Date: Tuesday, June 29, 2010 Time: 10:00 a.m.-11:30 a.m.

Moral issues were center stage in American politics. Evangelical Christians formed an influential power bloc and voted according to their religious beliefs. They expected elected officials to do the same. Their opponents feared for secular democracy and insisted on the separation of church and state. Yesterday? No, 1850. The issue was slavery. More than such enlightened beliefs as "All men are created equal," religious fervor fueled the abolition movement. Join us to learn how and why.

LEADER:

Laurie Maffly-Kipp Associate Professor of Religion University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill National Humanities Center Fellow

• Assigned Readings
  1. Bertram Wyatt-Brown, "American Abolitionism and Religion," essay in "Divining America: Religion in American History," TeacherServe® from the National Humanities Center.
  2. Benjamin Lay, Address to Fellow Quakers, 1737. (PDF)
  3. David Walker's Appeal, "Preamble," 1830. (PDF)
     
     For more on David Walker's Appeal, including discussion questions, visit "The Triumph of Nationalism/The House Dividing" from the National Humanities Center.
  4. Mastheads of the Liberator. (PDF)
  5. Collection box for Abolition. (PDF)
  6. Angelina Grimké, "An Appeal to the Christian Women of the South," 1836. (PDF)
  7. The Slave's Friend, 1836. (PDF)
  8. Frederick Douglass, "The Relation of the Free Church to the Slave Church," 1846. (PDF)
  9. John Brown—The Martyr, 1870. (PDF)
• Seminar Presentation (PowerPoint, 1.73MB)
• Seminar Evaluation
• Forum
• Seminar Recording
  1. Streaming recording
  2. Download recording (You will need to install the WebEx ARF player, available at download, to playback the recording.)