ABSTRACT
Baptist Minister Henry Holcombe was born into an unremarkable family in Prince Edward County Virginia, in 1762, moving to upcountry South Carolina while still a child. The First Fruits is essentially an autobiography written in the form of letters to Holcombes brother James. While much of the book naturally reflects on events in Holcombe’s own life, and in particular on his religious experiences, in the selections excerpted here he comments on the powerful role taken by blacks in the evolution of the Baptist faith in the low country in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The appeal of the Baptists was not limited to those within walking distance of Savannah. Holcombe recounts the story of Clarinda, an enslaved woman in Beaufort whose ‘dissolute and profane’ ways were reformed through conversion. Baptized by Holcombe she, like Andrew Bryan, ‘easily obtained manumission’, as well as the respect and financial support of various pious citizens of Beaufort.
