John Leland

Abstract John Leland (1754–1841) was one of the most influential and entertaining religious figures in early America. As an itinerant revivalist, he demonstrated an uncanny ability to connect with a popular audience and contributed to the rise of a “democratized” Christianity in America. A tireless activist for the rights of conscience, Leland also waged a decades-long war for disestablishment, advocating for full religious freedom for all. He reportedly negotiated a deal with James Madison to include a bill of rights in the Constitution for Baptist voter support. Leland would become “mad for politics” in early America, delivering political orations, publishing tracts, and mobilizing New England’s Baptists on behalf of the Jeffersonian Republicans. He crowned his political activity by famously delivering a twelve-hundred-pound cheese to Thomas Jefferson’s White House. Leland also stood among eighteenth-century Virginia’s most powerful antislavery advocates, and convinced one wealthy planter to emancipate over four hundred of his slaves. Though among the most popular Baptists in America, Leland’s fierce individualism and personal eccentricity often placed him at odds with other Baptist leaders. He refused ordination, abstained from the Lord’s Supper, and violently opposed the rise of Baptist denominationalism. Ultimately, he contributed to the radical individualization of the Baptist people in America. In the first-ever biography of Leland, Eric C. Smith recounts the story of this pivotal figure from American religious history, whose long and eventful life provides a unique window into the remarkable transformations that swept American society from 1760 to 1840.