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19th Century Presbyterian Church History

A selection of books and periodicals primarily focused on topics related to the Presbyterian Church in the southern United States during the nineteenth century. Special attention is given to resources discussing the issue of race.

Books in Special Collections

Church Focus

  1. History of Mecklenburg County and the City of Charlotte Volume I, D.A. Tompkins, 1903
  2. History of Mecklenburg County and the City of Charlotte Volume II, D.A. Tompkins, 1903
  3. Historic Mecklenburg and Old Charlotte 1775-1925, Thomas Wood Steven
  4. Confronted by Challenge: A History of the Presbytery of Concord 1795-1973, McGeachy​
  5. A History of the First Presbyterian Church, 1821-1983, Williams
  6. Mecklenburg Presbytery: A History, Charles Raven Brockman, 1962
  7. The North Carolina Telegraph: Volume I (reprint), edited by Reverend Robert Hall Morrison (First president of Davidson College), 1826 (2016).

Race Relations Focus

  1. Helper’s Impending Crisis Dissected, Wolfe
  2. Impending Crisis of the South, Hinton Helper, 1867
  3. Compendium of the Impending Crisis of the South, Hinton Helper, 1860
  4. North Carolina Justice, 1816
  5. Slavery in the State of North Carolina, John Bassett 
  6. The Plantation World around Davidson, Chalmers Gaston Davidson, 1969, 1982
  7. Additional resources are available through the Chalmers Gaston Davidson Research Files manuscript collection in the archives.
  8. Heroes of the Campus, Joseph Wilson Cochran, 1917

Church Focus

  1. Encyclopedia of the Presbyterian Church of the United States of America including the Northern and Southern Assemblies, Alfred Nevin, 1884

  2. The Presbyterian Churches and the Federal Union 1861-1869, Vander Velde

  3. The Larger Catechism of the Westminster Assembly, 1788

  4. Presbyterian Digest: General Assembly of the United States, Moore, 1873 

  5. Precept Upon Precept, earliest religious instruction the infant mind is capable of receiving, Favell Lee Mortimer, c1850

  6. Fisher’s Catechism, Westminster’s Shorter Catechism Explained, 1765, Westminster Assembly 

  7. The Will and the Way, Series for Youth, 1866

  8. A Guide to Acquaintance with God, James Sherman, 1796-1862, 1843

  9. Uncle William: Kind Words for His Young Friends, 1844

  10. The Pilgrim Boy of Monghur, the Child Bitten by a Mad Dog, the Orphan Girl and Who Is it?, c1850

Race Relations Focus

  1. A Voice From South Carolina, John Leland, 1879

  2. The Gospel of Slavery: A Primer of Freedom by Iron Gray, Abel Charles Thomas, 1864

Also available in print

  1.  Africaner or Missionary Trials, 1840

  2. Madagascar and its Martyrs, Series for Youth, J.L.K., c1850 

  3. Booker T. Washington and the Negro’s Place in American Life, Sam Spencer, 1955 

  4. Cobb on Slavery: An Inquiry into the Law of the Negro, Volume 1, Thomas Cobb, 1858

  5. An Essay on Liberty and Slavery, Albert Taylor Bledsoe, 1856

  6. Slavery Ordained of God, Fred A. Ross, 1857

  7. Letters from the West Indies, Sylvester Hovey, 1838 

  8. Christian Doctrine of Slavery, George Dodd Armstrong, 1857 

  9. Cotton is King and Pro-Slavery Arguments, E.N. Elliot, 1860 

  10. Yaradee, A Plea for Africa, Freeman

  11. Helper’s Impending Crisis Dissected, Wolfe

  12. Impending Crisis of the South, Hinton Helper, 1867

  13. Compendium of the Impending Crisis of the South, Hinton Helper, 186

Also available in print

Minutes

  1. Minutes of the Presbytery of Concord during its meeting in the church of Sugar Creek, April 20, 21, 22, and 24 1854, 1854
  2. Synod of North Carolina Minutes, 1850-1859
  3. Synod of North Carolina Minutes, 1860-1869
  4. Minutes of the General Assembly, 1836 to 1840

Governance

  1. The Public Acts of the General Assembly of North Carolina, 1804
  2. Assembly’s Digest, Baird’s Collection: A Collection of the Acts, Deliverances, and Testimonies of the Supreme Judicatory of the Presbyterian Church from its origin in America to the present time, Samuel J. Baird, 1856
  3. Records of the Presbyterian Church (1706 – 1788)
  4. Revised Statutes of North Carolina
  5. Revised Statutes of North Carolina (2)
  6. The North Carolina Form Book
  7. Constitution of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, Jane Aitken, 1806

Additional sessions available

  1. United Presbyterian Church: The Book of Government and Work, 1911
  2. Constitution of the Presbyterian Church, 1840

Education

  1. Presbyterian Tracts, Volume I, 1853 
  2. Presbyterian Tracts, Volume II, 1853 
  3. Presbyterian Tracts, Volume III, 1853, Samuel Miller, D.D. 
  4. A Series of Sermons, Alexander MacWhorter
  5. The Works of the Reverend John Witherspoon 
  6. A Sermon preached July 22, 1807 at the Funeral of Reverend Alexander MacWhorter, Edward Griffrin, 1807
  7. Thanksgiving Sermon Preached in the Presbyterian Church at Six-Mile Creek, South Carolina, September 18, 1862, Reverend Alexander Sinclair

Davidson College Library Research Guides are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Mailing Address: Davidson College - E.H. Little Library, 209 Ridge Road, Box 5000, Davidson, NC 28035