A Revolutionary Conscience: Theodore Parker and Antebellum America

Theodore Parker was one of the most controversial theologians and social activists in pre-Civil War America. A vocal critic of traditional Christian thought and a militant opponent of American slavery, he led a huge congregation of religious dissenters in the very heart of Boston, Massachusetts, during the 1840s and 1850s. This book argues that Parker’s radical vision and contemporary appeal stemmed from his abiding faith in the human conscience and in the principles of the American revolutionary tradition. A leading figure in Boston’s resistance to the Fugitive Slave Law, Parker became a key supporter of John Brown’s dramatic but ill-fated raid on Harper’s Ferry in 1859. Propelled by a revolutionary conscience, Theodore Parker stood out as one of the most fearless religious reformers and social activists of his generation.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments Introduction 1. “Bred Up Amid the Memories” 2. Divinity School and Beyond 3. Spiritual Indifference 4. The Transcendentalist Controversy 5. The Making of a Public Radical 6. A Reckoning with Ministers 7. Church and Society 8. Classes, Families and Reform 9. Slavery, Politics and the Revolution 10. Making Antislavery Culture 11. Conscience and the Fugitive Slave Act 12. Continual Alarms 13. Race, Politics and Antislavery Violence 14. Conscience, Politics and Religion 15. The Anthony Burns Crisis 16. The Politics of Confrontation 17. The Idea That Blood Must Flow 18. Principles, Parties and Partings 19. The Final Journey 20. Conclusion Notes Selected Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Paul E. Teed is professor of history at Saginaw Valley State University where he has taught since 1997. He is the author of John Quincy Adams: Yankee Nationalist. His articles have appeared in Civil War History, the Journal of the Early Republic, and American Studies. In 2012, he was chosen as Distinguished Professor of the Year by the Presidents Council of the State Universities of Michigan.

Review :
Teed’s is the first complete life study of Parker to appear in many decades. Teed shows readers the full sweep of Parker’s remarkable career and his wide range as a thinker....Teed is the first biographer to recognize Parker’s important role in the antislavery movement as a mediator between the contentious Garrisonian and other political factions; the first to look dispassionately at Parker’s growing support for antislavery violence in the 1850s; the first to deal forthrightly with Parker’s racial theories and his sometimes shockingly racist pronouncements; the first to look critically at Parker’s ideas about gender and women’s rights; and the first to take seriously Parker’s reaction—which shaped his later theology—against the philosophical atheism of Ludwig Andreas von Feuerbach.