The Great Awakening was a religious
revival and revitalization of piety among
Christian churches in English-speaking countries. It swept through the American colonies between the 1730s and the 1770s. However, the revival served not only to invigorate the churches but also to divide them. The main denominations divided into
Old Lights — holding a low view of the revivalism, and sometimes directly opposing it — and
New Lights — who enthusiastically embraced it. Many New Lights felt that the old ways had allowed too many unconverted church members, and by the end of the 1740s some of the New Lights believed the established churches could not be reformed from within and withdrew from them. A favorite verse among these separatist New Lights was
II Corinthians 6:17: "Come out from among them, and be ye separate." This led to them being called
Separate. Three important preachers of the times were
Gilbert Tennent (1703–65),
Jonathan Edwards (1703–58), and George Whitefield (1714–70), who mostly influenced the formation of many Separate Baptists. The first identifiable congregation of Separate Baptists was formed in
Boston, Massachusetts. Whitefield preached fervently in Boston in 1740. The main pastor of the
Baptist church in Boston, being a Old Light Baptist, disapproved of the revival excitement, while several members approved of it and became discontented with the pastor's ministry. Later, they withdrew from the church and formed the Second Baptist Church of Boston in 1743. A growing number of Separate Baptists began in
New England. They were zealous in evangelism and held to heart-felt religion. The New England Separate Baptists, however, were never a distinct body from the Regular Baptists. The most prominent pastor was
Isaac Backus (1724–1808) and the most prominent congregation was the First Baptist church of
Middleborough, Massachusetts. Backus was raised a
Congregationalist and became a Separate New Light Congregationalist pastor in 1748. After converting to Baptist views of
Baptism, he and others established a Baptist congregation in 1756. Backus was very active in the fight for religious liberty in America. In the South, it would remain for the Separate Baptists to develop along distinct lines. In 1745,
Shubal Stearns (1706–71), a member of the Congregationalist church in
Tolland, Connecticut, heard evangelist George Whitefield preach. Stearns was converted and adopted the Awakening's view of experience of grace and personal conversion. Stearns' church became involved in a controversy over the proper subjects of baptism in 1751. Soon Stearns rejected
infant baptism and sought baptism at the hands of Wait Palmer, Baptist minister of
Stonington, Connecticut. By March, Stearns was ordained into the ministry by Palmer and Joshua Morse, the pastor of
New London, Connecticut. The next twenty years of Stearns' remarkable ministry was inextricably intertwined with the rise and expansion of these revivalist Baptists. In 1754, Stearns moved south to
Opequon, Virginia. He joined Daniel Marshall and wife Martha (Stearns' sister), who were already active in a Baptist church there. On November 22, 1755, Stearns and his party moved further south to Sandy Creek, in
Guilford County, North Carolina. This party consisted of eight men and their wives, mostly relatives of Stearns. Stearns pastored at Sandy Creek until his death. From there, Separate Baptists spread in the South. The church quickly grew from 16 members to 606. Church members moved to other areas and started other churches. The Sandy Creek Baptist Association was established in 1758.
Morgan Edwards, Baptist minister and historian contemporary with Stearns, recorded that, "in 17 years, [Sandy Creek] has spread its branches westward as far as the great river Mississippi; southward as far as Georgia; eastward to the sea and Chesopeck [sic] Bay; and northward to the waters of the Pottowmack [sic]; it, in 17 years, is become mother, grandmother, and great grandmother to 42 churches, from which sprang 125 ministers." == Distinction between Regular and Separate Baptists ==