Book contents
- Friends of God and Slaves of Men
- Slaveries since Emancipation
- Friends of God and Slaves of Men
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Introduction
- Part I Religious Responses To Slavery – Historical Patterns
- 2 Justifying Slavery
- 3 Ameliorating Slavery
- 4 Restricting Slavery
- 5 Rejecting Slavery
- Part II Religion and Contemporary Slavery
- Bibliography
- Index
5 - Rejecting Slavery
from Part I - Religious Responses To Slavery – Historical Patterns
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 November 2025
Book contents
- Friends of God and Slaves of Men
- Slaveries since Emancipation
- Friends of God and Slaves of Men
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Introduction
- Part I Religious Responses To Slavery – Historical Patterns
- 2 Justifying Slavery
- 3 Ameliorating Slavery
- 4 Restricting Slavery
- 5 Rejecting Slavery
- Part II Religion and Contemporary Slavery
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In this chapter we examine the connection between religion and abolition. After discussing early antislavery voices, such as the Essenes and St. Gregory of Nyssa, we recount in detail the growing Christian rejection of slavery in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Attention is given to the arguments and action of early Quaker abolitionists, including John Woolman and Anthony Benezet, to Anglicans like Thomas Clarkson and William Wilberforce, and to antislavery activism in North America leading up to the American Civil War. We then provide a theoretical evaluation of the role of Christianity in the nineteenth-century rejection of slavery. The chapter closes with an exposition of Islamic abolitionism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, focusing on Ahmad Bey, Rashid Rida, Mohsen Kadivar, and Bernard Freamon.
Keywords
Information
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Friends of God and Slaves of MenReligion and Slavery, Past and Present, pp. 111 - 144Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
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