re: #321 medaura18586

You might want to read up on the lives of William Wilbeforce who became an evangelical Christian shortly before taking up the abolitionist cause, or Thomas Clarkson who was driven by a revelation from God, Granville Sharp. a biblical scholar, Hannah more and her trust in God, and Charles Middleton who was heavily influenced by a religious pamphleteer and seeing the slave trade. Also don’t forget Bielby Porteus, the Bishop of London.

These men were moved by their religious convictions, not so much by the Enlightenment.

In the U.S. the story is different. William Lloyd Garrison has to battle against the prevailing religious thought that slavery was fine. It would be hard to argue e was driven by religious conviction. John Whittier however was. Harriet Beecher Stowe was the daughter of a minister.

On the whole more members were driven by religious conviction than enlightenment thought. God’s word does not change, but our interpretation of it does. The religious apologist for slavery lost out to the religious apologists for emancipation. Religion does change overtime, that is it evolves.