Isaac Backus
Isaac Backus (1724-1806) was a prominent figure in early American history, known for his leadership in the Baptist movement and his advocacy for religious freedom. Born into a politically active family in Connecticut, Backus experienced a significant religious transformation during the First Great Awakening, influenced by evangelists like George Whitefield and James Davenport. His conversion led him to oppose the established Congregational Church, which was the state church in Connecticut at the time, and he became involved in the creation of separatist Baptist congregations.
Throughout his life, Backus fought for the disestablishment of state churches, believing in the necessity of religious liberty. He played a key role in organizing Baptist churches in Massachusetts and was a founding member of the Warren Association, which sought to unify Baptist voices in the fight for religious rights. Backus's efforts culminated in his participation in the First Continental Congress, where he urged leaders to support the cause of religious freedom alongside political liberty.
Despite seeing the ratification of the First Amendment in 1791, which guaranteed freedom of religion, Backus continued to contend with the established church in Massachusetts until its eventual disestablishment in 1833. His writings, including "A History of New England," and his role as a trustee of Brown University underscore his significant contributions to American religious and educational landscapes. Isaac Backus remains a critical figure in the history of the fight for religious liberty in the United States.
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Isaac Backus
American religious leader
- Born: January 9, 1724
- Birthplace: Norwich, Connecticut
- Died: November 20, 1806
- Place of death: Middleborough, Massachusetts
Backus led opposition to the Congregational state church in the Puritan colonies and helped modify the rigid Puritan view of predestination. He strongly supported the American Revolution, became a major leader in the struggle to guarantee complete religious liberty and separation of church and state in the new United States, recorded much of the history of New England—especially of the Baptists—and was a founder of Rhode Island College, now Brown University.
Early Life
Isaac Backus was born just before the First Great Awakening broke out in the American colonies. His parents were Samuel and Elizabeth Tracy Backus. The Backus family enjoyed more than average wealth and had been active politically since the founding of Norwich in 1660. Samuel’s father, Joseph Backus, had been a member of the Connecticut assembly, to which Samuel also was elected. Samuel died when Isaac was sixteen years old, leaving a widow with eleven children, including a six-week-old infant. However, Elizabeth Backus was a strong and godly woman, having had a religious conversion experience in 1721. Elizabeth did experience a short period of depression following the death of Samuel, but her faith and spirit were soon renewed. Elizabeth then exerted a strong spiritual influence on all of her children. She later shared both the trials and the successes of Isaac’s early work.
Shortly before the death of Samuel Backus, English Evangelist George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards, from Northampton, Massachusetts, brought the Great Awakening to Connecticut. Several other Evangelists then took up the cause. One Evangelist was James Davenport, who brought the revival to Norwich and whose preaching led to the conversion of Samuel and Isaac. Davenport later helped end Elizabeth’s depression. Isaac’s conversion, on August 24, 1741, came while he was mowing, alone in a field; he felt a deep conviction to repent his sins and follow Jesus Christ. Several months later, he joined his mother’s First Congregational Church of Norwich.
Life’s Work
At the time of Isaac Backus’s conversion, the Connecticut Congregational Church, established as the state church by the Puritans of the seventeenth century, was undergoing much controversy. The extreme Calvinistic doctrine of predestination, the role of a state church, and the concept of complete religious liberty were the major issues. The Old Lights in the church, who upheld the rigid views on predestination, did not give much support to the Great Awakening, and they advocated punishment for those who deviated from the state church. The New Lights, however, developed an Evangelical Calvinism, supported the revivals, and opposed the persecution of those who did not support the state church. The New Lights included Elizabeth Backus and her son Isaac Backus.
In early 1745, a large group of New Lights withdrew for the church in Norwich and founded a separatist church close by. Among the approximately thirty men was Isaac Backus, and his mother was part of a larger number of women. When the group refused orders to disband, they were suspended from the Norwich church. Elizabeth Backus and several of her other sons were jailed several times, once for thirteen days, for not paying state church taxes.
With his stand against the established state church of Connecticut, the course of Isaac Backus’s life was set. It was inevitable that he would soon feel the call to preach and to become embroiled, along with his mother, in the controversies of the day and in the revivals of the Great Awakening. He preached his first sermon on September 27, 1746, exhibiting great power and effectiveness. Following his preaching and teaching throughout the Norwich area, the members of a separatist church in Titicut, Massachusetts, asked him, in December of 1747, to become their pastor. He was ordained on March 31, 1748, and he married Susanna Mason on November 29, 1749.
By 1749, Backus’s problems with the state church led him to evaluate the entire concept of an established church. He was also questioning the doctrine of baptism. Both ideas led him to the Baptists, founded in America by Roger Williams in Rhode Island in 1639. The question of baptism involved infant baptism as opposed to adult, or believers’, baptism and immersion as opposed to other modes of baptism. Backus hesitated to join them because they were a persecuted group: He feared that some secret mischief lurked in their beliefs. In spite of his misgivings, Backus was baptized by immersion on August 22, 1751, but continued as pastor the Titicut church for the next five years. In June, 1756, a Baptist church was established in Middleborough, Massachusetts, with Backus called as its first pastor.
Backus soon became a leader of the Baptists in Massachusetts, a denomination that also had an established Congregational Church. After helping organize more than twenty new Baptist churches in the colony, he was among the creators of the Warren Association in 1767. The association’s mandate was to give Baptists a united voice in fighting for complete religious liberty in the colony, which would mean the disestablishment of the state church. The association was the first of its kind in Massachusetts. The group formed several committees in 1769 to petition the Massachusetts courts concerning the persecution of Baptists and others who paid taxes to support the state church. In effect, Baptists were being punished for conducting their own separate activities. An advertisement placed by the association in the Boston Evening Globe in 1770 included a veiled threat that, if the courts did not address their concerns, they would appeal to the British crown. Coming less than six months after the Boston Massacre, this threat greatly disturbed the Massachusetts authorities.
Three years later Backus led the Baptists in publishing an “Appeal to the Public for Religious Liberty, Against the Oppressions of the Present Day.” They realized that the American conflict with Great Britain afforded the Baptists an excellent opportunity to establish complete freedom of religion in independence-seeking America. Backus joined others on a trip to Philadelphia in September, 1774, for the opening of the First Continental Congress, and they secured an audience with several national leaders at that meeting, including John Adams and Samuel Adams from Massachusetts. They reminded the delegates that only two things are worth fighting for: religion and liberty. Because they were supporting the struggle for political liberty, they expected the Continental Congress to support their desire for religious liberty. Although they did not get a firm guarantee, they did get a promise from the Massachusetts delegation to help improve the lot of Baptists in that colony.
Backus continued his efforts during the American Revolution. His desire for religious freedom would become a national campaign, reminding people that no denomination had been more unanimous in its support of the revolution than the Baptists. After the U.S. Constitution was written in 1787, Backus joined others in urging an amendment be added to guarantee complete freedom of religion. With the aid of leaders such as James Madison, the First Amendment was ratified as part of the Bill of Rights in 1791. The amendment begins with the declaration that there could be no national established church and includes the right to practice—or not practice—a religion of one’s choice.
Significance
Isaac Backus died in Middleborough on November 20, 1806. Although he lived to see the national guarantees of the First Amendment, he could not fully enjoy those in his adopted state of Massachusetts. John Adams had reportedly told Backus at the First Continental Congress in 1774 that Backus could expect a change in the solar system before Massachusetts would give up its state church. Indeed, the state did not disestablish the Congregational Church until 1833. Only then was Backus’s goal of separation of church and state fully realized.
Backus was a delegate at the Massachusetts Convention in 1788 that ratified the U.S. Constitution. He wrote A History of New England, with Particular Reference to the Denomination of Christians Called Baptists and more than thirty other pamphlets and tracts. He contributed to theological development by reconciling the rigid Calvinistic idea of human depravity with the Enlightenment concepts of free will and self-determination. He also was a founder of Rhode Island College, now Brown University, in 1764, and was a trustee there from 1765 to 1799.
Bibliography
Bush, L. Russ, and Tom J. Nettles. Baptists and the Bible. Rev. ed. Nashville, Tenn.: Broadman and Holman, 1999. Chapter 4 includes a section entitled “Isaac Backus and the Great Cloud of Witnesses,” which details his work as a revivalist, as a defender of biblical inspiration, and as an advocate of religious liberty.
Cairns, Earle E. Christianity Through the Centuries. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1996. Chapter 32 includes a discussion of New England Congregationalism and the role played by Backus and other Baptists in opposing the state church.
Grenz, Stanley. Isaac Backus: Puritan and Baptist. Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 1983. Grenz details the life and work of Backus, beginning within the context of the Puritan movement and concentrating on his social and theological work. Includes a summary of Backus’s writings and an excellent bibliography.
McBeth, H. Leon. The Baptist Heritage. Nashville, Tenn.: Broadman Press, 1987. Chapters 7 and 8 cover in detail Backus’s life, his role in the Great Awakening, and his impact on the struggle for religious liberty. Includes an excerpt of a letter from Elizabeth Backus to Isaac concerning her imprisonment.
McLoughlin, William G. Isaac Backus and the American Pietistic Tradition. Boston: Little, Brown, 1967. The standard biography of Backus, which details the conflict between the Old Light and New Light Congregationalists, and discusses Backus’s contributions to religious liberty and separation of church and state in America.