American Apocalypse: Yankee Protestants and the Civil War (review)

276CIVIL WAR HISTORY Much more persuasive are the final chapters which trace changes in the nineteenth-century ministry from the initial attempts at voluntary organization, through the immediate abolitionist impulse in the 1820's and '30's, to the other-worldly "sentimentalism" of the 1840's. Here the author makes an important contribution to discussions of the evangelical clergy as he demonstrates how widespread popular dissatisfaction together with career uncertainties among the clergy transformed the role of the minister from zealous social activist to a devotional therapist who was "totally unaggressive and nonviolent" (p. 142). Instead of social control the minister sought the more limited and specialized goal of creating strong bonds of affection with his congregation and focusing their attention on the spiritual imitation of Christ. Like other emerging professionals the clergy discovered a unique skill to market in voluntary, client relationships. How long this clerical other-worldly sentimentalism survived, or to what extent the experience of the Congregational ministry can be equated with the "evangelical ministry", is not clear. What is now clear, thanks to Scott's analysis, is how closely the Congregational clergy conformed to patterns of segmentation and institutionalization which gave them a profession at the cost of an office. Harry S. Stout University of Connecticut American Apocalypse: Yankee Protestants and the Civil War. By James H. Moorhead. (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1978. Pp. xiv, 278. $17.50.) One of theprincipal purposes of this book is to show how the evangelical background of nineteenth-century Protestantism conditioned the response of the major Northern denominations to the issues and events of the Civil War. "Apocalypse" refers to the ultimate revelation of divine will to which American Protestants had become sensitized by the strong emphasis on millennialist expectations instilled in them by repeated revivals. Nevertheless, in spite of the vivid language and occasional extreme interpretations of events fostered by this tradition, the overall impression one gets of the Protestant response to the tumultuous events of the sixties is one of aimlessness and indecision. In their sermons and denominational periodicals the clergy shared with the journalists and political leaders the responsibility of articulating public opinion. But there is little evidence that the clerical commentary was any more measured or thoughtful than that from secular sources. Prior to Sumter, the clergy expressed a surprisingwillingness to accept secession; after it, they preached a holy war. They had always been cautious or ambivalent in their expression of anti-slavery sentiments, revealing their race prejudice in their general support of colonization. After the war, their relative lenience toward the white South and their distrust of Negro BOOK REVIEWS277 suffrage signaled their desertion of the Radical Republicans and their willingness to abandon the freedmen to their former masters. One might well ask what was "apocalyptic" about all this? What did their scriptural perspective give the clergy that was denied to less favored individuals left to struggle with the flux of events without benefit of divine insight? Moorhead's survey is restricted to Congregationalist , Presbyterian, Methodist, and Baptist sources. Missing from his analysis is a sociology designed to bridge the large gap between the millennialist tradition and the substansive interpretations of events offered by the representatives of the moderate, middle-of-the-road denominations. We know from Lewis Perry's work that radical abolitionists could draw very different lessons from Scripture. But the abolitionists' denominational connections were tenuous, and their theological grounding was in radical versions of perfectionism rather than millennialism. At the descriptive level Moorhead's book is detailed and informative, but because it slights an analysis of the social affiliations and commitments of the clergy it cannot provide explanations of their rather feckless responses to the great events of the time. Stow Persons University of Iowa Sinful Tunes and Spirituals: Black Folk Music to the Civil War. By Dena J. Epstein. (Urbana, Chicago, and London: University of Illinois Press, 1977. Pp. xiv, 433. $17.95.) Dena Epstein's long-awaited survey of the literature of Afro-American folk music up to the publication of Shve Songs of the United States in 1867 is exhaustive in its coverage of printed sources—diaries, letters, travel accounts, and slave narratives. The bibliography of...