JOSHUA CARMAN

It has been stated in several books that young Mr. Lincoln, while growing up, attended Church and Sunday School as a member of the Congregation of Rev. Joshua Carman. Another remarkable intertwining with the Carman family in itself, however that is not the story...

Rev. Joshua Carman was a fiery Baptist Minister - a man before his time in the matter of slavery. He preached literal fire and brimstone on those that participated in slavery and disfellowshipped any from his Congregation who practiced it. This being in the State of Kentucky where slavery was common. In 1796 even the Baptists couldn't sustain his continuous attack on slavery in his sermons and the Baptists withdrew their association with him. Rev. Joshua Carman then started his own church for a time in Kentucky. It is said that one of his Congregation was the young Abraham Lincoln - the man who would later right the Emancipation Proclamation.

The following exerts come from "Six Generations of Larues and Allied Families"

"JOSHUA CARMAN has already been mentioned in this book several times, first in the chapter relating to "the Carman Family," again in connection with Caleb Carman, the husband of Mary LaRue Carman (V.), and last in this chapter as one of the first pastors of Severns Valley Baptist Church. Of him it may well be said, that his "was the voice of one crying in the wilderness." He was strangely out of harmony with the times and with the people among whom he lived in Kentucky...

Joshua Carman is mentioned by Col. R. T. Durrett in the sketch of "Ancient Louisville," which was first published in the Louisville Courier-Journal on the opening of the Southern Exposition, in 1883, as one of the early preachers at the Falls of the Ohio. In the year 1787, Mr. Carman became pastor of the Severns Valley (Elizabethtown) Baptist Church, to which he preached for only a short time. Concerning his work after that pastorate, the following is quoted from Spencer's "History of Kentucky Baptists"--"Rolling Fork Church was located in the southern part of Nelson County. It was constituted in 1788, and united with the Salem Association the same year. * * * It was probably gathered by Joshua Carman, an enthusiastic Emancipationist. This church sent with its letter to the Association (in October, 1789), the year after it obtained admission into that body, the following query: 'Is it lawful in the sight of God for a member of Christ's Church to keep his fellow-creatures in perpetual slavery?' (Answer) 'The Association judge it improper to enter into so important and critical a matter at present.' This answer was unsatisfactory. The church continued to agitate the subject of slavery, till, in 1796, it withdrew from the Association."...

Again, Mr. Spencer says of Joshua Carman: "He was among the early settlers of Nelson County, Kentucky. For a number of years he was an active minister in the bounds of Salem Association and was several times appointed to preach the introductory sermon before that body. He was regarded as a man of good ability, and was much beloved by the brethren. But, becoming fanatical on the subject of slavery, he induced Rolling Fork Church to withdraw from the Association, in 1796, and declare non-fellowship with all slave-holders." In connection with Josiah Dodge he organized an Emancipation Church, about six miles northwest of Bardstown, supposed to have been the first organization of this kind in Kentucky. "Mr. Carman, finding himself unable to bring any considerable number of Baptists to his views, moved to Eastern Ohio, where, it is said, he raised up a respectable church and preached to it till the Lord took him away."--(Spencer)."