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Spiritual Equality, The Black Codes, And The Americanization Of The Freedmen, David F. Forte
Spiritual Equality, The Black Codes, And The Americanization Of The Freedmen, David F. Forte
Law Faculty Articles and Essays
The notion of spiritual equality grew from the abolitionist movement - the precursor for the political ideology of the radical Republicans. The radical Republicans did not think one could achieve the acceptance of spiritual equality through forced material equality. [I]t was a religious revival that brought our country to confront the reality of slavery. It was a theological doctrine from which we derived our notion of equality in the Reconstruction Amendments. And in that era, the free-thinkers - the secularists of the age - were temporizers on the issue. They were simply of no use in the raising to liberty …