In Groton, Massachusetts, Jennifer Cromack was sorting through the American Baptist archive when she came across a small box mixed in with some journals from the 18th and 19th centuries. Inside, she discovered a remarkably well-preserved scroll.

Upon closer inspection, the 5-foot (1.5-meter) document turned out to be a handwritten declaration named “A Resolution and Protest Against Slavery,” endorsed by 116 New England ministers in Boston and formally adopted on March 2, 1847. Before its unexpected discovery at the Groton archives in May, American Baptist officials feared the important anti-slavery document was irretrievably lost after fruitless searches at Harvard, Brown, and elsewhere. It was previously mentioned in a history book from 1902.

“I was absolutely thrilled and surprised,” Cromack, a retired educator who dedicates her time to volunteering at the archive, expressed. “We uncovered something that truly resonates with the people of the state and the entire nation. … It underscores their commitment to ensuring people remain free from unjust situations.”

The document offers a glimpse into an emerging debate over slavery in the 18th century in the Northeast. The document was signed 14 years before the start of the Civil War as a growing number of religious leaders were starting to speak out against slavery.

Split over slavery

The document also shines a spotlight on a critical moment in the history of the Baptist church.

It was signed two years after the issue of slavery prompted southern Baptists to split from northern Baptists and form the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. The split in 1845 followed a ruling by the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society prohibiting slave owners from becoming missionaries. The northern Baptists eventually became American Baptist Churches USA.

“It comes from such a critical era in American history, you know, right prior to the Civil War,” said Rev. Mary Day Hamel, the executive minister of the American Baptist Churches of Massachusetts.

“It was a unique moment in history when Baptists in Massachusetts stepped up and took a strong position and stood for justice in the shaping of this country,” she said. “That’s become part of our heritage to this day, to be people who stand for justice, for American Baptists to embrace diversity.”

A risky declaration

Deborah Bingham Van Broekhoven, the executive director emerita of the American Baptist Historical Society, said many Americans at the time, especially in the North, were “undecided” about slavery and weren’t sure how to respond or were worried about speaking out.

“They thought it was a southern problem, and they had no business getting involved in what they saw as the state’s rights,” Van Broekhoven said. “Most Baptists, prior to this, would have refrained from this kind of protest. This is a very good example of them going out on a limb and trying to be diplomatic.”

The document shows ministers had hoped “some reformatory movement” led by those involved in slavery would make their action “unnecessary,” but that they felt compelled to act after they “witnessed with painful surprise, a growing disposition to justify, extend and perpetuate their iniquitous system.”

“Under these circumstances we can no longer be silent,” the document states. “We owe something to the oppressed as well as to the oppressor, and justice demands the fulfillment of that obligation. Truth and Humanity and Public Virtue, have claims upon us which we cannot dishonor.”

The document explains why the ministers “disapprove and abhor the system of American slavery.”

“With such a system we can have no sympathy,” the document states. “After a careful observation of its character and effects and making every deduction with the largest charity can require, we are constrained to regard it as an outrage upon the rights and happiness of our fellow men, for which there is no valid justification or apology.”

Who signed the document?

Rev. Diane Badger, the administrator of the American Baptist Church of Massachusetts who oversees the archive, teamed up with Rev. John Odams of the First Baptist Church in Boston to identify what she called the “Holy Grail” of abolitionist-era Baptist documents. Her great-grandfather was an American Baptist minister.

Since its discovery, Badger has put all the ministers’ names on a spreadsheet along with the names of the churches where they served. Among them was Nathaniel Colver, of Tremont Temple in Boston, one of the first integrated churches in the country, now known as Tremont Temple Baptist Church. Another was Baron Stow, who belonged to the state’s anti-slavery society.

Badger also is working to estimate the value of the document, which is intact with no stains or damage, and is making plans to ensure it is protected. A digital copy could eventually be shared with some of Massachusetts’ 230 American Baptist churches.

“It’s been kind of an interesting journey and it’s one that’s still unfolding,” Badger said. “The questions that always come to me, OK, I know who signed it but who didn’t? I can go through my list, through my database and find who was working where on that and why didn’t they sign that. So it’s been very interesting to do the research.”

Rev. Kenneth Young — whose predominantly Black Calvary Baptist Church in Haverhill, Massachusetts, was created by freed Blacks in 1871 — called the discovery inspiring.

“I thought it was awesome that we had over hundred signers to this, that they would project that freedom for our people is just,” Young said. “It follows through on the line of the abolitionist movement and fighting for those who may not have had the strength to fight for themselves against a system of racism.”