Acton Institute Powerblog Archives

Post Tagged 'slavery'

A Conductor on the Underground Railroad

The Conductor by Caleb Franz conveys the fascinating story of the Reverend John Rankin of Ripley, Ohio, a highly influential figure in the abolitionist cause of the 19th century. Rankin’s story is largely unknown, overshadowed by the more celebrated figures of the antebellum period and the Civil War. Continue Reading...

What to the Abolitionist Was the Fourth of July?

In academia and culture alike, it has become fashionable to dismiss the principles associated with American independence as shortsighted at best and intentionally exclusionary at worst. “Neither Jefferson nor most of the founders intended to abolish slavery,” wrote Nikole Hannah-Jones in the New York Times Magazine debut of the 1619 Project in August 2019. Continue Reading...

William Wilberforce: Abolitionist, Reformer, Evangelical

On February 24, 1807, the House of Commons voted by 283 votes to 16 to end the trade in human slaves in all British territories. The outcome was testimony to the tenacity, zeal, and commitment of the most prominent evangelical Member of Parliament at the end of the 18th century, William Wilberforce (1759–1833). Continue Reading...

‘You are the spring that puts all the rest in motion’

“You are the spring that puts all the rest in motion; they would not stir a step without you.” John Wesley (1703–1791) was talking about the slave trade and was impugning the buyers and owners of slaves as equally culpable as those who captured and sold them, those who “would not stir a step” without buyers for their wares. Continue Reading...