Faith Confronts Evil tells the stories of African American women before the Civil War who countered the rampant evil of slavery with the strength of their Christian faith. They claimed the words of the gospel, that Jesus comes to set the captives free. They embraced Christianity as the source of liberty, humanity, and justice in which God was on their side, Jesus was their friend, and the Holy Spirit was their guide to all truth. Their stories are essential for understanding the central role Christian faith played in realizing, however imperfectly, the promises the US Constitution made to all its citizens. As we listen to Phillis Wheatley, Jarena Lee, Betsy Crissman, Mary Reynolds, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, and many others, we discover that their shared stories turn strangers into acquaintances, acquaintances into friends. These stories of antebellum African American Christian women are our story, an “our” that embraces anyone who identifies as a Christian or anyone who is merely interested in the early formation of the United States of America.

In a compilation of essays, Early Republic: People and Perspectives explores the varied experiences of many different groups of Americans across racial, gender, religious, and regional lines in the early years of the country. Written by expert contributors drawing on extensive new research, Early Republic: People and Perspectives ranges across the broad spectrum of society to explore the everyday lives of Americans from the birth of the nation to the beginning of Jacksonian Age (roughly 1830). In a series of chapters, Early Republic provides vivid portraits of the farmers, entrepreneurs, laborers, women, Native Americans, and slaves who made up the population of the United States in its infancy. Key events, such as the two-party political system, the Louisiana Purchase, the War of 1812, and the expansion into the Ohio Valley, are seen through the eyes of the ordinary citizens who helped make them happen, in turn, making the United States what it is today.