Richard Furman (9 October 1755 – 25 August 1825) was a

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...

leader from

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...

, United States. He was elected in 1814 as the first president of the

Triennial Convention The Triennial Convention (so-called because it met every three years) was the first national Baptist denomination in the United States. Officially named the General Missionary Convention of the Baptist Denomination in the United States of America ...

, the first nationwide Baptist association. Later he was the first president of the South Carolina State Baptist Convention.

Early years

Furman was born in

Esopus, New York Esopus ( ) is a town in Ulster County, New York, United States. The population was 9,041 at the 2010 census. The town was named after the local indigenous tribe and means "small river" in English. They were one of the Lenape (Delaware) bands, b ...

. He was raised in Charleston, South Carolina in a family of evangelical

Calvinist Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Ca ...

s. He had little formal education, but was taught mathematics and sciences by his father and taught himself several languages including Latin, Greek and Hebrew. Through his self-directed studies he also gained extensive knowledge of history, theology, and medicine. Furman accepted the Baptist faith in 1771 aged 16, and began to preach at that early age. He was ordained as pastor of High Hills church two years later. During the

American War of Independence The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

(1775–1783) Furman volunteered to serve in the colonial army, but was persuaded that his talents could better be used as a speaker in gaining support for the cause. On the fall of Charleston to British forces in 1780, General

Charles Cornwallis Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, (31 December 1738 – 5 October 1805), styled Viscount Brome between 1753 and 1762 and known as the Earl Cornwallis between 1762 and 1792, was a British Army general and official. In the United S ...

announced a £1,000 bounty for his capture, and he was forced to flee the state.

Baptist leader

After the war, Furman was a proponent of the constitutional clauses that ensured freedom of worship and removed all special privileges from the Episcopal church. In 1786 he became pastor of the Charleston Baptist Church, holding this post for the rest of his life. He made a great impression on the young

William Bullein Johnson William Bullein Johnson (June 13, 1782 – October 2, 1862) was an American Baptist minister, one of the founders of the South Carolina State Baptist Convention in 1821, and later was the first president of the Southern Baptist Convention from ...

, who would later himself become a Baptist leader and first president of the

Southern Baptist Convention The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is a Christian denomination based in the United States. It is the world's largest Baptist denomination, and the largest Protestant and second-largest Christian denomination in the United States. The wor ...

. As moderator of the Charleston Baptist association, he arranged for funding for the education of young ministers and for funding of missionary activity in the state. Furman was a founder of the Charleston Bible Society and the Religious Tract Society. Rhode Island College (later

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

) awarded him an honorary master's degree in 1792 and Doctor of Divinity Degree in 1800. Furman helped arrange the first meeting of the Triennial Convention in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

in 1814, where he was elected president. He was re-elected president in 1817. Furman ensured that the convention made education of aspiring ministers one of its basic missions, and encouraged

Luther Rice Luther Rice (25 March 1783 – 27 September 1836) was an American Baptist minister who, after a thwarted mission to India, returned to America where he spent the remainder of his career raising funds for missions and advocating for the formation of ...

in the foundation of Columbian College, now

George Washington University , mottoeng = "God is Our Trust" , established = , type = Private federally chartered research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.8 billion (2022) , preside ...

, chartered by an Act of Congress on 9 February 1821. In 1821, Furman was one of the organizers of the South Carolina State Baptist Convention and was elected its President, serving until his death.

Furman University Furman University is a private liberal arts university in Greenville, South Carolina. Founded in 1826 and named for the clergyman Richard Furman, Furman University is the oldest private institution of higher learning in South Carolina. It became ...

, the South's first Baptist college, was founded in 1826 and named in his honor.

Marriage and family

Furman married Elizabeth Haynsworth in November 1772, and they had four children before her death in 1787: a son who died at birth, Rachel, Wood, and Richard (died in infancy). In May 1789 Furman married Dorothea Burn, and this marriage produced thirteen children: Richard, Samuel, John Gano (died in infancy), Josiah, Charles Manning, Maria Dorothea, Henry Hart, Sarah Susanne, John Gano (2nd), Thomas Fuller, James Clement, Anne Eliza, and William. His son James Clement Furman (1809–1891), also a Baptist minister, was Furman University's first president.

Views on slavery

As a young man he opposed slavery, but later he became a slave owner and came to support the practice on both economic and moral grounds. In 1822, he published an "Exposition of the Views of the Baptists Relative to the Coloured Population of the United States", which set out the arguments that Southerners would use to defend slavery until the

Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution The Thirteenth Amendment (Amendment XIII) to the United States Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. The amendment was passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864, by the House of Representative ...

(1865) finally put an end to

slavery in the United States The legal institution of human chattel slavery, comprising the enslavement primarily of Africans and African Americans, was prevalent in the United States of America from its founding in 1776 until 1865, predominantly in the South. Sl ...

References

External links