The name Baptists was given to members of congregations who had withdrawn from the dominant churches of England and restored what they believed to be apostolic precept and example of immersion. This name was first applied in England about 1644, and the people forming the organizations maintained that immersion upon confession of faith was necessary for valid baptism, rejecting infant baptism as incompatible with regenerate membership. Other religious bodies had practiced immersion without such teaching.

From the first, there were two branches of the English Baptists; those who followed the teaching of Calvin and those who adopted the theology of Arminius. The Arminian, or General Baptists, formed first under the leadership of John Smith, who established the first General Baptist church in London in 1611. The Calvinistic or Particular Baptists originated from a congregation of Separatists established in London about 1616. One of the first principles of the Baptist organizations was that the church as a spiritual body should be entirely separated from the state and that spiritual liberty be extended to all -- Catholic, Jew and Protestant. The first Baptist church in America was established at Providence, Rhode Island by Roger Williams. He was a minister of the Church of England, but soon after leaving the University of Cambridge adopted separatist principles. He sailed for America in 1630 hoping to find entire religious liberty in the new world. Landing at Boston, Massachusetts, he was invited to preach in the established church, but refused as it was unseparated. After some time, he finally located with the separatists of Plymouth colony. Because of his teachings, Williams became a disturbing element, and he was condemned to banishment and deportation to England in 1635. He managed to escape and made his way through the wilderness in midwinter to the Narragansett Indians of whom he bought land, upon which he founded the colony of Providence on the principle of entire civil and religious liberty. He advocated the most complete separation of church and state at a time when such ideas were almost inconceivable.

In 1639, a small band of only twelve believers originated baptism and the first Baptist church. About 1640, a Baptist church was formed at Newport, and in 1655 a church of this belief was established at Boston and maintained in spite of opposition. A colony of Welsh Baptists came to America in 1665, and after some difficulty located at Rehoboth, Massachusetts, in 1667. By 1750 there were eight Baptist churches in New England.

The Baptists began to locate in the Jerseys and Pennsylvania after 1682, and, as there was tolerance of religion, a large number of Quakers and Baptists emigrated from England to these localities. In 1686 several Baptist families from Wales located on the Pemepek River, where and a year later a company organized a church. The same year a church was organized at Middletown, New Jersey, and by 1770, twelve such churches existed. Services were held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania under the auspices of the Pemepek Church from 1687, but, the first church was not organized until 1698. The Philadelphia association was organized in 1707, and the New York colony churches sought admission to it as did the churches of Virginia and the Carolinas. Gradually, the church became firmly established in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, North and South Carolina and Connecticut, and a few congregations were organized in Virginia. During the Revolutionary War the progress of the church was not materially checked and it is estimated that in 1792 there were 1,200 organizations with a membership of 100,000.

The great westward migration after the American Revolution was an opportunity quickly improved by the Baptists. Missionary preachers were sent into the new western country and Baptist societies formed in the fringe of civilization. In 1845, differences arose over the question of slavery and the churches of the slave states formed the South Baptist convention, while the northern churches organized the American Baptist Union. At different times, branches have separated from the two original Baptist organizations, or new congregations were formed until the church included the following bodies: Northern Baptist Convention, Southern Baptist Convention, National Baptist Convention (Colored), General Six Principle Baptists, Seven-day Baptists, Free Baptists, General Baptists, Separate Baptists, United Baptists, Duck River and Kindred Associations of Baptists (Baptist Church of Christ), Primitive Baptists, Colored Primitive Baptists in America, Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists, Freewill Baptists (Bullockites), and United American Freewill Baptists (Colored).