During 1818, Ross entered into the Presbyterian ministry, emancipated his slaves, and then he moved to Kingsport, Tennessee, where he had his massive Rotherwood mansion, constructed on the Netherland Inn Road. Ross had his daughter, Rowena, educated at boarding schools located within the northern United States. Ross became pastor of Old Kingsport Presbyterian Church in Kingsport during 1826, and during 1828 he briefly labored as an evangelist in both Kentucky and Ohio. During the eruption of the Old School–New School Controversy division of the Presbyterian general assembly in 1837 and 1838, Ross aligned himself with the New School branch and he would remain as pastor of the Old Kingsport Presbyterian Church until 1852. Beginning in 1855, Ross became pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, Alabama, holding this charge until 1875 and continuing as pastor emeritus until his death in 1883.
Author, controversy
Together with both James Gallaher and David Nelson, Ross edited a monthly publication entitled The Calvinistic Magazine, that was first founded in 1826 and continued in operation through 1832. In the late 1840s, Ross began quarreling with Methodist minister and Whignewspaper publisherWilliam Gannaway Brownlow. Ross had earlier "declared war" on Methodism as a co-editor in his Calvinist Magazine, published from 1827 to 1832. Although distracted by internecine Old School–New School Controversy conflict within the Presbyterian church for nearly a decade, Ross resurrected the Calvinist Magazine in 1845. Ross argued that the Methodist Church was despotic, comparing it to a "great iron wheel" that would crush American liberty, and he went on to state that most Methodists were descended from Revolutionary War loyalists, and accused the religion's founder, John Wesley, of believing in ghosts and witches. Brownlow initially responded to Ross with a running column, "F.A. Ross' Corner," in the Jonesborough Whig. In 1847, he launched a separate paper, the Jonesborough Quarterly Review, which was dedicated to refuting Ross's attacks, and embarked on a speaking tour that summer. Brownlow argued that while it was common in Wesley's time for people to believe in ghosts, he provided evidence that many Presbyterian ministers still believed in such things. He derided Ross as a "habitual adulterer" and the son of a slave, and accused his relatives of stealing and committing indecent acts. This quarrel between the two mem continued until Brownlow moved his newspaper to Knoxville in 1849. Ross would go on to author a book in 1857 that he entitled Slavery As Ordained of God. Abraham Lincoln later read Slavery As Ordained of God and found in Ross's interpretation of the divine will pertaining to the national question of slavery as material for a telling passage as to how slavery advocates and owners themselves benefit from slavery within the 1858 Lincoln–Douglas debates. He died in Huntsville, Alabama.
