HistoricSiteMarkers
Colonial America

Sandy Creek Baptist Church

Randolph County, Randolph County, North Carolina

Marker Inscription

Sandy Creek Baptist Church. Mother of Separate Baptist churches across the South. Founded by Shubal Stearns, 1755. His grave is two miles south.

Erected by North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources

The Story

Founded in 1755 by the fiery preacher Shubal Stearns, Sandy Creek Baptist Church became the 'mother' of the Separate Baptist movement, sending out preachers who planted congregations across the South. From this small frontier meetinghouse an evangelical revival spread that would reshape Southern religious life. Stearns lies buried two miles south.

Why it matters

The Separate Baptist movement born at Sandy Creek helped make evangelical Protestantism the defining faith of the American South.

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Related people

  • · Shubal Stearns

Themes & tags

Westward ExpansionFrontier HistoryChurch

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