An Emancipation Of The Mind by Matthew Stewart

This is one telling of the journey the United States took in the 19th century from a country with slaves to one without. The author frames this as one based on religious principles, but I would say it really was based on the premise of white supremacy. The driving force in American politics in the decades after the American Revolution was the rise of an arrogant, ruthless, parasitic oligarchy in the South, built on a foundation of Christian religion and a vision of permanent, God-ordained inequality. Their goal in seceding in 1860 was to undo the basic ideals of the American republic and keep their wealth. From 1770 to 1860, religion in America underwent a massive shift. The number of churches exploded, North and South, and soon most of these churches were using depictions of slavery from the Bible. There is also rampant polygamy and stoning for relatively minor offenses which were assiduously not endorsed, but slavery is definitely not contrary to Old Testament values. The abolitionists clearly needed help. Enter freethinking Germans whose radical republican philosophy underpinned the failed European revolutions of 1848. The ideas they espoused were more harmonious with New Testament values that were espoused by Jesus, as well as quite irreligious ideas that swayed major anti-slavery players in America. The very interesting thing about this argument of how Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln came to see eye to eye is how familiar it sounds today. The GOP is the party of white supremacy, and the legacy of the South, and the evangelical church is no longer adherent to the teachings of Christ, who was basically too woke for them.