Faith and Slavery in the Presbyterian Diaspora considers how, in areas as diverse as the New Hebrides, Scotland, the United States, and East Central Africa, men's and women's shared Presbyterian faith conditioned their interpretations of and interactions with the institution of chattel slavery. The chapters highlight how Presbyterians' reactions to slavery -which ranged from abolitionism, to indifference, to support-reflected their considered application of the principles of the Reformed Tradition to the institution. Consequently, this collection reveals how the particular ways in which Presbyterians framed the Reformed Tradition made slavery an especially problematic and fraught issue for adherents to the faith. Faith and Slavery, by situating slavery at the nexus of Presbyterian theology and practice, offers a fresh perspective on the relationship between religion and slavery. It reverses the all too common assumption that religion primarily served to buttress existing views on slavery, by illustrating how groups' and individuals reactions to slavery emerged from their understanding of the Presbyterian faith. The collection's geographic reach-encompassing the experiences of people from Europe, Africa, America, and the Pacific-filtered through the lens of Presbyterianism also highlights the global dimensions of slavery and the debates surrounding it. The institution and the challenges it presented, Faith and Slavery stresses, reflected less the peculiar conditions of a particular place and time, than the broader human condition as people attempt to understand and shape their world.
Contents List of Illustrations Foreword Introduction Chapter 1: From James Montgomery to James Macbeth: The Development of Scottish Antislavery Theology and Action 1756-1848 Iain Whyte Chapter 2: Between Enlightenment and Evangelicalism: Presbyterian Diversity and American Slavery, 1700-1800 Gideon Mailer Chapter 3: "Made of One Flesh?": Revisiting the 1787 Slavery Policy of the Synod of New York and Philadelphia William Harrison Taylor Chapter 4: "A Blessing or a Curse, Depending on How It Is Used": David Ramsay's Presbyterian Antislavery Journey Peter C. Messer Chapter 5: Transatlantic Family Journeys: From Antislavery Ethos to Pro-Slavery Ethic Nini Rodgers Chapter 6: The Reformed Presbyterian Church and Antislavery in Nineteenth-Century America William J. Roulston Chapter 7: Commerce and Christianity: Scottish Presbyterians, Slavery, and Islam in East Central Africa, 1870-1900 Richard Finlay Chapter 8: Antislavery Work by the American Women of the Presbyterian Congo Mission Kimberly Hill Chapter 9: "The Slave Trade in the New Hebrides": Covenanting Ideology, the New Hebrides Mission, and the Campaign against the Pacific Island Labor Traffic Valerie Wallace Epilogue: Presbyterian Orthodoxies and Slavery Joseph S. Moore About the Authors
