Gilead to a history that extends back nearly two hundred years.
As cyclists encounter church buildings in other rural communities, towns, and cities along Route 76, they may wonder how long these buildings have stood on these sites. Many of the oldest churches along Route 76 have historical markers that provide information about the history of the church and its congregations. In Fluvanna County, south of Charlottesville, a historical marker for Fork Union Baptist Church indicates that the church was founded in 1798, and hosted workshop services for Presbyterian, Episcopal, Methodist, and Baptist Congregations. In Charlottesville, a historical marker notes the location of First Baptist Church, organized in 1864, which began providing worship services for an African American congregation. Rockfish Church, located east of where Route 76 follows the Blue Ridge Parkway, began in the 1740s as a meetinghouse for Presbyterians, with a wooden church built in 1771 and a brick building about eighty years later. South of Radford, a historical marker for Lovely Mount Baptist Church indicates the location where African Americans attended worship services for nearly a century after the congregation was established by freed slaves in the late 1860s. St John’s Lutheran Church in Wytheville began as a congregation for German immigrants in the early 1800s, and the current building was established in the 1850s. In Yorktown, a few miles south of the Battlefield Monument, a historical marker for Charles Church indicates the location where churches were established as early as 1636, less than thirty years after English settlers reached the new world.
These markers reveal a history of nearly four centuries that cyclists will encounter as they cross Virginia on Route 76. As in the case of Mt. Gilead, many other churches with long histories are not commemorated with official markers. The history of these churches may be evident from a sign posted on or near the church that designates the origin date of the congregation or the building. Knowing the history of the congregation or the building makes it possible to situate this history in long term trajectories, such as the European settlement of North America, the immigration patterns that brought various ethnicities and denominations to Virginia, key events such as the American Revolution or Emancipation of the Slaves, and, finally, the challenges of shifting populations, particularly in rural regions. Church buildings are thus symbols of historical change, yet many are also functioning spaces, continuing to bring together congregations and serve local communities, as Mt Gilead has been doing for nearly two centuries.
You have been listening to episode 10 of the Virginia Bikecentennial Route 76 Podcast. This episode is connected to the community of Shannon Hill, located just over 150 miles from Yorktown, the starting point for the westbound route, and nearly 400 miles from the Kentucky border, where eastbound riders enter Virginia. This podcast is a production of Virginia Tech, a public land grant university located in Blacksburg, just three miles from Route 76 in southwest Virginia. I am your narrator, Grace Kostrzebski, and this podcast is produced by the digital humanities program in Virginia Tech University Libraries, under the direction of media manager Joe Forte, in collaboration with Project Director Tom Ewing. To learn more about the stories in this episode, visit our website or follow us on social media, all accessible from the homepage for this podcast.
