John Albert Broadus

John Albert Broadus (January 24, 1827 – March 16, 1895) was an American Baptist pastor and President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Early life

Born in 1827 in Culpeper County, Virginia, Broadus was educated at home and at a private school. He taught in a small school before completing his undergraduate studies at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Career

Broadus was ordained in 1850 and became pastor of the Baptist church in Charlottesville.

In 1859, Broadus along with James P. Boyce, Basil Manly Jr., and William Williams, founded the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Greenville, South Carolina. Broadus became professor of New Testament interpretation and homiletics at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. With Manley, Broadus was also one of the first leaders of the Sunday School Board publishing operations.

During the American Civil War, he served as a Confederate chaplain to Robert E. Lee's army in Northern Virginia.

He delivered a lecture at the University of Virginia in memorial to Professor Gessner Harrison in 1873.

In 2018 the President of the Seminary commissioned a "Report on slavery and racism within the history of the Southern Baptist Seminary" which found that Broadus and its principal founders combined owned 50 slaves, Broadus owning at least two slaves, and the faculty and trustees at the seminary defended the “righteousness of slavery” and supported the Confederacy's efforts to preserve slavery. After the war ended and public sentiment began to shift, Broadus 'repudiated' American slavery in 1882. In 1883, he delivered an address for the Confederate cause at Louisville's Cave Hill Cemetery arguing both sides had justifiable reasons for war.