The Trail of Blood

The Trail of Blood is a 1931 book by American Southern Baptist minister James Milton Carroll, comprising a collection of five lectures he gave on the history of Baptist churches, which he presented as a succession from the first Christians.

The work has been criticized for linking together numerous unrelated sects and historical heresies that have no relation to Baptist theology or polity.

[1] The full title is The Trail of Blood: Following the Christians Down through the Centuries: or, The History of Baptist Churches from the Time of Christ, Their Founder, to the Present Day.

[2] Carroll presents modern Baptists as the direct successors of a strain of Christianity dating to apostolic times, reflecting a Landmarkist view first promoted in the mid-nineteenth century by James Robinson Graves (1820-1893).

"[citation needed] As of 2010[update] Ashland Avenue Baptist Church in Lexington, Kentucky held the copyright to Carroll's book.