The life of Rev. Orange Scott: a history and analysis of abolitionism and Wesleyan Methodism in antebellum America, 1800-1847

Abstract

This work is an intellectual biography of Orange Scott, an antislavery Methodist minister who seceded from the Methodist Episcopal Church over slavery and church government in 1842 and then founded the Wesleyan Methodist Connection in 1843. A largely obscure and forgotten abolitionist, this work chronicles his life and restores his place as an important figure in the antislavery movement. He championed a unique antislavery worldview that was simultaneously conservative and radical. Shaped by both Garrisonian abolitionism and John Wesley, Scott presented this worldview as the best solution to moral corruption in society. He further refined it over the course of his life through a series of three interconnected debates: a theological debate with Thomas Whittemore over universal salvation, a debate with fellow Methodists over slavery, and a debate with William Lloyd Garrison over non-resistance. Each of these debates illustrates a different dimension of Scott’s worldview: his traditionalist theology, his radical brand of antislavery Methodism, and his conservative defense of civil society. His conservatism rested on his desire to conserve the pure principles of the past and preserve the institutions that represented those principles. His radicalism stemmed from an aggressive opposition to an existing status quo that had abandoned first principles and had corrupted society. By agitating against slavery, Scott forced American Methodism to confront its relationship with the South’s peculiar institution and its departure from the ground originally occupied by John Wesley and Francis Asbury. By holding a mirror up to the Methodist Episcopal Church and galvanizing abolitionism and antislavery sentiment inside the church, Scott greatly contributed to the division of the largest evangelical denomination in the United States. His leadership of the Wesleyan Methodist Connection, best exemplified by his editorship of the True Wesleyan and his tenure as the denomination’s book agent, helped turn it into a viable alternative to his old church. In doing so, Scott shattered an anti-abolition consensus and forced northern Methodists to adapt to a new antislavery paradigm that helped split Methodism along geographic lines.