THREAD: A digression on PROVENANCE and the challenge of undated, untitled, anonymous documents.
https://twitter.com/chbchistory/status/1422635802585145351
What do you do as a historian with an anonymous, undated document like this one?
This document bears clear marks of authenticity (specific names, dates) and details that indicate first-hand experience, or knowledge from someone with first-hand experience.
The fact that the account stops shortly after the arrival of William H. Young in 1885 makes it likely that it is dated sometime between 1885-1890.
Additionally, the fact that the account jumps abruptly from from the completion of the first building in 1876 to the controversy with Ingersoll and church split in 1884 makes it likely that the split in 1884, and ensuing controversy, occasioned the letter.
As I narrow in on that period, I was reminded that on Tuesday, November 15, 1887, MBC entered into a controversy with the Columbia Baptist Association and withdrew over the Association's censorship of a letter they had written concerning the split with East Cap. St Baptist Church
In response, Metropolitan, on December 21, 1887, ordered that a history of this long and difficult saga in Metropolitan Baptist Church’s history be drawn up. I had assumed this account had gone missing. In all likelihood, this anonymous manuscript is that account. #MysterySolved
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