Constructing the Past Volume 2 Issue 1 Article 5 2001 The Pro-Slavery Argument in the Development of the American Methodist Church Kyle Painter Illinois Wesleyan University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/constructing Recommended Citation Painter, Kyle (2001) "The Pro-Slavery Argument in the Development of the American Methodist Church," Constructing the Past: Vol. 2 : Iss. 1 , Article 5. Available at: https://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/constructing/vol2/iss1/5 This Article is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by Digital Commons @ IWU with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this material in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/ or on the work itself. This material has been accepted for inclusion by editorial board of the Undergraduate Economic Review and the Economics Department at Illinois Wesleyan University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ©Copyright is owned by the author of this document. The Pro-Slavery Argument in the Development of the American Methodist Church Abstract This article discusses the evolution of the Methodist church. It specifically focuses on the way that pro- slavery views were eventually supported by many members of the church, using the Bible to support these beliefs. This article is available in Constructing the Past: https://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/constructing/vol2/iss1/5 28 Ericka Rozinek Constructing The Past 29 Papers, ISHL. The Pro-Slavery Argument in theDevelopment ofthe American Methodist 66 Kinchloe, 163. Church 67 Daily Pantagraph (Bloomington) I November 1860. 68 Illinois State Journal (Springfield) 7 November 1860. Kyle Painter 69 Illinois State Journal (Springfield) 2 November 1860. 70 Illinois State Journal (Springfield) I November 1860. ...and the truth will set you free. -John 8:32 71 Illinois Statesman (Bloomington) 24 August 1860. 72 Daily Pantagraph (Bloomington) 25 June 1860. Submit yourself ... to every authority instituted by men. -I Peter 2: 13 73 Illinois State Register (Springfield) 7 July 1860. 74 Illinois State Register (Springfield) 26 July 1860. n his most famous autobiographical narrative, Frederick Douglass 75 ibid. gives an interesting account on how Methodism changed one of his 76 ibid. I former masters, Thomas Auld: 77 Weekly Herald (Lincoln) 8 August 1860. 78 Julia Trumbull to Lyman Trumbull, Springfield, IL 17 July 1860. Trumbull Family In August, my master attended a Methodist camp-meeting held in Papers, ISHL. 79 Ada Bailhache to her mother, Springfield, IL 20 November 1860, ISHL. the Bay-side, Talbot county, and there experienced religion. I so Grace Bedell to Abraham Lincoln, Westfield, quoted in David Herbert Donald, Lincoln indulged a faint hope that his conversion would lead him to (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995), 258. emancipate his slaves, and that, if he did not do this, it would, at any 81 An example ofsuch a poem can be found in the November 9, 1860 issue ofBloomington's rate, make him more kind and humane. I was disappointed in both Illinois Statesman: Ere we parted for the eveninglWhile I lingered in the halVHalf these respects. It neither made him to be humane to his slaves nor to doubting when to leave her/If I ever left at all/She asked me if 'twere possibleITo emancipate them. If it had any effect on his character, it made him change my vote this falVShe knew me for a Democrat -/The roguish little elf/Knew more cruel and hateful in all his ways; for I believe him to have been .that I loved my party less-/Less than I did herself.lSo she told me I might kiss herllf a much worse man after his conversion than before.' I laid "Breck" on the shelf/Could I lose an opportunity/Available as this?/Could I think of hesitatinglWhen I stood so near to bliss?lNo! Egad - 'twas/orthe Union!lSo Both here and in several other locations, Douglass notes how slave owners I took the proffered kiss. 82 Illinois Statesman (Bloomington) 27 July 1860. tended to become more cruel when they became involved in a church, especially 83 Illinois Statesman (Bloomington) 27 July 1860. if that church happened to be Methodist. 84 Bulletin (Freeport) 12 July 1860. Despite what Douglass saw, support ofslavery was not the only Methodist 85 Illinois State Journal (Springfield) 10 July 1860. response to this peculiar institution. In fact, there was never really any 86 Central Illinois Gazette (Champaign) 22 August 1860; Bulletin (Freeport) 23 August consensus view of slavery throughout the history of antebellum Methodism, 1860. despite strong initial opposition to the concept of slavery by most of the early 87 Sarah Withers Diary, 16 July 1860, MHS. Methodist leaders. John Wesley, the founder of and greatest influence on 88 John Mack Faragher, Sugar Creek: Life on the Illinois Prairie (New Haven, Yale Methodism, was against all aspects of the slave trade and slavery itself, as University Press, 1986), 149. 2 89 David Herbert Donald, Lincoln (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995), 109. were nearly all ofthe early Methodist leaders. But the original stands against 90 David Davis to Sarah Davis, Bloomington, 30 October 1860, ISHL. slavery taken by men like Wesley and the first leader of the newly formed 91 Ibid. Methodist Episcopal Church, Francis Asbury, were eventually compromised 92 Sarah Withers Diary, 6 November 1860, MHS. and ultimately undercut, so that by the 1840's, Southern Methodist preachers, 93 Sarah Withers Diary, 7 November 1860, MHS. such as William Capers and William A. Smith, were composing biblical 94 Anna Ridgely Hudson diary, 4 November 1860, ISHL. arguments in favor of slavery. These arguments defended slavery on several 95 Weekly Herald (Lincoln) 14 November 1860. bases: fITst, that the Bible did not explicitly say slavery was wrong; second, 96 Sarah Davis to David Davis, 8 November 1860, ISHL. that slavery actually seemed to be condoned by biblical writers like Paul; and 97 Sarah Withers Diary, 14 April 1861, MHS. third, that the institution of slavery was allowed by the government, and, 981bid.,28 April 1861. since Christians are to submit to their governing authorities, they should 99 Wheeler and Wortman, 37-39. 100 Sarah Withers Diary, 28 April 1861, MHS. have no problems with government-allowed slavery. • \ ....,.­ Kyle Painter Constructing The Past 31 ~,.,;:....- 30 It is this last argument on which I will focus. The roots of this argument Early on, Methodist activity consisted of itinerant preachers being sent lay deep within Methodist history. One of the earliest and most famous of the out to a certain area of the country to preach, often in the open air. The logical Methodist preachers in America, George Whitefield, was very excited about extension of this process was to send preachers to the American colonies; seeing slaves becoming "convicted" and converting to Christianity, yet he George Whitefield, possibly the most famous preacher in American history, also upheld the right of the government to allow slavery. In fact, he petitioned took seven trips to America and made it a second home, eventually dying Georgia's state assembly to pass a law to allow slavery in the state so that he there. The efforts in America tended to be less organized than those in England, could support an orphanage he was overseeing. His view of blacks seems which themselves were never meant to be a separate ecclesiastical entity. paradoxical to the modern observer, because he defended the rights of blacks Many of the early preaching missions left behind little or no recognizable to be as educated as whites while encouraging the government to allow the society of Methodists. However, Methodism did eventually take to America slavery of those same men that he claimed to see as equals. in full force. John Wesley, though never leaving the Anglican Church, laid Later, when the Methodist church in America finally split from the Church down the organization and theology of what would become the Methodist of England, largely because of the political split between their respective Episcopal Church. He was by far the greatest influence on the preachers of the nations, Francis Asbury and some of the other leaders tried to institute rules early Methodist church in America. His tracts, journals, and sermons were that restricted the ability of members of the church to own slaves. But Asbury widely published and read; his ideas were widely accepted within the was soon thereafter forced to compromise by modifying his stance to allow Methodist Church, especially among the clergy. slaveholders to be members of the church. Among Wesley's tracts was a pamphlet entitled Thoughts on Slavery.4 The reason given for this action was that the preachers wanted access to This essay was written in 1774. In it, Wesley outlines the reasons that are used the slaves so that they too could hear about Christianity; however, the large to justify slavery, fol1owed by his own counter-arguments. One popular number and high status of slaveholders in the Methodist congregations made argument that he debunks is that the countries from which slaves are taken are it extremely difficult to even attempt to kick them out of the church. It was "horrid, dreary, and barren" in addition to being populated with uncivilized these kinds of concessions that compromised the convictions of the early brutes.5 Wesley counters this by saying that maybe Africa's civilization is not leaders and allowed preachers within the Methodist Church to biblically quite as cultivated as Europe's, but their residents are often more wel1­ defend slavery.