Apocalyptic Abolitionism: How Millennialists Helped Abolish Slavery and Reform America (North American Religions)

Shows how apocalypticism helped drive anti-slavery abolitionism and inspire progressive social reform in nineteenth-century AmericaIn March 1844, Melissa Botsford of Meriden, Connecticut, defiantly left her local Methodist church because it supported slavery and other "sins" that permeated America.Botsford was among one hundred thousand other abolitionists who abandoned their evangelical churches throughout the decade.These protesters came out with a stern apocalyptic warning: God would soon judge America-and its churches-for the sins of slavery and race prejudice. It has long been assumed that apocalypticism is antithetical to social reform.Yet in Apocalyptic Abolitionism, Kevin M. Burton uncovers the untold story of how apocalypticism shaped the abolitionist cause and helped destroy slavery in the United States.Contrary to popular opinion, the revival fires of the Second Great Awakening did not drive most evangelicals to progressive social reforms like abolitionism.Neither were the d