Reprint of the original, first published in 1839.

In an exciting reinterpretation of the early nineteenth century, Leo Hirrel demonstrates the importance of religious ideas by exploring the relationship between religion and reform efforts during a crucial period in American history. The result is a work that moves the history of antebellum reform to a higher level of sophistication. Hirrel focuses upon New School Congregationalists and Presbyterians who served at the forefront of reform efforts and provided critical leadership to anti-Catholic, temperance, antislavery, and missionary movements. Their religion was an attempt to reconcile traditional Calvinist language with the prevalent intellectual trends of the time. New School theologians preserved Calvinist language about depravity, but they incorporated an assertion of nominal human ability to overcome sin and a belief in the fixed, immutable nature of truth. Describing both the origins of New School Calvinism and the specific reform activities that grew out of these beliefs, Hirrel provides a fresh perspective on the historical background of religious controversies.

In the 1830s, the abolitionist movement gained remarkable momentum due in large measure to the establishment of the American Anti-Slavery Society and the work carried out by one of its most important leaders, Theodore Dwight Weld. One of Weld's most significant accomplishments was the recruitment of a group of key abolitionist agents, known as the "Seventy," who worked to expand the reach of abolitionist thought and action and enlisted new members into the movement. This volume chronicles the founding, development, and mission of the American Anti-Slavery Society, the contributions of Weld, and the crusading efforts of the agents he assembled. With the most complete list to date of the identities of the Seventy, this work constitutes a valuable contribution to the history of the abolitionist movement.