Strangely enough, the story of black Baptists in America has not been told from the standpoint of its tremendous spiritual momentum through the ages of American history. Of inestimable importance is the fact that black Baptists were distinctive and eminent in the development of American Christianity. This book objectively documents this tradition as a unique trend within that experience. Leroy Fitts aims to tell the black Baptist story as a part of—though unique—the general history of American Christianity, noting social, economic, and political influences on the development of the tradition.