The Role Of Abolition Of Slavery In America

Over this week’s reading and video presentations, I was quite surprised at the number of denominations that formed, and the beliefs that many of them shared, and didn’t share. The Shakers “believed in salvation by confession of sin, equality regardless of sex or race, opposition to slavery and war, sexual abstinence, and assistance to the poor” (MindTap U.S. History, 7.3). Whereas the members of the utopian community, the Oneida Association, practiced complex marriage, where every man and every woman is in a sense married to each other. However, they also believe in equality regardless of gender as the Shakers do. The Mormons somewhat practice complex marriage, but their practice only prohibits men to acquire multiple wives. I also noticed that with each one of the new denominations emerging throughout the time period, that slavery was something the majority of these differing religious sects were opposed to. It seems to me that as new religion came about, the ideals of abolition of slavery were more supported and more talked about. Most of the members of these new belief systems wanted nothing to do with the act of slavery, because they felt that it went directly against Christian teachings, and I agree with

I believe the best way to explain the growing diversity in religious belief in America, is that America was finally a fully functioning, independent country, and religious persecution was a thing of