Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T00:23:15.008Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

New York Lutheran Abolitionists. Seeking a Solution to a Historical Enigma

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Paul P. Kuenning
Paul P. Kuenning
Affiliation:
a retired Lutheran pastor zn Milwaukee Wisconsin.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Among nineteenth-century North American Lutherans the only corporate body to take an early, serious, and vigorous stand on behalf of the abolition of human slavery was a small group in upper New York State called the Franckean Evangelic Synod.1 On 25 May 1837, at a meeting held in a small country chapel in Minden township, Montgomery County, four Lutheran clergymen and twenty-seven lay delegates broke with the Hartwick Synod and formed the new association. It was named after the German Lutheran Pietist cleric and humanitarian August Hermann Francke (1663–1727). The abolitionist convictions of the Franckean Synod were embedded in the main body of its constitution. No minister who was a slaveholder or engaged in the traffic of human beings or advocated the system of slavery then existing in the United States could be accepted into the synod nor could a layperson practicing any of the above serve as a delegate to synodical meetings.2 By 1848 these restrictions were increased to include laity who “justified the sin of slavery” and clergy “who did not oppose” it.3 Such precise constitutional requirements in opposition to human slavery remain without precedent in the history of the Lutheran church.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 58 , Issue 1 , March 1989 , pp. 52 - 65
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1989

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Wentz, Abdel Ross, A Basic History of Lutheranism in America (Philadelphia, 1955), pp. 163–164.Google Scholar

2. Constitution, Franckean Synod, 1837, art. 8, sec. 6, p. 11;Google Scholaribid., art. 7, sec. 3, p. 9.

3. Ibid., 1848 Revision, art. 8, sec. 2, p. 13; ibid., art. 7, p. 13.

4. Lutheran Herald 4 (21 02 1842): 21.Google Scholar

5. Stange, Douglas, “The 125th Anniversary of the Fraternal Appeal,” Concordia Historical Institute Quarterly 40 (1967): 43.Google Scholar

6. Fortenbaugh, Robert, “American Lutheran Synods and Slavery 1830–1860,” The Journal of Religion 13 (1933): 72, 76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7. Wentz, , History of Lutheranism, pp. 163, 149;Google ScholarAhlstrom, Sydney, “The Lutheran Church and American Culture: A Tercentary Retrospect,” The Lutheran Quarterly (1949): 311–332.Google Scholar

8. Stange, Douglas, Radicalism for Humanity (St. Louis, 1970).Google Scholar

9. Sernett, Milton C., “Lutheran Abolitionism in New York State: A Problem in Historical Explication,” in Essays and Reports 1982, The Lutheran Historical Conference (St. Louis, 1984), p. 20; pp. 28–29.Google Scholar

10. Knittle, Walter Allen, Early Eighteenth Century Palatine Emigration (Philadelphia, 1937), pp. 1–3.Google Scholar See also Yoder, Don, ed., Rhineland Emigrants (Baltimore, 1985), p. 8.Google Scholar

11. Qualben, Lars P., The Lutheran Church in Colonial America (New York, 1940), pp. 168–169.Google Scholar

12. Clasen, Claus-Peter, The Palatinate in European History (Oxford, 1963), pp. 9–11, 19.Google Scholar

13. The social and ethical activism endemic to classical Lutheran Pietism and far less evident in the more radical varieties has been adequately documented. See, for example, Hinrichs, Carl, Preussentum und Pietismus (Göttingen, 1971);Google ScholarStoeffler, F. Ernest, ed., “Pietism, A Much Maligned Movement, Re-examined,” in Christian History, vol. 2, esp. pp. 19–22;Google ScholarDeeter, Allen C., “Pietism, Moralism and Social Concern,” The Covenant Quarterly 33 (1975): 19–39;Google ScholarGerdes, Egon W., “Pietism: Classical and Modern,” Concordia Theological Monthly 39 (1968): 257–258;Google ScholarSattler, Gary R., God's Glory, Neighbor's Good (Chicago, 1982), esp. pp. 1–16, 70–75;Google ScholarAland, Kurt, A History of Christianity, vol. 2 (Philadelphia 1986), pp. 234–255;Google ScholarBrown, Dale W., Understanding Pietism (Grand Rapids, Mich, 1978);Google ScholarStoeffler, F. Ernest, The Rise of Evangelical Pietism (Leiden, 1965);Google Scholaridem, German Pietism During the Eighteenth Century (Leiden, 1973).

14. See Kuenning, Paul P. “American Lutheran Pietism—Activism and Abolitionist” (Ph.D. diss., Marquette University, 1985), pp. 24–35.Google Scholar

15. Aland, History of Christianity, 2:245.Google Scholar

16. Stoeffler, , German Pietism, pp. 86–87.Google Scholar

17. Knittle, , Palatine Emigration, pp. 192–209.Google Scholar

18. Sachse, J. F., German Pietists of Provincial Pennsylvania (1895; reprint, New York, 1970), pp. 344–345.Google Scholar

19. Dern, John P., ed., The Albany Protocol-Wilhelm Christoph Berkenmeyer's Chronicle (Ann Arbor, 1971), p. xxii;Google ScholarMuhlenberg, Henry Melchior, Journals, trans. Tappert, Theodore G. and Doberstein, John W., 3 vols. (Philadelphia, 1942), 1:248.Google Scholar

20. Dern, , The Albany Protocol, p. xlviii.Google Scholar

21. Riforgiato, Leonard R., Missionary of Moderation (Lewisburg, Pa., 1980), p. 130.Google Scholar

22. Nicum, John, The Doctrinal Development of the Evangelical Lutheran Ministerium of the State of New York (Syracuse, 1887), p. 1.Google Scholar

23. Strobel, P. A., Memorial Volume to Commemorate the Semi-Centennial Anniversary of the Hartwick Synod (Philadelphia, 1881), p. 23.Google Scholar

24. The Lutheran Magazine 8 (09 1828): 175.Google Scholar

25. See Kuenning, , “American Lutheran Pietism,” pp. 319–324, 491–503.Google Scholar

26. Material used in each of these biographical sketches, and not quoted verbatim, is taken from parish histories, personal correspondence, newspaper articles, and synodical minutes in the Archives of the Metropolitan-Upper New York Synod, Wagner College, Staten Island, New York.

27. Dox, H. L., Memoir of Philip Wieting (Philadelphia, 1870)Google Scholar, no pagination.

28. Kling, M., “Memories of Our Departed,” in A Reunion of Ministers and Churches Held at Gardnersville, May 14–17, 1881, ed. Dox, H. L. (Philadelphia, 1881), p. 153.Google Scholar

29. Simms, Jeptha E., History of Schoharie County (Albany, 1845), pp. 99–102.Google Scholar See also Dern, , The Albany Protocol, pp. 98, 100.Google Scholar

30. Hazelius, Ernest L., History of the American Lutheran Church: From Its Commencement in the year of Our Lord 1685 to the year 1842 (Jamesville, Ohio, 1846) pp. 168–169.Google Scholar

31. Franckean Journal (1840): 27, 28.Google Scholar

32. Ibid., Special Session (October 1837): 38.

33. Dox, , Philip Wieting, p. 180.Google Scholar

34. Roscoe, William E., History of Schoharie County (Syracuse, 1882), pp. 274–275.Google Scholar

35. Dox, , Reunion, p. 165.Google Scholar

36. Ibid., p. 159. See also Minutes of the Hartwick Synod (1832), p. 20.Google Scholar

37. Franckean Journal (1861): 8;Google ScholarDox, , Reunion, p. 159.Google Scholar

38. Lutheran Herald 2 (16 06 1840): 47;Google ScholarStange, Douglas C., Radicalism for Humanity, p. 5.Google Scholar

39. Roscoe, , History of Schoharie County, p. 351.Google Scholar

40. Minutes of the Hartwick Synod (1836), pp. 21–22.Google Scholar

41. Dox, , “Historical Fidelity,” in Reunion, p. 1.Google Scholar

42. Lutheran Herald 4 (15 03 1842): 47.Google Scholar

43. Lutheran Herald 1 (30 October 1844): n.p.; ibid. 1 (13 November 1844): n.p.

44. Kreider, Harry J., History of the United Lutheran Synod of New York and New England, vol. 1, 1786–1860 (Philadelphia, 1954), p. 147.Google Scholar

45. Dox, , “Historical Fidelity,” p. 14.Google Scholar

46. Strobel, , Memorial Volume, p. 119.Google Scholar

47. Kreider, , History, p. 147.Google Scholar

48. Robert Van Aistine, “Steadfast—A Biography of Nicholas Van Alstine, D.D. (1814–1900)” unpublished, 1982, Archives of the Metropolitan-Upper New York Synod, Wagner College, Staten Island, New York, p. 1.

49. Ibid. pp. 3–5.

50. Life and Dying Confession of John Van Alstine (Cooperstown, N.Y., 1819).Google Scholar

51. Lutheran Herald 4 (1 01 1842): 4.Google Scholar

52. Dox, H. L., “Christ the Foundation,” 7 06 1849Google Scholar, Pohlman Collection, vol. 161, New York State Library Archives, Albany, N.Y.

53. Roscoe, , History of Schoharie County, p. 292.Google Scholar

54. Parish records of the Lutheran churches of Stone Mills and Orleans Four Corners, New York; Centennial Anniversary Booklet, 1845–1945, Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church, Sharon, Wisconsin.

55. Stange, , Radicalism for Humanity, pp. 37–38.Google Scholar

56. Franckean Journal (1856): 13–15;Google Scholar Dox, Reunion.

57. Paul Empie, interview no. 1 with Neil Mellblom, 7 February 1977, Archives of Cooperative Lutheranism, Offices of the Lutheran Council in the U.S.A., New York, New York, p. 25.

58. Dox, , Reunion, pp. 162–163, 72.Google Scholar

59. Ibid., p. 47.

60. Franckean Journal (1846): 12.Google Scholar

61. Ibid., (1855): 27; ibid., (1865): 45.

62. Paul Empie, Oral History Collection, p. 25.

63. Kuenning, “American Lutheran Pietism,” chap. 1.

64. Ibid., pp. 333–362. The close commitment of the Franckeans to the theology of the Spener-Francke school of German Lutheran Pietism is demonstrated on the basis of specific key doctrines.

65. Silverman, Kenneth, The Life and Times of Cotton Mather (New York, 1984), pp. 230, 232;Google ScholarLovelace, Richard, The American Pietism of Cotton Mather: Origins of American Evangelicalism (Grand Rapids, Mich., 1979), pp. 5, 37;Google ScholarBenz, Ernst, “Ecumenical Relations Between Boston Puritanism and German Pietism: Cotton Mather and August Hermann Francke,” Harvard Theological Review 54 (1961): 159–193.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

66. Nelson, E. Clifford and Fevold, Eugene F., The Lutheran Church Among Norwegian Americans (Minneapolis, 1960), pp. 130–134, 340.Google Scholar

67. McLaughlin, William G., Revivals, Awakenings and Reform (Chicago, 1978), p. 136.Google Scholar

68. Hazelius, , History of the American Lutheran Church, pp. 132–133.Google Scholar

69. Bost, Raymond, “The Rev. John Bachman and the Development of Southern Lutheranism” (Ph.D. diss., Yale University, 1963), pp. 4–5.Google Scholar

70. Wentz, , History of Lutheranism, p. 164.Google Scholar

71. Lutheran Observer 3 (11 03 1836): 115;Google Scholaribid. 18 (8 Nov. 1850): 383.