"South Carolina Is My Mother"

This was a statement of Southern Presbyterian preacher John Lafayette Girardeau, who died on this day in 1898. Born of French Huguenot descent on James Island, near Charleston, SC in 1825, Girardeau became one of the leading preachers of his day.

Unfortunately, he is not well-known in our day. The only information I could find on him in my library is a lengthy vignette in a book titled, Preachers with Power: Four Stalwarts of the South by Douglas Kelly. Dr. Kelly references a 1916 biography of Girardeau by George A. Blackburn, published by The State Company in Columbia, SC. But I don’t know if this is still in print or if another biography of Girardeau exists.

John L. Girardeau should be reintroduced to the Church today. In the 19^th Century he was one whom the common people heard gladly. His greatest legacy is his ministry to the black population of Charleston and the Low Country, to whom he ministered before and after the Civil War. This was unusual for at least two reasons. First, he was the white son of a well-to-do planter. After the war especially it was unusual for blacks and whites to worship together because of rising tensions among the races. However, Girardeau loved these people and had compassion on them in their plight. And they loved him, too and responded to his ministry.

Second, he was a true scholar. He finished high school and entered the College of Charleston before his fifteenth birthday. He was converted shortly after entering college, having been brought up under the preaching of Dr. Thomas Smyth. Girardeau went on to Columbia Theological Seminary where he studied under James H. Thornwell and B.M. Palmer, two scholars who greatly influenced the young preacher. Girardeau himself would later become a professor, but he always had a passion for communicating God’s truth in a way that an uneducated person could easily understand. He was not an ivory tower scholar. We might say he was a blue collar scholar.

Girardeau lived in tough times. In 1865 he returned to a disenchanted Charleston. The people had prayed everyday for victory for the Confederacy, and the defeat the South suffered caused many to wonder if the Lord heard their prayers. Girardeau ministered to these people, preaching a long-remembered series on prayer. Through his preaching people were brought to renewed faith in Christ.

Geographically, John Girardeau’s allegiance was to South Carolina. The words quoted at the beginning of this article are from a letter he wrote to a large church in Atlanta, GA, which had called him to be their pastor. He kindly refused, citing the great need of South Carolina for the service of her sons. John L. Girardeau served his state in the greatest of ways: by serving its people, black and white, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

More information on Girardeau can be found here.

"South Carolina Is My Mother"