Northern evangelicals led abolition and common-school movements for poor and immigrant children
Evidence
While it is true that many Southerners, notably James Henley Thornwell and Robert Lewis Dabney, defended slavery, many evangelicals in the North sought to end the scourge of slavery. Some evangelicals were caught up in nativist sentiments, but a far greater number supported such initiatives as public education, known then as common schools, so that the children of immigrants and those less fortunate could toe the ladder of upward mobility. “Common schools are the glory of our land,” a writer declared in the Christian Spectator, “where even the beggar’s child is taught to read, and write, and think, for himself.” — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 47
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Economic and religious school reformers formed a coalition in Michigan — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers: Inside the…, 734; Antebellum evangelicals pursued education, prison reform, women’s rights, and even gun control — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the…, 46; Evangelicals abandoned social reform for individual conversion as proto-liberals embraced it (+2 more)
Related
- Northern evangelicals of the era backed antislavery and immigrant public schooling (similarity 0.94)
- Antebellum evangelicals pursued education, prison reform, women’s rights, and even gun control (similarity 0.82)
- Economic and religious school reformers formed a coalition in Michigan (similarity 0.81)
- Evangelicals abandoned social reform for individual conversion as proto-liberals embraced it (similarity 0.78)