Christian abolitionism
(Also see Abolitionism#United_States)
Although many abolitionists opposed slavery on purely philosophical reasons, anti-slavery movements attracted strong religious elements. Throughout Europe and the United States, Christians, usually from 'un-institutional' Christian faith movements, not directly connected with traditional state churches, or "non-conformist" believers within established churches, were to be found at the forefront of the abolitionist movements.[18]
In particular, the effects of the Second Great Awakening with freedom of speech were principal causes in many evangelicals working to see the theoretical Christian view, that all people are equal, made a practical reality. Prominent among these in England was Parliamentarian William Wilberforce, who wrote in his diary when he was 28 that “God Almighty has set before me two great objects, the suppression of the Slave Trade and Reformation of Morals.”[19] With others he labored, against much determined opposition, to finally abolish the British slave trade. The famous English preacher Charles Spurgeon had some of his sermons burned in America due to his censure of slavery, calling it "the foulest blot" and which "may have to be washed out in blood."[20] Methodist founder John Wesley denounced human bondage as "the sum of all villainies," and detailed it's abuses.[21] In Georgia, primitive Methodists united with brethren elsewhere in condemning slavery. Many evangelical leaders in the United States such as Presbyterian Charles Finney and Theodore Weld, and women such as Harriet Beecher Stowe (daughter of abolitionist Lyman Beecher) and Sojourner Truth motivated hearers to support abolition. Finney preached salvation from sin and preached slavery as a moral sin, and so supported it's elimination. "I had made up my mind on the question of slavery, and was exceedingly anxious to arouse public attention to the subject. In my prayers and preaching, I so often alluded to slavery, and denounced it.[22] Repentance from slavery was required of souls, once enlightened of the subject, while continued support of the system incurred "the greatest guilt" upon them.[23]
Quakers in particular were early leaders in abolitionism. In 1688 Dutch Quakers in Germantown, Pennsylvania, sent an antislavery petition to the Monthly Meeting of Quakers. By 1727 British Quakers had expressed their official disapproval of the slave trade.[24] Three Quaker abolitionists, Benjamin Lay, John Woolman, and Anthony Benezet, devoted their lives to the abolitionist effort from the 1730s to the 1760s, with Lay founding the Negro School in 1770, which would serve more than 250 pupils.[25] In June of 1783 a petition from the the London Yearly Meeting and signed by over 300 Quakers was presented to Parliament protesting the slave trade.[26] In 1787 the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade was formed, with 9 of the 12 founder members being Quakers.
Though facing much opposition - from violence to the U.S. Postmaster General refusing to allow the mails to carry abolition pamphlets to the South [27][28] - many Methodist, Baptist, and Presbyterian members freed their slaves and sponsored black congregations, in which many black ministers encouraged slaves to believe that freedom could be gained during their lifetime. After a great revival occurred in 1801 at Cane Ridge, Kentucky, American Methodists made anti-slavery sentiments a condition of church membership.[29] Abolitionist writings, such as "A Condensed Anti-Slavery Bible Argument" (1845) by George Bourne,[30] and "God Against Slavery" (1857) by George B. Cheever,[31] used the Bible, logic and reason extensively in contending against the institution of slavery, and in particular the chattel form of it as seen in the South.
A more radical abolitionist, John Brown, was considered to have been either a martyr or a zealot, depending on one's point of view.
Other Protestant missionaries of the Great Awakening initially opposed slavery in the South, but by the early decades of the 1800's, many Baptist and Methodist preachers in the South had come to an accommodation with it in order to evangelize the farmers and workers. Disagreements between the newer way of thinking and the old often created schisms within denominations at the time. Differences in views toward slavery resulted in the Baptist and Methodist churches dividing into regional associations by the beginning of the Civil War.[32]
[edit] Catholic opposition to slavery
In 1435 Pope Eugene IV condemned slavery, of other Christians, in Sicut Dudum [2].
In 1462 Pope Pius II declared slavery to be a "great crime" (magnum scelus);[33].
In 1537 Pope Paul III condemned it in Sublimus Dei [3];
In 1741 Pope Benedict XIV condemned slavery generally; in 1815 Pope Pius VII demanded of the Congress of Vienna the suppression of the slave trade; in the Bull of Canonization of the Jesuit Peter Claver, one of the most illustrious adversaries of slavery, Pope Pius IX branded the "supreme villainy" (summum nefas) of the slave traders;[33] in 1839 Pope Gregory XVI condemned slavery in In Supremo Apostolatus [4]; and in 1888 Pope Leo XIII in In Plurimis [5].
The Roman Catholic leader of the Irish in Ireland, Daniel O'Connell, supported the abolition of slavery in the British Empire and in America. With the black abolitionist Charles Lenox Remond, and the temperance priest Theobold Mayhew, he organized a petition with 60,000 signatures urging the Irish of the United States to support abolition. O'Connell also spoke in the United States for abolition.
See also The Final Abolition of Slavery in Christian Lands for a full time line.
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