The Role of Methodism in Discussions of Slavery and Secession in the Antebellum Period

 

In the decades leading up to the Civil War, American Christianity grappled intensely with the moral status of slavery. Christian denominations increasingly fractured over whether to condemn or defend the peculiar institution. The Methodist Episcopal Church provides an illuminating example of these debates. From its origins, Methodism held an antislavery position, but this weakened over time as it expanded in the slaveholding South. By the 1850s, tensions erupted in calls for separation by Southerners. Examining Methodist discourse on slavery and secession reveals how religion shaped conceptions of slavery and sectionalism in the antebellum period.

 

Early Methodism officially opposed slavery. John Wesley, Methodism's founder, called it "execrable sum of all villainies," and American Methodists largely shared this view.[1] As Methodists proselytized across the new nation in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, they "bore public testimony against slavery".[2] Methodist preachers condemned the cruelty of the slave system and called for manumission. But as Methodism took root in the South, accommodations were made. Rules against slaveholding were relaxed, and a schism emerged between Northern and Southern Methodists. Several factors drove this realignment, including economic ties to slavery among Southern congregants and a desire for denominational unity. Southern Methodist preachers moderated their tone as slaveholders joined their churches. Some began arguing that slavery was a political issue not subject to church discipline. Meanwhile, the church strengthened its ban on abolitionist agitation.

 

This policy of moderation aimed to maintain Methodism's growth and cohesion but proved unstable. Changes emerged clearly in writings by Methodist ministers on both sides of the issue. Southern Methodist preachers increasingly defended slavery in the antebellum period. In his 1865 pamphlet, John H. Caldwell portrayed slavery as a benevolent hierarchy endorsed by scripture. He argued for limited religious instruction of slaves while affirming masters' absolute authority over them.[3] Southern ministers increasingly defended slavery not just as unavoidable, but as a positive social system endorsed by scripture.

 

As abolitionist fervor rose in the North, it heightened tensions within the church. Some even suggested it was providentially designed to spread Christianity among Africans. These developments alienated many Northern Methodists committed to the church's Wesleyan antislavery legacy. Northern Methodists like Abel Stevens grew increasingly vocal in condemnation of slavery. Stevens charged the Methodist Episcopal Church with cowardice for not taking a firmer stand against the institution. He highlighted slavery's brutality, called for immediate emancipation, and admonished the church for betraying its Wesleyan roots.[4] They saw moderation on slavery as moral compromise. So an irrepressible conflict developed within Methodism, parallel to rising national tensions. The church could not finesse its way through the slavery controversy. By the late 1840s, sectional schism became the only resolution.

 

But why did Methodism's position on slavery change? What caused it to go from a church of antislavery activism to a divided body unable to stand against the peculiar institution? Several factors were at play. First, economic ties to slavery reshaped Southern Methodism. As slaveholders joined the church, they pressured ministers to moderate antislavery stances. Preachers depended on slaveholders for financial support and status in Southern society. Second, some Southerners argued slavery was needed to maintain racial hierarchy and social order. They claimed emancipation would lead to race war and chaos. Methodist leaders who accepted this logic saw antislavery as dangerous radicalism. Third, as Methodists focused on reform issues like temperance, they were less vigilant against slavery's advance. Moral energy directed elsewhere allowed compromises on slavery to solidify.

 

But perhaps above all, Methodism failed to maintain its antislavery witness because an accommodationist ethos took hold. Leaders believed they could preserve unity by avoiding firm stands either for or against slavery. Both Northern abolitionism and Southern proslavery activism came under suspicion as divisive. Moderation and compromise became virtues rather than vices. But in the end, this approach only delayed rather than prevented sectional schism. It betrayed Methodism's prophetic legacy as slavery increasingly came to dominate public life. Examining this fracturing illuminates how contentious debates over slavery's morality permeated American religion and culture in the antebellum period. Moral suasion proved incapable of resolving tensions peacefully, but antislavery Methodists' legacy persisted.

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[1] Charles Elliott, History of the Great Secession from the Methodist Episcopal Church in the Year 1845, Eventuating in the Organization of the New Church, Entitled the “Methodist Episcopal Church, South” (Cincinnati: Pub. by Swormstedt & Poe, for the Methodist Episcopal church, 1855), https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CY0100051518/SABN?sid=bookmark-SABN&xid=2b539252&pg=1.

 

[2] Abel Stevens, An Appeal to the Methodist Episcopal Church Concerning What Its Next General Conference Should Do on the Question of Slavery (New York: John F. Trow, 1859), https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CY0107697867/SABN?sid=bookmark-SABN&xid=440a3396&pg=1.

 

[3] John H. Caldwell, Slavery and Southern Methodism : Two Sermons Preached in the Methodist Church in Newman, Georgia ([Newman? Ga.]: Printed for the author, 1865), https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CY0102877048/SABN?sid=bookmark-SABN&xid=bd220b56&pg=1.

 

[4] Stevens, An Appeal to the Methodist Episcopal Church Concerning What Its Next General Conference Should Do on the Question of Slavery.

Bibliography

Caldwell, John H. Slavery and Southern Methodism : Two Sermons Preached in the Methodist Church in Newman, Georgia. [Newman? Ga.]: Printed for the author, 1865. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CY0102877048/SABN?sid=bookmark-SABN&xid=bd220b56&pg=1.

 

Elliott, Charles. History of the Great Secession from the Methodist Episcopal Church in the Year 1845, Eventuating in the Organization of the New Church, Entitled the “Methodist Episcopal Church, South.” Cincinnati: Pub. by Swormstedt & Poe, for the Methodist Episcopal church, 1855. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CY0100051518/SABN?sid=bookmark-SABN&xid=2b539252&pg=1.

 

Stevens, Abel. An Appeal to the Methodist Episcopal Church Concerning What Its Next General Conference Should Do on the Question of Slavery. New York: John F. Trow, 1859. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CY0107697867/SABN?sid=bookmark-SABN&xid=440a3396&pg=1.