The Great Awakening of the eighteenth century had a most unusual effect on the Baptist movement in America. It virtually destroyed older Baptist churches, especially in New England. Newer Baptist churches associated with the Philadelphia Association of Baptists generally accommodated, but did not lead, the Great Awakening. From the radical fringe of the awakening’s evangelicals, however, a new Baptist faction emerged. Like many radical evangelicals, these Separate Baptists experienced harsh persecution at the hands of the colonial governments. But the Baptists surging out of the Great
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