Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

History Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

United States History

PDF

Robert P Forbes

Selected Works

2012

Articles 1 - 1 of 1

Full-Text Articles in History

Slavery And The Evangelical Enlightenment From "Religion And The Antebellum Debate Over Slavery (Univ. Of Georgia Press)", Robert P. Forbes Dec 2012

Slavery And The Evangelical Enlightenment From "Religion And The Antebellum Debate Over Slavery (Univ. Of Georgia Press)", Robert P. Forbes

Robert P Forbes

This essay shows how Scottish Common-Sense rationalism and evangelical religion conjoined in the later eighteenth century to create a powerful, mutually-reinforcing “Evangelical Enlightenment” with powerful antislavery implications. The defeat of Napoleon in 1815 cleared the way for an unprecedented wave of socially-progressive, religiously-undergirded American nationalism. This threat stimulated slaveholders and their allies to defend the institution through strategies designed to preclude the alliance of a powerful national state with the sanction of religion—the only combination powerful enough to overthrow slavery in a free republic.