In the mid-1840s, Baptist opinion on slavery ran along a continuum from abolitionist activists to those who considered slavery a God-ordained good. Many of the most influential white Baptists, in both the North and the South, stood in between these poles. Some whites argued that while slavery was ethically problematic, it should not break fellowship between believers. Others readily conceded that slavery as practiced in America was rife with problems, but that Christians could redeem the institution.
