Luther Rice

Luther Rice
Luther Rice Silhouette 1830
Born	25 March 1783 Northborough, Massachusetts
Died	25 September 1836 (1836-09-26) (aged 53) Edgefield, South Carolina
Alma mater	Williams College

Luther Rice (25 March 1783 – 27 September 1836), was a Baptist minister who, after a thwarted mission to India, returned to America where he spent the remainder of his career raising funds for missions and advocating for the formation of a unified Baptist missionary-sending body, which culminated in establishment of the Southern Baptist Convention. He also raised funds to establish The Columbian College (now The George Washington University) in Washington, DC.

Luther Rice was born March 25, 1783 in Northborough, Massachusetts to Amos Rice and Sarah (Graves) Rice. As a young man at Williams College he became part of a group of young ministers and aspiring missionaries who called themselves "the Brethren." (Rice was a leader in this group famous for the "Haystack Prayer Meeting," although he was not present that day). He sailed to Calcutta, India on 18 February 1812 with Adoniram Judson as a Congregationalist missionary and met with English Baptist missionary William Carey. However, after both Rice and Judson became Baptists, Rice returned to America to break ties with the Congregationalists and to raise support for Judson's work from the Baptists. Rice worked to unite Baptists in America to support foreign missionaries and organized "The General Missionary Convention of the Baptist Denomination in United States of America, for Foreign Missions," (also called "the Triennial Convention") in 1814. Also in 1814, Rice was awarded an honorary doctorate by then Baptist-dominated Brown University in partial recognition for his contributions to missionary work undertaken through his Baptist denomination. He spent the rest of his life garnering support for missionaries and Baptist work, traveling across America by horseback to raise funds and awareness for Baptist missions.