The War against Proslavery Religion : : Abolitionism and the Northern Churches, 1830-1865 / / John R. McKivigan.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Cornell University Press Backlist 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: McKivigan, John R.,
• Place / Publishing House: Ithaca, NY : : Cornell University Press, , [2018]; ©2009
• Year of Publication: 2018
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (328 p.) :; 8 tables

Reflecting a prodigious amount of research in primary and secondary sources, this book examines the efforts of American abolitionists to bring northern religious institutions to the forefront of the antislavery movement.John R. McKivigan employs both conventional and quantitative historical techniques to assess the positions adopted by various churches in the North during the growing conflict over slavery, and to analyze the stratagems adopted by American abolitionists during the 1840s and 1850s to persuade northern churches to condemn slavery and to endorse emancipation. Working for three decades to gain church support for their crusade, the abolitionists were the first to use many of the tactics of later generations of radicals and reformers who were also attempting to enlist conservative institutions in the struggle for social change.To correct what he regards to be significant misperceptions concerning church-oriented abolitionism, McKivigan concentrates on the effects of the abolitionists' frequent failures, the division of their movement, and the changes in their attitudes and tactics in dealing with the churches. By examining the pre-Civil War schisms in the Presbyterian, Baptist, and Methodist denominations, he shows why northern religious bodies refused to embrace abolitionism even after the defection of most southern members. He concludes that despite significant antislavery action by a few small denominations, most American churches resisted committing themselves to abolitionist principles and programs before the Civil War.In a period when attention is again being focused on the role of religious bodies in influencing efforts to solve America's social problems, this book is especially timely.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Introduction -- 1. No Christian Fellowship with Slaveholders -- 2. Donning the Prophet's Mantle -- 3. Garrisonianism, the Churches, and the Division of the Abolitionist Movement -- 4. Church-Oriented Abolitionism and the Sectional Schism in the American Churches -- 5. Abolitionists and the Comeouter Sects -- 6. Abolitionism and the Benevolent Empire -- 7. Interdenominational Antislavery Endeavors -- 8. Vote as You Pray and Pray as You Vote: Church-Oriented Abolitionism and Antislavery Politics -- 9. Abolitionism and the Advance of Religious Antislavery Practices, 1845-1860 -- 10. Abolitionism and the Churches during the Civil War -- Appendix: Religious Affiliations of the Officers of the Four National Abolition Societies, 1833-1864 -- Abbreviations -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index