On The Evolutionary Standpoints Of American Methodist Church Towards Slavery Before The Civil War

The end of the18th century to the middle of the19th century is a period when theAmerican Methodist was developed and all kinds of social contradictions were highlightedincreasingly in the United States. After the America Methodist Church came into the NorthAmerican continent, the characteristics of the localization, democratization and diversifiedmakes church became more flexible in the development of the North American continent. Atthe same time, as a huge network system, the American Methodist Church inevitablyinvolved in various social contradictions in the process of growing, especially in face of themost controversial issue--Slavery problem. The American Methodist Church experienceddifferent levels of joints and splits on this issue. This article is based on the analysis about theshift of the Methodist on the slavery issue to reveal how the American Methodist successfullyintegrated into American society and became the largest denomination before the civil war.This paper will be divided into three parts. In the first part is an introduction to formationabout the early American Methodist. First, I want to introduce the situation of the Methodistgroup after entering North America from three aspects of the geographical distribution ofpopulation scale and the social form. Second, we can see a process in which the MethodistChurch was separated from the mother. In revolution, American Methodist Church was underthe leadership of the British Methodist, but with the success of the revolution, the AmericanMethodist Church gradually adapted to the environment, and it was hard for the Methodistleader creator-John Wesley to control the American Methodists, hence he reached acompromise with it. At the Conference in1784, the American Methodist was formed. Finally,I want to introduce the operation of Methodist organizations in the United States. The abovecan make us to understand the growth of the American Methodist in the United States easily.The second part is the attitude of the American Methodism in slavery problem before thesplit. The first is the tradition of the anti-slavery about the early Methodist. This paper is toelaborate contents about reasons of the anti-slavery of Wesley and activities of the earlyMethodist church. Secondly, with the development of the society and the prosperity of slavery,in order to expand church, the Methodists began to waver on the attitudes towards slavery.The regulation began to compromise with slavery gradually; many Methodists alsorepresented the cause why they should adapt to the slavery. The last is the divergence of theinternal to slavery, a group of firmly anti-slavery members divided from Church after the failure of their efforts, and they formed a new church which was called The WesleyanMethodist Church in1843. The church’s response to slavery was more intensely, in itsregulation, it is claimed that the members of the organization ruled out any owned slaves. Theestablishment of the organization is the result of various factors of American society.The third part is attitudes of the north and south of the Methodist towards slavery and thereaction to civil war after the split. This divided the America Methodist into the north andsouth, the north and south continued to have a confliction and argument about the slavery andrecognized their position more clearly. On the other hand, due to expanding system,American Methodist Church increased its numbers and made it the largest denominationbefore civil war.