Catherine A. Brekus, Strangers and Pilgrims: Female Preaching in America, 1740-1845 (1998)

Bathsheba Kingsley, “brawling woman” preacher who had “gone quite out of her place.”

Brekus argued women like Kingsley within tens years of the first Great Awakening were increasingly prevented or blocked from participating in religious education (e.g., testifying, witnessing, etc.). By the Revolution sharp lines were drawn between the male and female realm of religious education.

During the 1830s and 40s the moral authority gained by the ideology of “separate spheres” positioned religious education firmly in the female realm. Women’s participation in religious education became the norm rather than the exception

Abolitionists: Slavery Violated Domestic Ideology & Religion

Older Anti-slavery Movement

Henry Clay, American Colonization Society

Liberia 1821-1822 Emigration Early moves to

abolish slavery among religious groups (e.g., Quakers

Northeast Ordinance of 1787

New Abolitionists

Immediate emancipation Public expression Recognition of black humanity and civil

equality

Variations among Abolitionists

Restrict spread of slavery Free soil party 1848 Anti-slavery not necessarily abolitionist

(e.g. some Northerners)

New England and Northeast: Center of Abolitionism –

However, they are NOT popular in North

Considered:

•Bad for business

•Racially suspect

•Too Radical

Southern Views

Various documents in reader attest to proslavery arguments

Postmaster’s position

Crucial Reform Movement: The Abolitionists

Key figure: William Lloyd Garrison (Began Publishing The Liberator in 1831 at Age 26)

Radical Demands for Immediate Abolition, Complete Equality

Free Blacks, Women Important

Defining Free Labor Ideology

Definition: Set of ideals that celebrated the North’s economic progress and the ability of ordinary men to become financially independent. These ideals include the belief that slavery invariably degraded free labor.

Free Labor Ideology cited by Abolitionists

“Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor, and Free Men”

New Fugitive Slave Act Created More Controversy

New Law Established Federal Commissioners

Northerners MUST Return Fugitive Slaves

Fugitive Slaves and Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle

Tom’s Cabin

Lincoln Douglass Debates

Popular sovereignty Lincoln’s articulation of the difference

between freedom and equality