Norvell Robertson, Jr. (1796-1878) is the 14th essay in A Noble Company, volume 9.

During the span of Norvell Robertson’s forty-four-year pastor-ate at Bethany Baptist Church (1834-1878), Mississippi Baptists faced severe challenges. Some were social in nature, such as slavery, the effects of the Civil War and Reconstruction, and the problem of alcohol abuse. Others were doctrinal, producing discord and division within the Baptist denomination. These were the anti-missions movement, that gave rise to the Primitive Baptists and the Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists, and the highly controversial Campbellite and Landmark movements. . . .It is nothing short of amazing that a majority of Mississippi Baptist churches appeared to have weathered all of these storms and actually emerged more united by the late 1800’s. This was due quite simply to denominational hegemony and sensible pastoral leadership from men like Robertson. ----Gerald L. Priest