The Episcopal Church is the only major denomination with a strong presence in both North and South that did not split over slavery. They sat on boards such as the American Home Missions Society and the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Sign up for our newsletter: Key leader: James O. Andrew, slave-owning bishop from Georgia. Methodists split before over slavery. Presbyterians Steps to Division 1837: "Old School" and "New School" Presbyterians split over theological issues. PRESBYTERIAN ATTITUDES TOWARD SLAVERY 103 society, to promote the abolition of slavery, and the instruction of negroes, whether bond or free.6 The response to this overture, the first action of the church on slavery, was cautious and conservative. He continues to serve as senior editor of theJournal of Presbyterian History. That's a religion-beat hook in many states, With her newsworthy 'firsts,' don't ignore religion angles in Nikki Haley v. Donald Trump, Why you probably missed news about the FBI memo calling out 'radical traditionalist' Catholics, Death of old-school journalism may be why Catholic church vandalism isn't a big story, Cardinal Pell's death puts spotlight on his words and arguments about Catholicism's future. The 1818 pronouncement was not, however, as audacious as its rhetoric seemed to imply. By 1837, the anti-slavery societies that had existed across the South had disappeared. [4]:45. The Plan of Union was eventually approved, and in 1869, the Old and New Schools reunited. Southern Presbyterian churches united as the Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States (later the PCUS). His 1708 will also listed and ordered the distribution of thirty-three chattel slaves. The Old School-New School controversy was a schism of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America which took place in 1837 and lasted for over 20 years. There was a broad consensus that ending slavery throughout the nation would require a constitutional amendment.). The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), which divided over slavery in 1861 and reunited only in 1983, has supported the study of reparations within the church and has backed a federal reparations bill. In order to attempt to alleviate the situation, the Assembly added language which clarified that the term "Federal Government" referred to "not any particular administration, or the peculiar opinions of any particular party," but to "the central administration.appointed and inaugurated according to the forms prescribed in the Constitution of the United States" Inevitably, though, the Southern Old School Presbyterians still departed, and on December 4, 1861, the first General Assembly of the new Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of America was held in Augusta, Georgia. Many Southern delegates felt that they would not be received and others feared for their safety. (Note that a federal ban on slavery was considered unconstitutional, since slavery was mentioned in the U.S. Constitution. Theologically, The Old School, led by Charles Hodge of Princeton Theological Seminary, was much more conservative and was not supportive of revivals. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) came into . New School Presbyterian Rev. After six weeks the conference voted, finally, to ask Bishop Andrew to desist from serving as a bishop. 1844 YMCA founded; Methodist church splits over slavery. The action was vigorously protested by Charles Hodge who protested that the church had no right to make a political issue a term of communion: That although the scriptures required Christians to be loyal to their governments, and to obey the powers that be, the Assembly had no authority to decide which government had the right to that loyalty. Southern believers, who had drawn on the literal words of the Bible to defend slavery, increasingly promoted the close, literal reading of scripture. The Presbyterian denomination split in 1837 into the Old School (the South) and the New School (the North) primarily over the issue of slavery. In the North, Presbyterians wound up following a similar path to reunion. The Last World Emperor in European History. [4]:45[6]:24 After the appointment of Ware, and the election of the liberal Samuel Webber to the presidency of Harvard two years later, Eliphalet Pearson and other conservatives founded the Andover Theological Seminary as an orthodox, trinitarian alternative to the Harvard Divinity School. Slavery: This was not as yet one of the main issues. Indeed, according to historian C.C. Growing Haredi numbers poised to alter global Judaism. As we have noted there were but few New School men in the South so the main split was in the Old School, the official PCUSA. And Christianity in the South and its counterpart in the North headed in different directions. Church members who opposed slavery argued that they were entitled to the property because the national church, the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA), had officially condemned the practice and required all congregational leaders to declare slavery - and the Confederacy's secession - to be sinful. At the same time, the PC-USA also became increasingly lax in doctrinal subscription, and New School attempts to modify Calvinism would become embodied in the 1903 revision of the Westminster Standards. Key leaders: William B. Johnson, first president of the Convention. Later bishop in Methodist Episcopal Church, South. College presidents and trustees, North and South, owned slaves. Albert Barnes, for instance looked upon the Constitution as a gift from God. That same year, fiery abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison began publishing The Liberator. His heated attacks on slavery only hardened southern attitudes. [15] Ultimately, in 1864, the United Synod of the South merged with the PCCS, which would be renamed the Presbyterian Church in the United States following the end of the Civil War in 1865. Nathan Beman went further, saying that the principles of equality of men and their inalienable rights embodied in the Declaration of Independence , could be traced as much to the Apostle Paul as to Thomas Jefferson. Key leaders: Lyman Beecher; Nathaniel W. Taylor; Henry Boynton Smith. In 1861, after 11 states seceded to form the Confederacy, the Presbyterian Church split, forming northern and . Key stands: Slaveholding a matter for church discipline; abolition. [9], This 1837 event left two separate organizations, the Old School Presbyterians, and the New School Presbyterians. In the years before the U.S. Civil War, three major Christian denominations split over slavery. American Presbyterian Church The official website of the APC Home About APC APC Churches Bordentown Westminster APC Ministers Dr. Calel Butler Dr. Charles J. Butler Rev. Key stands: Refusal to appoint slaveholders as missionaries; dislike of slavery; desire for strict congregational independence. The PC-USA eventually found itself becoming increasingly ecumenical and supporting various social causes. Before 1830, slavery was an accepted part of American life. These were the Baptist, Presbyterian, and Methodist. Many Presbyterians were ethnic Scots or Scots-Irish. The presbytery of Lexington, Va. had disciplined him for his contentiousness. In 1843 some pro-abolition Methodists who were tired of the churchs attempt at neutrality left to form the anti-slavery Wesleyan Methodist Church. The PCA is the second largest Presbyterian denomination in the U.S. Slavery was not the issue in 1836 and 1837. As historian Andrew E. Murray observed a half century ago: Ashbel Green, Presbyterian minister and Princeton's sixth president, who drafted the General Assembly's "Minute on Slavery" in 1818. Northerners, who had emphasized underlying principles of the Scriptures, such as Gods love for humanity, increasingly promoted social causes. More from the story: Phil Hendrickson is a former charter member and session clerk of the Presbyterian Church of Stanley. In 1858, the U.S. Presbyterian Church became fractured over the issue of slavery. Look for GetReligion analysis of media coverage there soon. The short-lived paper opposed colonization and condemned slaveholding without equivocation. This was a political issue and the Assembly had no authority to make it a term of communion. Many of the religious movements that originated during the Protestant Reformation were more democratic in organization. Non-clergy participated in American slavery and the slave trade to a greater extent than church leaders such as Makemie and Davies. was utterly inconsistent with the laws of God, was a gross violation of the sacred rights of nature, was totally irreconcilable with the spirit and principles of the Gospel, that it was the duty of all Christiansto obtain the complete abolition of slavery. The Old School maintained the primacy of scripture and was willing to criticize the nation and the federal government. Generally speaking, the Old School was attractive to the more recent Scotch Irish element, while the New School appealed to more established Yankees (who by agreement became Presbyterians instead of Congregationalists when they left New England).[10]. Even so, New World Methodists debated the relationship between the Church and slavery where it was legal. "The continued occupation in Palestine/Israel is 21st-century slavery and should be abolished immediately," wrote the Presbyterian Church's Stated Clerk, Rev. CTWeekly delivers the best content from ChristianityToday.com to your inbox each week. It is perhaps noteworthy that two slaveholding U.S. Presidents nurtured in the Scots-Irish traditionAndrew Jackson and James K. Polkpursued policies in the 19th century that greatly increased the territory available for the expansion of slavery.[1]. In all three denominations disagreements over the morality of slavery began in the 1830s, and in the 1840s and 1850s factions of all three denominations left to form separate groups. Eventually, the Presbyterian church was reunited. Makemie later married into a wealthy family in Accomack County on the eastern shore of Virginia, where he acquired substantial land holdings. It's that a different Presbyterian church has adopted the remaining members at the split church and kept it open as a satellite branch. The minority report of the committee on slavery that had reported to the 1836 Assembly actually quoted the Declaration of Independence for authority rather than scripture. His revival meetings created anxiety in a penitent's mind that one could only save his or her soul by submission to the will of God, as illustrated by Finney's quotations from the Bible. African-American Presbyterian pastor Theodore S. Wright helped to form anti-slavery societies, such as the American Anti-Slavery Society and the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society.