Religion and the Civil War
American Religious History
Religion and abolitionism
ˇ Readying
America for the millennium
ˇ
Evangelization: American Tract Society, 1825
ˇ
American Temperance Society, 1825
ˇ
American Antislavery Society, 1833
ˇ
Slavery = America’s biggest sin
ˇ No protection for
women or families
ˇ No curbs on power of
slaveowners
ˇ Contradicts the
overall sense of the Bible
ˇ
Northern evangelists support abolition
Religion and the defense of
slavery
ˇ Slavery
is Biblical
ˇ
No passage condemns slavery
ˇ
Ephesians 6:5, Colossians 3:22
ˇ
“Servants, obey in all things your masters”
ˇ
Gen. 17:12; Deut. 20:10-11; 1 Cor. 7:21; Rom. 13:1,7; 1 Tim. 6:1-2
ˇ
The curse of Ham, Gen. 9:25-27
ˇ
His descendants to be servants to his brothers
ˇ Slavery
is moral
ˇ
Slaves taken care of, protected, Christianized
ˇ
Masters like the patriarchs of the Old Testament
Slaves and religion
ˇ Denmark
Vesey conspiracy, 1821
ˇ
African Methodists implicated
ˇ
Methodists nearly banned
ˇ
All-slave congregations outlawed
ˇ Slaves
in white churches
ˇ On
plantations, masters attend services
ˇ “Hush
arbors”: meeting in secret
Denominations split over
slavery
ˇ 1845:
Methodist Episcopal Church and Methodist Episcopal Church, South
ˇ 1845:
American Baptists and Southern Baptists
ˇ 1861:
Presbyterian Church in the USA and Presbyterian Church in the CSA (later US)
ˇ Disciples
of Christ & Churches of Christ (1907)
ˇ Episcopalians
maintain unity
ˇ Catholics
also united, but pro-Southern
ˇ Common-sense
reading of Bible a terrible failure
Religion and the Civil War,
1861-1865
ˇ Both
sides appeal to God
ˇ
Southern Constitution explicitly invokes God
ˇ Religion:
important consolation to soldiers
ˇ
Many revivals in camps of both sides
ˇ What
did this terrible war mean?
ˇ Northerners:
God punished the South for slavery
ˇ
Lincoln: The nation was punished for slavery
ˇ Southerners:
Why did God allow defeat?
ˇ
Punished for their sins (but not for slavery!)
Religion and Reconstruction
ˇ Whites
control Southern churches; blacks leave
ˇ Creation
of black churches without whites
ˇ
Independent, mainly Baptist in the countryside
ˇ
Successful urban AME and AMEZ missionizing
ˇ
Free to have own style of religion
ˇ White
churches support segregation, white rule
ˇ
Blacks “naturally” immoral
ˇ
Protect “true” Christianity & pure white women
ˇ
Ku Klux Klan; lynching, torture, violence, terror
ˇ For
North, new sins: alcohol, prostitutes, Catholics