Introduction : what are the Baptists? or who are the Baptists? -- Coming to America -- Revivalism and a fondness for liberty -- Growth and diversification -- The institutionalization of a tradition -- A tradition of several families -- The pinnacle of Baptist denominationalism -- The come-outer tradition -- The uniqueness of African American Baptists -- Baptists and the missionary impulse -- Social concerns and mores : the legacy of an evangelical tradition -- Baptists face modernity.