Book Talk at the Library of Virginia
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
_The Origins of Proslavery Christianity: White and Black Evangelicals in Colonial
and Antebellum Virginia_ by Charles Irons
Time: Noon–1 PM
FREE EVENT
In the colonial and antebellum South, black and white evangelicals frequently
prayed, sang, and worshipped together. Even though white evangelicals
claimed spiritual fellowship with those of African descent, they nonetheless
emerged as the most effective defenders of race-based slavery. As Charles
Irons persuasively argues, white evangelicals' ideas about slavery grew
directly out of their interactions with black evangelicals. Set in Virginia, the
largest slaveholding state and the hearth of the southern evangelical
movement, this book draws from church records, denominational newspapers,
slave narratives, and private letters and diaries to illuminate the dynamic
relationship between whites and blacks within the evangelical fold. Irons
reveals that when whites theorized about their moral responsibilities toward
slaves, they thought first of their relationships with bondmen in their own
churches. Thus, African American evangelicals inadvertently shaped the
nature of the proslavery argument. When they chose which churches to join,
used the procedures set up for church discipline, rejected colonization, or built
quasi-independent congregations, for example, black churchgoers spurred their
white coreligionists to further develop the religious defense of slavery.
Charles F. Irons is assistant professor of history at Elon University.
The Library of Virginia is located at 800 East Broad Street in downtown
Richmond. Free parking is available underneath the building.
_The Origins of Proslavery Christianity_ is available for purchase in the Virginia
Shop at the Library of Virginia:
http://www.lva.virginia.gov/whatwedo/shop.htm .
www.lva.virginia.gov
804.692.3500
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