On the 6th day of June in 1768, a trial was held in Fredericksburg, Virginia, at which a man, John Waller, along with several other Baptists, stood accused of preaching in public. Since the Anglican church was the official state religion in many American colonies before the Revolution, other denominations were often legally prohibited from preaching in public. This is why the framers of the Bill of Rights later included the “separation of church and state” clause: to protect minority religions.
If you are interested in learning more about this topic and need some enlightening summer reading, check out Baptist historian, David Benedict’s (1813) General History of the Baptist Denomination in America.
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