John R. McKivigan is Mary O'Brien Gibson Professor of History at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. He is the author of Abolitionism and the Northern Churches, 1830-1865, also from Cornell, and the coeditor of several books.
McKivigan shows that abolitionists, who were not infrequently
clergymen themselves, found an enormous and nearly insurmountable
challenge in their efforts to persuade formal church denominations
to accept the idea that slavery was a sin and fellowship with
slaveholders was not to be countenanced.... He addresses with logic
and documentation the reasons why church leaderships held back from
the abolitionist movement and why, during the early 1860s, it was
won over to the abolitionist program. His book is eminently
readable and his research admirable.
*Ohio History*
This fine book has two central themes developed in tandem, more or
less chronologically. One is the effort of abolitionists to covert
clergymen and church people of the North to their cause. The other
is the quarrel among leaders of these churches over endorsement of
abolitionist goals such as the denunciation of slaveholding as a
sin against God and the cessation of Christian fellowship with
congregations including slaveholders.
*American Historical Review*
This superbly researched and carefully written volume examines
historical evidence of the relationship between the abolitionist
movement and the northern churches in the middle years of the
nineteenth century.... McKivigan presents evidence to support the
thesis that the attitude of the northern religious community toward
slavery prior to the Civil War was more ambiguous than has been
supposed.... It will be regarded as the authoritative study of the
topic.
*Choice*
This well-researched and meticulously documented book thoroughly
examines the efforts of abolitionists to convert American churches
to their cause.... Historians have generally portrayed northern
churches as being far in advance of public opinion in their
antislavery views. Through extensive research in both manuscript
and contemporary printed sources and judicious use of secondary
literature, McKivigan has proven this to be a misperception of
history. With few exceptions, the view of the northern churches on
slavery was not far, if at all, in advance of the Republican party,
and it certainly lagged far behind that of the abolitionists.
Besides offering a new interpretation of an important aspect of
antebellum history, this book provides a new perspective on the
failure to ensure equal rights for the freedmen after the war.
*Journal of Southern History*
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