The Role of Religion in the Abolition Movement - Essay Sample

Introduction

There is a widespread misconception that Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence was the catalyst behind the antislavery campaign that ended in the American Civil War. Despite his sentiments, half of the nation's states practiced slavery, many since colonial times and few among them dared to protest for fear of insurrection. Even the Northern states had trafficked in slaves as late as the 1820s.

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Far from the ideals of enlightenment, the emancipation crusade was born of radical and fervent religious rebirth that coincided with the nation's conception. Two branches of Christian ideology were responsible: Quakerism and a radical interdenominational evangelicalism. The former, with characteristic piety, emphasized the love of God to every human being irrespective of color, race or sex. Notable Quaker reformers such as Benjamin Lundy went on to have some successes in the Southern States and later continued in citizen petitions to the Southern Congress and within their ranks. Additionally, the Methodists and some Baptists were also active at the same time, but in limited capacities.

The interdenominational evangelical movement birthed in Great Britain was more dynamic. One of its leading proponents, Rev. John Newton, made a believer of Hull Member of Parliament, William Wilberforce and they joined forces with Granville Sharp, a committed Black- and American freedom advocate. These three devout Anglicans used their social standing to preach against the profitable African slave trade. By joining the efforts of other rich and pious English Quakers such as the industrialist Josiah Wedgwood, they were able to persuade Parliament to cease African slave trade in 1806. One of the most important organizations operating at this time was The Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. Since 1787, it had set the bar of religious activity in politics that was then replicated in America much later. British civic philanthropies, what Sir Stephen called "...the age of societies," formed the framework for their American counterparts. (Sir Stephen 382) The society to suppress slave trafficking and British and Foreign Bible Society (1803) among others spread the Christian message that was critically anti-slavery. The American equivalents such as the American Bible Society, with enthusiasm, spread the gospel, distributed Bibles, converted and rehabilitated people and participated in civic matters. Early victories such as the 1842 successful petition to Congress to stop mail on Sunday provided important experience. In 1818, following English precedent, the American Colonization Society made Liberia a refuge for freed slaves, but colonization did not gain much traction, and few slaves went with the program. (Staudenraus 77)

The American Anti-Slavery Society (AA-SS) had its origins in several prominent persons. The English Quaker, Elizabeth Heyrick published the audacious tract, Immediate, Not Gradual Abolition, and her activities were instrumental to the passage of the 1833 Emancipation Act. In Boston, and with the backing of Arthur and Lewis Tappan, William Garrison went to war against the slavers in his paper, The Liberator. He advocated for the instant emancipation of slaves, zero compensation to their owners and that the slaves receive full American rights without any stipulations to leave the country. Together with the Tappan brothers and other Quaker reformers, they created the American Anti-Slavery Society (AA-SS) in 1833 in Philadelphia. With the Tappan brothers at the helm, the society became capitalized; it recruited instrumental members, disseminated antislavery booklets, and organized meetings.

Northern White Christians formed the bulk of abolitionists in the 1830s; however, African Americans were a part of the movement too. The most prolific was David Walker, a radical free Black from the South whose literary and oratory skills were matched only by his religious conscious. He promoted slave riots and decried the hypocrisy of Christian slavers in famous statements like, "Are we MEEN![...]slaves to dust and ashes?" (Wilentz 25) Nat Turner, though less murderous and combative made possible the famous Virginia uprising of 1831, however, he was captured and hanged. Other prominent founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society included the wealthy sailmaker James Forten, and son-in-law Robert Purvis, Philadelphia, Episcopalian Peter Williams, New York, and the passionate advocate of Black freedom, the Presbyterian Henry Garnet. Famous Quakers Angelina and Sarah Grimke broke cultural taboos and addressed mixed audiences denouncing the conservative clergy. Most members of the AA-SS were affiliated with churches, and conversion to abolitionism resembled the revival style of worship of the day. In 1835, the top revivalist of the second Great Awakening, Charles Finney was called by the Tappan brothers to head the antislavery faculty of the new Ohio College. It is he who sent missionary educators to the war-ravaged South following the Civil War.

Conclusion

The abolitionist movement, however, split in the late 1830s due to conflicting ideologies of action and modernism. Conservative elements opposed to action were alienated, and a new section came up that entered into politics, forming the Liberty Party. Despite this, abolitionists proved instrumental in political spheres; they catalyzed the Republican Party's evolution, even holding important influence in it. Further, their efforts sensitized Northerners to the vices of slavery.

John Brown was the culmination of antislavery and religious fanaticism. His botched raid of an armory in hopes of distributing the weapons and inciting a riot ended up in ten deaths during the stand-off and his death by hanging. In all this, however, the ultimate abolitionist was Abraham Lincoln, who, though without denomination, nevertheless had strong religious convictions that, for him, made slavery an evil that had to be purged. It was his union army that went to war for his presidential aims and all the hopes and ideals of more than a century's worth of antislavery championing.

Works Cited

Sir James Stephen. Essays in Ecclesiastical Biography. 2 Vols. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans (1853) 1:382.

P. J. Staudenraus. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press (1961).

Sean Wilentz, ed. David Walker's Appeal, In Four Articles: Together With A Preamble To The Colored Citizens Of The World, But In Particular, And Very Expressly, To Those Of The United States Of America. New York: Hill and Wang (1995): 25.