Baptism in Schuylkill River

A believer is baptized in Pennsylvania's Schuylkill River while a Baptist minister preaches to his congregation on the shore. This woodcut was published in a 1770 multivolume history of American Baptists by Morgan Edwards. Most Baptists eschewed infant baptism, restricting the sacrament to those beyond the age of reason who professed belief or a conversion experience. They administered the rite by full immersion in water.