He was also the pastor and personal minister of Sam Houston while in Huntsville, Texas, and later bought a fourteen-year-old slave named Charles from him in 1862.

[8] In 1832, he was converted in a revival conducted by the famous baptist preacher Thomas Jefferson Fisher about ten miles south of Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

His father was among the signers of his preaching license and certificate of ordination[4] and is listed as the pastor of New Bethel Baptist Church.

[7] He lived along Crooked Creek, about two miles southwest of present-day Harrison, Arkansas, the area today lies in Boone County.

[3][12] He was expelled by his church in Arkansas when it was seized by "hard shell Baptists" whose main point of disagreement with Baines was the concept of predestination.

[13] Baines baptized more than 100 people in Arkansas, where he lived for seven years, before moving to Mount Lebanon, Louisiana, with his family in July 1844.

[18] A lengthy editorial in his newspaper, the Texas Baptist, from January 3, 1861, the writer of which was "probably G. W. Baines" (it was signed "B") attacked northern abolitionists, defended the condition of the slaves, and proceeded to place slaves in what the author deemed their "proper position:" "If the intellectual and moral condition of a race of men fit them only for despotic government, they will be slaves to their superiors wherever they may live, and to declare that they are equal in rights to the men who are fitted for a free republican, or a democratic government, is to declare what is positively absurd.

In the editorial, the institution of slavery as a whole was defended, with the author writing "We are sure that God has given to us the right to buy and own slaves as a perpetual inheritance, and to transmit them to our children.

We know that our Lord and the apostles recognized the institution of slavery as lawful, and made provisions both for masters and slaves in the first churches, and for these reasons we are determined not to be controlled by an ungodly and unchristian party of misguided fanatics in this matter.

At your last meeting, I am informed, that you passed an order requesting me to continue my services until the end of the present year.

My principal reason is that my state of health will not justify the confinement which is necessary to teach and control a school of little boys, seven or eight hours every day.

During the summer of 1862, a committee of correspondence was established by the Board of Trustees to enter negotiations with William Carey Crane to fill the vacancy in the office of the president left by Baines.

[28] Shortly after leaving Baylor he moved to Fairfield, Texas, where his wife Melissa Ann and youngest son Johnny Paxton died.

[31] He devoted his life as a Christian leader; even with his chronic dyspepsia, he was a field agent of the Baptist State Convention for several years.

He introduced resolutions asking the United States Congress to turn over "refuse lands" and worked to adopt the paper ballot and end voice voting.

[20]: 114 Baines was described by his church members in Arkansas as "a lithe, medium sized man... with deep blue eyes and coal black hair.