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ABOLITIONISM AND EVANGELICALISM: ISAAC NELSON, THE EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE, AND THE TRANSATLANTIC DEBATE OVER CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP WITH SLAVEHOLDERS*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 May 2014

DANIEL RITCHIE
DANIEL RITCHIE*
Affiliation:
Queen's University, Belfast
*
School of History and Anthropology, Queen's University, 15 University Square, Belfast, BT7 1NN[email protected]
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Abstract

This article seeks to illuminate significantly our understanding of the link between abolitionism and evangelicalism by considering the debate at the formation of the Evangelical Alliance in 1846 surrounding the propriety of Christian fellowship with slaveholders. The leading critic of the pro-slavery faction was the Revd Isaac Nelson, an orthodox Presbyterian minister from Belfast, Ireland. Nelson's importance to anti-slavery was recognized by abolitionists on both sides of the Atlantic at the time, but has not yet been adequately analysed by historians. Hence, this article will examine Nelson's role in the dispute with the defenders of the American slaveholders at the London meeting in 1846 and in further debates within the Alliance on the slavery question. The article will conclude by examining Nelson's claim that the Alliance was a failure owing to its alleged compromise on the slavery question.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 57 , Issue 2 , June 2014 , pp. 421 - 446
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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Footnotes

*

The author would like to thank Dr Andrew Holmes, Professor David Bebbington, Professor Crawford Gribben, Stuart Irwin, and the anonymous peer-reviewers for their feedback on earlier versions of this article. All mistakes in fact or interpretation are the sole responsibility of the author. The research for this article was conducted while the author was an AHRC doctoral candidate at Queen's University, Belfast.

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46 Witness, 8 Apr. 1846; Maclear, ‘Evangelical Alliance’, pp. 145–6.

47 Ibid., pp. 143–4.

48 Morning Post, 16 Apr. 1846. The term ‘schismatic confederacy’ reflects the Anglican bias of the writer.

49 Ibid.

50 Maclear, ‘Evangelical Alliance’, pp. 144–7.

51 Ibid., p. 149.

52 Ibid., p. 153; P. J. Wallace, ‘“The bond of union”: the Old School Presbyterian Church and the American nation, 1837–1861’ (3 vols., Ph.D. thesis, Notre Dame, 2004), ii, p. 398.

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58 W. L. Garrison to Edmund Quincy, 18 Sept. 1846 in Letters, iii, pp. 418–20.

59 Nelson, Slavery supported, p. 13; Eclectic Review, Dec. 1846, p. 762.

60 See J. H. Y. Briggs, ‘Hinton, John Howard (1791–1873)’, Oxford dictionary of national biography (ODNB), www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/13356.

61 Evangelical Alliance, p. 286.

62 Ibid., p. 290.

63 Ibid., p. 291.

64 Ibid., p. 292; Caledonian Mercury, 22 June 1840; Anti-Slavery Reporter, 1 July 1840, p. 153; Calver, ‘Evangelical Alliance’, p. 51.

65 Maclear, ‘Evangelical Alliance’, p. 157.

66 Evangelical Alliance, pp. 293–4.

67 W. L. Garrison to H. C. Wright, 18 Sept. 1846, Boston Public Library, Garrison papers, MS A.1.1.v.4.p. 35.

68 Evangelical Alliance, p. 294.

69 Ibid., p. 295.

70 Ibid.

71 Ibid., pp. 296, 328, 339.

72 For examples, see Evangelical Alliance, pp. 301 317, 325–7, 331.

73 Made by Dr William Patton. Ibid., p. 314.

74 Made by President Robert Emerory of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Ibid., p. 318.

75 Made by Thomas Smyth. Ibid., p. 305; Hart, D. G. and Muether, J. R., Seeking a better country: 300 years of American Presbyterianism (Phillipsburg, NJ, 2007), p. 142Google Scholar; Long, K. T., The revival of 1857–1858: interpreting an American religious awakening (New York, NY, 1998), p. 94Google Scholar.

76 Made by Smyth. Evangelical Alliance, p. 319.

77 Made by Dr Thomas Harvey Skinner, a New York Presbyterian. Ibid., p. 333.

78 Ibid., p. 325.

79 Ibid., pp. 336–8.

80 Ibid., p. 323.

81 Ibid., p. 316.

82 Ibid., pp. 338–40.

83 Ibid., p. 370.

84 Ibid., p. 371.

85 Maclear, ‘Evangelical Alliance’, p. 156.

86 Evangelical Alliance, p. 371.

87 C. D. Rice, ‘The Scottish factor in the fight against American slavery, 1830–1870’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1969), p. 353.

88 Evangelical Alliance, p. 372.

89 Ibid.

90 Ibid., p. 373.

91 Ibid., p. 374. This argument had earlier been made by Frederick Douglass Arbroath Guide, 14 Feb. 1846. Nelson's specific point may also be found in the Liberator, 26 Mar. 1836. For more on Owen's religious infidelity, see Leopold, R. W., Robert Dale Owen: a biography (Cambridge, MA, 1940)Google Scholar, pp. 8, 58, 65ff, 387; Liberator, 20 Dec. 1834; Ian Donnachie, ‘Owen, Robert Dale (1801–1877)’, ODNB, www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/21028.

92 Evangelical Alliance, p. 375.

93 Ibid., pp. 376–8.

94 Ibid., p. 384.

95 Ibid., p. 385; Bradford & Wakefield Observer, 3 Sept. 1846; Rice, ‘Scottish factor’, p. 355.

96 Evangelical Alliance, p. 438.

97 Ibid., p. 441.

98 See a copy of the protest in the Liberator, 25 Sept. 1846; Anti-Slavery Reporter, 1 Oct. 1846, p. 165.

99 MacLear, ‘Evangelical Alliance’, p. 160.

100 Evangelical Alliance, p. 442.

101 Ibid.

102 Ibid., p. 443.

103 Ibid. Although it should be noted that other Irish Presbyterian ministers remained silent during the debate on slavery.

104 Ibid., p. 444.

105 Ibid., pp. 445–7.

106 Ibid., p. 454.

107 Ibid., p. 456. Himes later challenged this. Belfast Commercial Chronicle, 14 Sept. 1846.

108 Evangelical Alliance, p. 457; Maclear, ‘Evangelical Alliance’, p. 164.

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115 Evangelical Alliance, pp. 459–60.

116 Belfast Commercial Chronicle, 7 Sept. 1846.

117 Belfast Protestant Journal, 10 Oct. 1846.

118 Londonderry Standard, 9 Oct. 1846.

119 Ibid., 30 Oct. 1846.

120 Sixteenth annual report, presented to the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, by its board of managers, January 26, 1848 (Boston, MA, 1848), p. 35.

121 Daily News, 15 Sept. 1846; Merrill, W. M., Against wind and tide: a biography of Wm. Lloyd Garrison (Cambridge, MA, 1965), p. 194Google Scholar.

122 See W. L. Garrison to Elizabeth Pease, 12 Oct. 1846, Boston Public Library, Garrison papers, MS A.1.1. v.4.no. 40; W. L. Garrison to the Liberator, 20 Oct. 1846, in Letters, iii, pp. 437–8; Northern Whig, 6 Oct. 1846; Banner of Ulster, 9 Oct. 1846; Witness, 24 Oct. 1846.

123 Minutes of the Glasgow Emancipation Society, 30 Sept. 1846, Glasgow, Mitchell Library, Smeal Collection, 324926.

124 Banner of Ulster, 16 Oct. 1846; Belfast Commercial Chronicle, 26 Oct. 1846; Londonderry Standard, 30 Oct. 1846.

125 Nelson, Evangelical Alliance, p. 4; Whyte, Scotland and the abolition of black slavery, p. 205.

126 James Standfield to W. L. Garrison, 22 Oct. 1846, Boston Public Library, Garrison papers, MS.A.1.2.v.16.p. 116.

127 Northern Whig, 6 Oct. 1846; Belfast News-Letter, 6 Oct. 1846.

128 Belfast News-Letter, 9 Oct. 1846.

129 Belfast Protestant Journal, 10 Oct. 1846.

130 Belfast Commercial Chronicle, 10 Oct. 1846.

131 Liberator, 11 Dec. 1846.

132 Nelson, American War, p. 33.

133 Belfast News-Letter, 16 Oct., 10 Nov. 1846; Wolffe, Expansion of evangelicalism, p. 199.

134 Manchester Times, 6 Nov. 1846; Maclear, ‘Evangelical Alliance’, p. 141.

135 Nelson, Slavery supported, pp. 16–17.

136 Free Church Magazine, Jan. 1847, pp. 3–5. The editor at this time was the Revd William M. Hetherington.

137 Minutes of the Glasgow Emancipation Society, 29 Jan. 1847, Glasgow, Mitchell Library, Smeal Collection, 324926.

138 Nelson, Slavery supported, p. 17; Liberator, 28 May 1847.

139 Nelson, Slavery supported, pp. 7–8.

140 Ibid., p. 8. For the resolutions, see Liberator, 12 Mar. 1836, 7 May 1841.

141 Nelson, Slavery supported, p. 10. Nelson's argument is substantially the same as that of the Liberator, 2 Oct. 1846; Oberlin Evangelist, 24 June 1846, p. 101; Daily News, 15 Sept. 1846.

142 Belfast News-Letter, 14 July 1843.

143 Nelson, Slavery supported, pp. 14–15.

144 Sandeen, ‘American denominationalism’, p. 226.

145 Liberator, 28 May 1847.

146 Daily News, 15 Sept. 1846.

147 Liberator, 21 Nov. 1845.

148 Noll, America's God, p. 387; Oshatz, ‘Problem of moral progress’, p. 229.

149 Liberator, 21 Nov. 1845.

150 Belfast Commercial Chronicle, 5 Oct. 1846.

151 McKivigan, Proslavery religion, pp. 58–61.

152 Turley, English antislavery, p. 204; McKivigan, Proslavery religion, p. 80.

153 Evangelical Alliance, p. 442.

154 Whyte, Send back the money!, p. 123.

155 W. L. Garrison to R. D. Webb, 5 Sept. 1846, Boston Public Library, Garrison papers, MS.A.1.1.v.4.

156 Rice, ‘Scottish factor’, p. 355.

157 Turley, English antislavery, p. 211.

158 American Freeman, 26 May 1847; Banner of Ulster, 29 June 1847.

159 Anti-Slavery Reporter, 1 July 1847, p. 107.

160 American Freeman, 26 May 1847.

161 Banner of Ulster, 29 June 1847.

162 National Era, 13 May 1847; American Freeman, 7 July 1847.

163 Anti-Slavery Reporter, 1 July 1847, p. 108.

164 Glasgow Argus, 17 May 1847.

165 Caledonian Mercury, 14 June 1847; Edinburgh Evening Post & Scottish Record, 16 June 1847; Evangelical Christendom, July 1847, p. 222.

166 Liberator, 9 July 1847. Watson was an Edinburgh Baptist minister. Robert Botsford, ‘Scotland and the American Civil War’ (Ph.D. thesis, Edinburgh, 1956), p. 90.

167 For example, see Hutchinson and Wolffe, Global evangelicalism, p. 3; Calver, ‘Evangelical Alliance’, p. 151; Sandeen, ‘American denominationalism’, p. 226; Maclear, ‘Evangelical Alliance’, p. 160; Rice, C. D., The Scots abolitionists, 1833–1861 (Baton Rouge, LA, 1981), p. 124Google Scholar.

168 Nelson, Slavery supported, p. 16; idem, Evangelical Alliance, p. 8.

169 Nelson, American War, p. 30.

170 Rouse, ‘Voluntary movements’, pp. 321–2.

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175 Wolffe, ‘Evangelical Alliance’, pp. 345–6; Banner of Ulster, 8 Dec. 1848.

176 Anti-Slavery Reporter, 2 Nov. 1846, pp. 185–6.

177 Banner of Ulster, 4 Sept. 1846.

178 Ibid., 12 Dec. 1845; Belfast Commercial Chronicle, 13 Dec. 1845.

179 Belfast News-Letter, 15 Sept. 1852; Northern Whig, 16 Sept. 1852; Wolffe, Protestant crusade, pp. 267, 283; Thompson, ‘Evangelical Alliance’, pp. 53–4.

180 Belfast Commercial Chronicle, 15 Sept. 1852.

181 Belfast News-Letter, 7 Dec. 1859.

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183 Freeman's Journal, 11 Oct. 1880.