John Leland

John Leland, the colorful Baptist itinerant, was one of the most important and fascinating religious figures in early America. He is best remembered for delivering a 1,200-pound "Mammoth Cheese" to Thomas Jefferson's White House, and for negotiating the inclusion of a Bill of Rights in the Constitution with James Madison. But Leland was also a tireless revivalist and a dogged advocate of religious freedom for all, an anti-slavery spokesman and unofficial Democratic Party whip, a defender of popular Calvinism and promoter of extreme religious individualism among Baptists. Eric C. Smith explores these and other major themes in this first-ever biography of John Leland, whose story provides a unique window into the remarkable transformations that swept American society from 1760 to 1840.