Word and Bond in the Antebellum and Civil War Eras

Like the larger subject of Christianity’s role in antebellum and wartime American political and cultural discourse that they share, neither of these important monographs is uncomplicated. In broad strokes, the authors of both works succeed in adding depth and specificity to premises that most students of nineteenth-century American history already grant. At its heart, Ben Wright’s contention in Bonds of Salvation: How Christianity Inspired and Limited Abolitionism is that opposing and incompatible understandings of what their faith required of them in converting the world to the gospel led some Christian denominationalists to abide, and others to attack, American slavery. The notion that religion often serves different masters in common ideological contests is anything but new. Still, Wright’s detailed exploration of the designs and organizational efforts of American antislavery gradualists, colonizers, abolitionists, and southern advocators who alike claimed the mantle of their Christian faith as motivation reminds us that context must always play a leading role in efforts to historicize the religious debate over slavery. Likewise, James P. Byrd’s hypothesis in A Holy Baptism of Fire and Blood: The Bible and the American Civil War seems self-evident when stated in its simplest form. Christians of the Civil War era believed in the literalness of scripture, Byrd contends, and consequently used the Bible to support their actions in every area of their lives. Only after reading Byrd’s skillfully crafted study that combines discerning analysis with abundant quantification do the nuances, contestations, and contradictions of privileging the Bible as an agent of causation and/or justification become clear.