Oberlin, Hotbed of Abolitionism: College, Community, and the Fight for Freedom and Equality in Antebellum America

TWO: The Worthies of Oberlin: Antislavery Expansion in the Late 1830s

40 c h a p t e r t w o The Worthies of Oberlin Antislavery Expansion in the Late 1830s Before their classes began in the fall, many of the Lane Rebels and their new professors joined the ranks of traveling lecturers for the American AntiSlavery Society. Their exploits in Cincinnati and acceptance at Oberlin had made them antislavery celebrities, and their skills in converting people to abolitionism were immediately put to use. They were some of the first into the field, constituting half of the AASS lecturing force in 1835–36, and eventually representing a third of all society agents at the height of its agency system late in the decade. These Oberlin abolitionists were fundamental leaders in the greatest period of growth of American abolitionism, and they helped make antislavery palatable to a burgeoning constituency. The efforts of these Oberlinites enhanced the community’s development into an antislavery hub of the West. However, its distance (both spatially and ideologically) from the arguments that were dividing the eastern wing of the movement from within placed the Oberlin community in a privileged spot nationally. The Oberlin Collegiate Institute increasingly became a symbol around which all abolitionists could rally despite their differences. Even as their own financial stability was threatened by the Panic of 1837, antislavery leaders of all backgrounds lifted up Oberlin, that “nursery for Abolitionists ,” as a vital institution that could not be permitted to fail.1 ★ ★ ★ antislavery expansion in the 1830s 41 although many of the men and women now at Oberlin had not known each other very long, their gathering together on the ground that would eventually be designated as Tappan Square was a great spiritual reunion . John J. Shipherd, many of the Lane Rebels, and other Oberlin officials and students had been converted in one of Charles Grandison Finney’s revivals. Some, like Shipherd and Asa Mahan, had been among those who assisted the evangelist in his revival efforts. Many of those gathered on that spot looked back to the revivals of the 1820s and 1830s as a formative motivating force in their lives.2 Almost immediately, Finney initiated a revival that refreshed the souls of the students, and then he commended them back to their education and crusade to save the world.3 Unlike at Lane, however, at Oberlin there would be no separation between moral endeavors and the students’ formal scholarship. The Oberlin system was designed to enrich “the whole man” (and woman), and classes were seldom so narrow as to preclude the discussion of American slavery and abolitionism, since aspects of those topics could easily be brought to bear on subjects as wide-ranging as political economy to moral philosophy.4 Moreover, especially with abolitionists leading class discussions, it would have been difficult if not unrealistic to expect academics and abolition to remain separate. As Edward Fairchild reasoned, slavery was the foremost intellectual topic of the age, and to exclude its discussion as a regular part of the Oberlin curriculum would leave only “questions . . . unworthy of attention .”5 Visiting antislavery lecturers were welcomed into Oberlin classrooms and encouraged to actively participate in the lessons. James Fairchild recalled, “It was an important part of an education to hear such a man as Theodore D. Weld in the prime of his manhood.”6 Another student remembered taking “special [antislavery] courses, not published in the catalogue, that were of more importance” than any of her regular studies. These may have included one of James Thome’s famous series of lectures comparing biblical slavery to American bondage.7 Critics were not incorrect in assuming that Oberlin was truly an “Abolition School.”8 In Oberlin’s early years, differentiating between the school and the community was not only nearly impossible but largely unnecessary. On June 25, while the community was observing a concert of prayer on behalf of “the oppressed,” it resolved to form itself into an antislavery society. Shipherd was selected president, and he remarked that the enthusiasm and unanimity of feeling shown by the society indicated that the organization “would not be a body without a soul.” When the call came to demonstrate their adherence to abolitionist principles, 230 citizens and students “came up en 42 antislavery expansion in the 1830s masse, arm and soul to this good work of God.” Shipherd predicted that all those who were absent would join as soon as possible. He, Finney, and Mahan were the first to...