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

Contents

Contents Acknowledgments xi Abbreviations xv introduction Facts Are Sometimes Stranger Than Fiction 1 one To Save the Godless West Revivalism, Abolition, and the Founding of Oberlin 12 two The Worthies of Oberlin Antislavery Expansion in the Late 1830s 40 three A City upon a Hill Utopian Oberlin 61 four A Hotbed of Abolitionism 81 five All the Truly Wise or Truly Pious Have the Same End in View Oberlin and Abolitionist Schism 108 six The Tyrant’s Grapple by Our Vote, We’ll Loosen from Our Brother’s Throat Oberlin, Free Soil, and the Fight for Equal Rights 132 seven We Must Watch and Improve This Tide Oberlin Confronts the Slave Power, 1850–1858 161 eight That Railroad Center at Which All Branches Converged Oberlin and the Underground Railroad 187 nine This Drama of Genuine Manhood and Courage Oberlin and the Fight for Freedom 212 epilogue Be Not Conformed to This World 239 Notes 249 Works Cited 303 Index 323 This page intentionally left blank Illustrations Charles Grandison Finney in the early 1830s 20 The Oberlin Big Tent on Tappan Square 37 Slab Hall or Cincinnati Hall 38 “Partial View Oberlin” 42 Theodore Dwight Weld 44 William Lloyd Garrison 52 A class photo from the 1855 preparatory department 66 Fanny Jackson (Coppin) 70 Sarah Margru Kinson 74 Lucy Stone 76 Charles Grandison Finney in the 1850s 98 Henry Cowles 105 “Father” John Keep 112 Abby Kelley Foster 121 Asa Mahan 129 Charles Langston 147 William Howard Day 149 Betsey Mix Cowles 153 John Mercer Langston 167 Professors James Fairchild, John Morgan, and James Monroe 182 Calvin Fairbank 191 Lewis Clarke 193 Samuel Adair in the Kansas cabin 195 Lee Howard Dobbins grave marker 199 “The Confidence Game” 204 The Oberlin-Wellington Rescuers at the Cleveland jail 218 Lewis Sheridan Leary 227 John Copeland 229 John Mercer Langston presenting the colors to the 5th Ohio United States Colored Troops 237 A bird’s-eye view of Oberlin, 1868 241 ...