The Religious Roots of the Abolition Movement | National Humanities Center

Humanities in Class: Webinar Series

The Religious Roots of the Abolition Movement

Laurie F. Maffly-Kipp (Fellow, 1993–94)

May 11, 2010

How did American Christians in the nineteenth century come to see slavery as something that needed to be abolished? Christianity was a central feature of nineteenth-century American life for both slaveholders and anti-slavery activists. To argue persuasively against slavery, abolitionists had to find ways to use the Bible and Christian tradition, along with American patriotic and domestic ideals, to make their case.


Subjects

History / Abolitionism / Slavery / Christianity / American History /