Wrestling with God's Word
Disagreement Drives Debates
In June 1833, an Anti-Slavery Society leader, Theodore Weld, went to Lane Seminary. He prepared students for a series of 18 debates centered around how slaves should be freed: colonization, or immediate emancipation?
"I suppose there was a general consent in the institution that slavery was somehow wrong and to be got rid of. There was not a readiness to pronounce it a sin. Colonization was the favorite expedient of a portion and immediate emancipation of another portion of our brotherhood."
-Reverend Huntington Lyman, one of the debaters at Lane Seminary, on the students' mindset before the debates. ("Lane Seminary Rebels," 1836)
With four lectures opening the debates in February 1834, Weld "held the floor [of the debate room] for eighteen hours. His speech was a thesaurus, giving the origin, history, effects, both upon the despot and the victim, of slavery" (Huntington Lyman). Publications and agents from the Colonization and Anti-Slavery Societies were also available, but students provided the most powerful arguments.
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Southern TestimoniesSeventeen students who had spent time in the South gave first-hand accounts of slavery's horrors to help their classmates understand. (Some students are in the slideshow, left.) These students created hope "that southern minds trained and educated amidst all the prejudices of a slave-holding communities, can, with the blessing of God, be reached and influenced by facts and arguments, as easy as any other class of our citizens" (Henry Stanton, debater).
After nine evenings of debates, participants convened on one question: "Ought the people of the slave-holding states to abolish slavery immediately?" (Fletcher, History of Oberlin College). Except for a handful of undecided, all debaters said, yes. |
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The Final Verdict
The next nine nights debated: "Are the doctrines, tendencies, and measures of the American Colonization Society, and the influence of its principal supporters, such as to render it worthy of the patronage of the Christian public?" (Fletcher, History of Oberlin College).
The nearly unanimous reponse was no.
The nearly unanimous reponse was no.
"When the debate ended, it was found that we were prepared to take decided ground. We were for immediate emancipation by a most decisive majority." |
"[The Lane debates] did . . . bring to a sharp focus the developing cleavage between anti-Negro colonizationists and anti-slavery humanitarians." |
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Slavery as a Sin
The Lane Rebels decided slavery was ethically wrong because no parable supported it.
"Two of those commandments deal death to slavery. "Thou shalt not steal," or, "thou shalt not take from another what belongs to him." [. . .] The right to use according to will, is itself ownership . . . A man's right to himself, is the only right absolutely original and intrinsic." |
The students asked:
"Is this a time to destroy our society, when truth is fallen in the streets, and judgement turned away backward? [. . .] When the heart of the slave is breaking with the anguish of hope deferred and our free colored brethren are persecuted even unto strange societies?" (A Statement of Reasons) |
"Again let me ask, if slavery is a sin, ought not a theological student to know it?"
-John Rankin (A Review of the Statement, 1835)
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After the debates, the students formed their own Anti-Slavery Society.
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"The Lane debate . . . systematized [the antislavery indictment] and brought it to the attention of many thousands of people who had never read an antislavery pamphlet [. . .] and militant antislavery activity thereafter steadily gained support." |
Gary Kornblith, Ph.D, Emeritus Professor of History at Oberlin College
"The Lane debates essentially said there is no debate left." -Gary Kornblith
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"Fear of economic competition, southern ties, abolitionist activity, a burgeoning European immigrant population, southerners' loss of runaway slaves, and a large black populace all contributed to race riots in Cincinnati." |
Establishing Greater Aid to Cincinnati BlacksThe Lane Rebels were progressives in providing for Cincinnati's black community, seeking to better the lives of those less-fortunate, as the Bible instructed. "We threw ourselves into the neglected mass of colored population in the city of Cincinnati, and that we might lead it up to the light of the sun, established Sabbath day and evening schools, lyceums, a circulating library..." ("Lane Rebels Statement"). However, because the less fortunate were black, tensions built. |
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"The effect of this revival in benevolence [the Lane debates] was more than a change of opinion; for scores of the students it meant a change in their lives."
-Gilbert Hobbs Barnes, historian (The Anti-Slavery Impulse 1830-1844, 1933)
Tensions Rise
The Lane Rebels integrated more deeply into black society, outraging white Cincinnati. When one Rebel helped a pregnant black woman into a carriage, he was accused of an affair with her and shunned. Other Rebels were accused of even greater scandals.