Supplying a wealth of material from locales and a time for which few primary sources exist, Baptist Faith in Action brings to print the writings of Maria Baker Taylor (1813-1895), a strong-minded plantation mistress who spent her life in South Carolina and Florida. The granddaughter of Richard Furman, South Carolina's foremost nineteenth-century Baptist minister, Taylor was a well-educated and sophisticated member of South Carolina's second-tier planter class. She was also a most fervent Baptist. Notable for its geographical and temporal breadth, this collection of letters, diary entries,...