[3] From the beginning the ABA was focused on missionary activity, founding churches in different counties, and had a strong representation at the 1823 foundation of the Southern Baptist Convention, supplying six of the fourteen delegates from the state of Alabama.
[2] According to historian Wayne Flynt the ABA "dominated state Baptist life".
A vote in 1838 on missionary societies failed to carry the majority, but as a result seventeen churches left to form the Ebenezer Association, leaving the association with twenty-three missionary churches.
[9] In 1850, it issued a directive imploring the instruction of enslaved people—as a means of control as well as out of Christian compassion.
[10] After 1860, however, more and more Baptist associations across the state were having separate services for black congregations, and so did the ABA, which in 1867 advised its member churches to "encourage blacks to form their congregations 'under the direction and supervision of their white brethren'".