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The Abolitionist Movement In The 1800's

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The abolitionist movement in the early 1800s caused disagreement over the morality of slavery and played a vital role in people’s religious beliefs and how they manage to justify their actions. Religious leaders convinced Americans that religion was central to the American culture, and without religion, there couldn’t be a system of morals and ethics (Dyer). However, people were reevaluating their religion and how it played a role in slavery. Historians have questioned whether the abolitionist movement of the 1830s and early 1840s was a success or a failure (Robert A. Divine, The Pursuit of Perfection). This position implied that blacks should be granted equality as American citizens, so it ran up against the white supremacy prevailing in all …show more content…

Stephen Foster was a key leader in the abolitionist's movement in the 1800’s. In his speech, Foster argues that the church and clergy were guilty of theft, adultery, man-stealing, piracy, and murder because they were slaveholders and was using the church to hide behind. Foster didn’t use biblical quotes or characters to get his point across, instead, he pointed each crime of theft, adultery, man-stealing, piracy, and murder and went into detail of why it was wrong and how their actions disobeyed God and that God would condemn their …show more content…

Slavery was based on social class not based on race during that time. In the Bible, some people wanted to be slaves so that they could be taken care of by their masters. Some of the Israelites indicated that life was better as slaves in Egypt because, at least there, they were getting food, water, and housing as opposed to the wilderness, where not much was given. The owner of slaves in the 1800s used bible verses as a scapegoat for believing that it was okay to have slaves on their land and mistreated the slaves and did not treat them with respect as the bible said. In other words, involuntary slavery was a capital offense and was

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1039 Words | 5 Pages

Douglass’s words that captured such “veracity” is his saying that “slaveholder’s profession of Christianity is a palpable imposture” (xiv). The strong declaration, which gained many witnesses, proves his first-hand experience with slavery and therefore, justifies his credibility, regarding his religious persecution. Through this, he proves that Christianity, as they call it, is an illicit form of religion bent toward justifying white slaveowners’ actions while praying for “heavenly union” (Douglass 106). In the following occurrences, Douglass provides insight into the religious masking that Christian slaveholders use to cover-up the unjust treatment of their slaves, shining light onto the misinterpreted cult they have formed to justify their crimes and the effect religion has upon the white dominant culture

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1960 Words | 8 Pages

He argues that a person who is a slave owner cannot be a Christian. If he claims to be religious when he is oppressing colored men day and night, then he is merely a religious hypocrite. This was an important issue to touch upon because many White people accused the abolitionists of straying from the teachings of religion. What the Blacks actually wanted to communicate that they were not against Christianity, but found it a misuse of religious power when it was used to justified large scale oppression of a particular

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1141 Words | 5 Pages

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1008 Words | 5 Pages

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