A 178-year-old document that was only seen in the history books has been found in the closet of a church in Groton.
The scroll, titled “A Resolution and Protest Against Slavery,” was found on May 24 while Rev. John Odams of First Baptist Church in Boston and historian Jen Cromack of First Baptist Church in Westwood were installing new shelving in the archives of The American Baptists Churches of Massachusetts.
When they moved a banker’s box, the two discovered a long, narrow archival container that held a carefully rolled scroll roughly that was roughly 5 feet long and 9 inches wide.
“This is the ‘Holy Grail’ of abolitionist-era Baptist documents,” Rev. Diane L. Badger, administrator of the American Baptist Church of Massachusetts said in a statement.
The document was originally written in 1847 under the direction of the Boston Baptist Association and was signed by 116 Baptist ministers — most from Massachusetts and a few from other parts of New England.
“We do therefore, in the fear of God, declare… that we disapprove and abhor the system of American Slavery,” the Northern clergy wrote, shortly after the separation from Southern Baptists in 1845.
The “document has shed new light on the movement to end slavery in the U.S. and brings to life the efforts of American Baptists in Massachusetts as they mobilized to end the institution,” the press release explains.
The physical whereabouts of the scroll remained a mystery before the discovery. Unsuccessful efforts were made to locate the original documents at the Massachusetts Library, Brown University, Harvard University and the American Baptist Historical Society.
