Essays that treat the topic of slavery in many ways, especially finding validity for slavery as an abstract principle, both as instituted by the Bible and as a reflection of the authoritarian bases of religious and civil government. Smith argues for the fitness of the system to supply the needs and cater to the limited abilities of slaves, arguing against the idea of equal rights for unequal people. He refutes emancipation, warning that civil chaos would result, asserting that the slave system is beneficial for all Southerners and is related to the greater stability of the South versus the North. The last essay lays out the responsibilities of slave-owners to ask for reasonable work and to provide all the necessities of life to the slave.

Essays that treat the topic of slavery in many ways, especially finding validity for slavery as an abstract principle, both as instituted by the Bible and as a reflection of the authoritarian bases of religious and civil government. Smith argues for the fitness of the system to supply the needs and cater to the limited abilities of slaves, arguing against the idea of equal rights for unequal people. He refutes emancipation, warning that civil chaos would result, asserting that the slave system is beneficial for all Southerners and is related to the greater stability of the South versus the North. The last essay lays out the responsibilities of slave-owners to ask for reasonable work and to provide all the necessities of life to the slave.

A relatively unexplored subject in the social and intellectual history of our country is the contribution made by the moral philosophers, the social scientists of their day. What was their place in the academic and practical world? What was the nature of their social ethics? Did they have a real voice in public affairs? What brought about the decline of their influence? These questions are dealt with in Professors and Public Ethics. In particular, Professor Smith discusses the beliefs and careers of some of the leading moral philosophers—William Paley, John Daniel Gros, Francis Lieber, Charles B. Haddock, Francis Wayland, James Walker, and others. Their writings and their views upon moral questions and the moral aspects of leading questions of their time are presented; among the problems dealt with are abolition of slavery, state rights, the Mexican War, Know-Nothing politics, agriculture and farm problems, the tariff, free trade, savings banks, recessions and booms, repudiation of state debts, and prison reform. Historians, as well as present-day social scientists and church leaders, should find Professors and Public Ethics a sound, thoughtful, and valuable contribution to our knowledge about the mid-nineteenth century.

Ben Wright’s Bonds of Salvation demonstrates how religion structured the possibilities and limitations of American abolitionism during the early years of the republic. From the American Revolution through the eruption of schisms in the three largest Protestant denominations in the 1840s, this comprehensive work lays bare the social and religious divides that culminated in secession and civil war. Historians often emphasize status anxieties, market changes, biracial cooperation, and political maneuvering as primary forces in the evolution of slavery in the United States. Wright instead foregrounds the pivotal role religion played in shaping the ideological contours of the early abolitionist movement. Wright first examines the ideological distinctions between religious conversion and purification in the aftermath of the Revolution, when a small number of white Christians contended that the nation must purify itself from slavery before it could fulfill its religious destiny. Most white Christians disagreed, focusing on visions of spiritual salvation over the practical goal of emancipation. To expand salvation to all, they created new denominations equipped to carry the gospel across the American continent and eventually all over the globe. These denominations established numerous reform organizations, collectively known as the “benevolent empire,” to reckon with the problem of slavery. One affiliated group, the American Colonization Society (ACS), worked to end slavery and secure white supremacy by promising salvation for Africa and redemption for the United States. Yet the ACS and its efforts drew strong objections. Proslavery prophets transformed expectations of expanded salvation into a formidable antiabolitionist weapon, framing the ACS's proponents as enemies of national unity. Abolitionist assertions that enslavers could not serve as agents of salvation sapped the most potent force in American nationalism—Christianity—and led to schisms within the Presbyterian, Baptist, and Methodist churches. These divides exacerbated sectional hostilities and sent the nation farther down the path to secession and war. Wright’s provocative analysis reveals that visions of salvation both created and almost destroyed the American nation.