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The Social Gospel and the Failure of Racial Reform, 1877–1898

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Ralph E. Luker
Ralph E. Luker
Affiliation:
assistant professor of history inAllegheny College, Meadville, Pennsylvania. Professor Luker wishes to express his appreciation to the Ford Foundation for a research grant in ethnic studies which supported his work for this article.
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Extract

While American Society was coming apart in the 1960s, an impressive array of historians rallied to condemn what Rayford Logan called “the astigmatism of the social gospel” in race relations. Preoccupied by the ills of urban-industrial disorder, they suggested, the prophets of post-Reconstruction social Christianity either ignored or betrayed the Negro and left his fortunes in the hands of a hostile white South. The indictment of the social gospel on this count hinged upon the racism of Josiah Strong, the faithlessness of Lyman Abbott, and the complicity in silence of Washington Gladden, Walter Rauschenbusch, and the others.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 46 , Issue 1 , March 1977 , pp. 80 - 99
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1977

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References

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14. Among others, one might also mention Collyer, Robert, Colwell, Stephen, Frothingham, Octavius Brooks, and Tying, Stephen H. Jr See Swint, Henry Lee, The Northern Teacher in the South, 1862–1870 (Nashville, 1942), pp. 171–174.Google Scholar

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18. Power, , “A Crusade to Extend Yankee Culture,” pp. 638–653.Google Scholar

19. Abott, Lyman, “Southern Evangelization,” New Englander 22 (10, 1864): 701Google Scholar (cited in Brown, , Lyman Abbott, p. 37)Google Scholar. On Northern social Christianity's fear of a declension into barbarism in the South see Gladden, Washington, “Moral Reconstruction,” in The Nation Still in Danger; or Ten Years After the War: A Plea by the American Missionary Association, with Confirmatory Articles by Rev. T. D. Woolsey, D.D., L.L.D., Hon. Frederick Douglass, Rev. Washington Gladden, Gov. D. H. Chamberlain, and Hon J. P. Hawley (n.p., 1875), p. 15Google Scholar; Josephus Cook, The Three Despised Races in the United States; or, The Chinaman, the Indian, and the Freedman. An address …, American Missionary Association Pamphlet no. 3 (New York, 1878), pp. 18–30Google Scholar; Cook, , “Enfranchised Ignorance in the South,” Boston Monday Lectures, Conscience, with Preludes on Current Events (Boston, 1879), pp. 117–123Google Scholar; Cook, , “Equal Educational Rights for Black and White,” Boston, Monday Lectures. Marriage, with Preludes on Current Events (Boston, 1879), pp. 169–179Google Scholar; Mayo, Amory Dwight, “The South, the North, and the Nation Keeping School,” in Christian Educators in Council. Sixty Addresses by American Educators; with Historical Notes upon the National Educational Assembly Held at Ocean Grove, N. J., August 9–12, 1883. Also Illiteracy and Education Tables from the Census of 1880, ed. Hartzell, John C. (New York, 1883), p. 160Google Scholar; Mayo, National Aid to Education: An Address Before the American Social Science Association, at the Saratoga Meeting of 1882 (Boston, 1883), p. 19Google Scholar; Ascombe, , “Contributions of the Quakers to Reconstruction,” p. 36Google Scholar; and Morrow, , Northern Methodism and Reconstruction, pp. 33 and 127.Google Scholar

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22. Cited, in Johnson, , “Methodist Episcopal Church,” p. 296.Google Scholar See also ibid, pp. 300–301; Morrow, , Northern Methodism and Reconstruction, pp. 20–21Google Scholar; Swint, , Northern Teachers in the South, p. 58Google Scholar; and McPherson, James M., The Struggle for Equality: Abolitionists and the Negro in the Civil War and Reconstruction (Princeton, 1964), p. 393.Google Scholar

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26. Richard Hofstadter first linked racism to imperialism, seeming to suggest that the former was the necessary assumption of the latter. Hofstadter, , Social Darwinism in American Thought, pp. 170–200Google Scholar. He was left, however, with the anomaly of white southern Democrats forming the base of political anti-imperialism. Ibid., p. 192. by conceiving the two logically as polar opposites, the tendency of Northern Republicans to imperialism and of southern Democrats to anti-imperialism becomes understandable.

27. Strong, Josiah, Religious Movements for Social Betterment (New York, 1900), p. 54.Google Scholar The objection that Northern missionaries to the South did not expect the freedmen to be equal participants in Anglo-Saxon culture is specious. Like most antislavery Northerners, they believed the freedmen were heir to the cultural burdens of slavery, but these would in time be shed. Moreover, the missionaries preferred to operate integrated institutions where that was feasible and often sent their children to the mission schools. Yet the task of evangelizing the South finally took priority over integration. Like most conservatives, the missionaries ultimately believed that social order was the necessary assumption for social justice. See, for example, Swint, , Northern Teacher in the South, p. 19Google Scholar; and Lyman Abbott to Samuel J. May, Jr., February 23, 1866, Lyman Abbott Correspondence, Samuel J. May Anti-Slavery Collection, Olin Library, Cornell University.

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32. Dudley, Thomas Underwood, “How Shall We Help the Negro,” Century Magazine 30 (06, 1885): 273–280.Google Scholar See also Wynes, Charles E., “Bishop Thomas U. Dudley and the Uplift of the Negro,” Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 65 (07, 1967): 230–238Google Scholar; and Sims, L. Moody, “Thomas Underwood Dudley: A Forgotten Voice of Dissent,” Mississippi Quarterly 20 (Fall, 1967): 217–233.Google Scholar

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34. Barrows, Isabel C., ed., First Mohonk Conference on the Negro Question: Held at Lake Mohonk, Ulster County, New York, June 4, 5, 6, 1890 (Boston, 1890)Google Scholar; and Barrows, Isabel C., ed., Second Mohonk Conference on the Negro Question: Held at Lake Mohonk, Ulster County, New York, June 3, 4, 5, 1891 (Boston, 1891).Google Scholar

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36. The best account of this division is McPherson, , Struggle for Equality, pp. 287–307,Google Scholar and passim. See also Thomas, John L., The Liberator: William Lloyd Garrison, A Biography (Boston, 1963), pp. 420–435Google Scholar; Bartlett, Irving H., Wendell Phillips: Brahman Radical (Boston, 1961), pp. 276–292Google Scholar; and Edelstein, Tilden G., Strange Enthusiasm: A Life of Thomas Wentworth Higginson (New Haven, 1968), pp. 299–319.Google Scholar

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39. The indispensable biographies are Turner, Arlin, George W. Cable: A Biography (Durham, 1956)Google Scholar; and Olsen, Otto H., Carpetbagger's Crusade: The Life of Albion W. Tourgee (Baltimore, 1965).Google Scholar Because the social gospel has been interpreted largely in the “response to industrialism” framework and without reference to race relations, Tourgee has received only minor treatment and Cable none at all in this context. See Hopkins, , Rise of the Social Gospel, p. 141Google Scholar; and May, , Protestant Churches and Industrial America, p. 208.Google Scholar

40. Wilson, Edmund, Patriotic Gore: Studies in the Literature of the American Civil War (New York, 1956), pp. 537 and 559–562.Google Scholar

41. Turner, , George W. Cable, pp. 263–271.Google Scholar

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44. Roche, , John Boyle O'Reilly, p. 342Google Scholar; Streiby, Michael E., “What the Decade Should Do for the Negro,” Independent 43 (01 1, 1891): 9;Google Scholar and “Political Rights of Negroes,” Andover Review, p. 308. See also the long series of editorials in Abbott's, Christian Union from “The Outlook,” Christian Union 42 (07, 1890): 36Google Scholar to “With Charity Toward All,” Christian Union 43 (02 5, 1891): 166.Google Scholar

45. “The Outlook,” Christian Union 42 (09 4, 1890): 291Google Scholar; Gladden, , “Safeguards of the Suffrage,” p. 621Google Scholar; Hale, , “Suffrage,” p. 478Google Scholar; and “Political Rights of Negroes,” Andover Review, p. 308.

46. Tourgee to W. S. Scarborough, November 27, 1889, W. S. Scarborough Papers, Wilberforce University Library, Wilberforce, Ohio. The letter continues in some elaborate detail explaining how such an organization among southern blacks might be modeled along the lines of the Klan. I am in debt to Professor William Gravely of the University of Denver for bringing this letter to my attention.

47. On the National Citizens Rights Association units at Oberlin and Grinnell, see Olsen, , Carpetbagger's Crusade, p. 313Google Scholar; and Charles L. Fitch to Tourgee, February 24, 1892, no. 6053; Tourgee to Fitch, n.d. (ea. February 28, 1892), no. 6065; Fitch to Tourgee, March 3, 1892, no. 6079; Fitch and Charles D. Seaton to Tourgee, Mary 17, 1892, no. 7614. Albion W. Tourgee Papers, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. The best studies of the social gospel at Oberlin and Grinnell are Barnard, John, From Evangelicalism to Progressivism at Oberlin College, 1866–1917Google Scholar (Columbus, 1969), pp. 61–62, 85–105, and 114–126; and Handy, Robert T., “George D. Herron and the Kingdom Movement,” Church History 19 (1950): 97–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

48. Olsen, , Carpetbagger's Crusade, pp. 312–334.Google Scholar

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50. Staudenraus, African Colonization, passim. See also Colwell, Stephen, New Themes for Protestant Clergy: Creed without Charity, Theology without Humanity and Prolestantism without Christianity, with Notes on the Nature of Charity, Population Pauperism, Political Economy and Protestantism (Philadelphia, 1851), pp. 65–67 and 250–252Google Scholar; Colwell, , The South: A Letter from a Friend in the North. With Special Reference to the Effects of Disunion upon Slavery (Philadelphia, 1856)Google Scholar; Colwell, , The Five Cotton States and New York; or, Remarks upon the Social and Political Aspects of the Southern Political Crisis (Philadelphia, 1861)Google Scholar: Dodge, D. Stuart, ed., Memorials of William E. Dodge (New York, 1887), pp. 73 and 262–262Google Scholar; Lowitt, Richard, A Merchant Prince of the Nincteenth Century: William E. Dodge (New York, 1954), pp. 196–199 and 343–345Google Scholar; [Ephraim Peabody], “Slavery in the United States: Its Evils, Alleviations and Remedies,” reprinted from the North American Review 153 (10, 1851): 347–385Google Scholar; and Bacon, Leonard Woolsey, “The Services of Leonard Bacon to African Colonization,” Liberia 15 (11, 1899): 1–21 and 16 (02, 1900): 40–55.Google Scholar

51. From its inception in 1817 to 1847, the Colonization Society received an average annual contribution of $24,144.65 and sent an average of 150 freedmen per year to Africa. From 1848 to 1873, its receipts averaged $64,724.51, while it returned an average of 361 freedmen to Africa. In the years from 1874 to 1899, its receipts averaged only $12,736.40, while it returned an average of only 52 Negroes per year to Africa. Staudenraus, African Colonization, p. 251. In spite of its title, Staudenraus' study affectively carries the story only to 1840, apparently in the belief that thereafter it did not represent a significant factor in the course of American race relations. This has misled other students of the subject. See, for instance: Edwin Redkey, Black Nationalist and Back-to-Africa Movements, 1890–1910 (New Haven, 1969), p. 20Google Scholar; and Draper, Theodore, The Re-discovery of Black Nationalism (New York, 1970), p. 9.Google Scholar But see also Boyd, Willis D., “Negro Colonization in the National Crisis” (Ph.D diss., University of California at Los Angeles, 1953)Google Scholar; and Boyd, , “Negro Colonization in the Reconstruction Era, 1865–1870,” Georgia Historical Quarterly 40 (12, 1956): 360–382.Google Scholar

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53. See, for instance Richards, Reverend C. H., “The Future of the Negro in Our Country.” American Missionary 44 (03, 1890): 88–89Google Scholar; Pearne, Thomas H., “The Race Problem—The Situation,” Methodist Review 72 (09, 1890): 703Google Scholar; Mayo, Amory Dwight, “The Progress of the Negro,” The Forum 10 (11, 1890): 386Google Scholar; Cook, Josephus, “Unsolved Southern Problems,” Our Day 8 (07, 1891): 34Google Scholar: Noble, Frederic Perry, “Christendom's Rum-Trade with Africa: A Modern Devil's Mission,” Missionary Review of the World 18 (06, 1894): 418Google Scholar; Speer, Robert E., Presbyterian Foreign Missions: An Account of the Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. (Philadelphia, 1902), pp. 21–23Google Scholar; idem, Missions and Modern History: A Study of the Missionary Aspects of Some Great Movements of the Nineteenth Century, 2 vols. (New York, 1904), 1:284–285.Google Scholar

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55. See Gilliam, Edward W., “The African in the United States,” Popular Science Monthly 22 (02, 1883): 436–445Google Scholar; and Frederickson, , Black Image in the White Mind, pp. 239–240 and 245–246.Google Scholar

56. This image of Africa is evident, for example, in the following works: Dennis, James Shepard, Foreign Missions After a Century: Students' Lectures on Missions, Princeton Theological Seminary, 1893 (New York, 1893)Google Scholar; Dennis, , Social Evils of the Non-Christian World (New York, 1899)Google Scholar; Dennis, , Christian Missions and Social Progress: A Sociological Study of Foreign Missions, 3 vols. (New York, 1897–1906)Google Scholar; Mills, Reverend J. S., Africa and Mission Work in Sierra Leone, West Africa (Dayton, 1898)Google Scholar; Noble, Frederic Perry, The Redemption of Africa: A Story of Civilization, With Maps, Statistical Tables and Select Bibliography of the Literature of African Missions, 2 vols. (New York, 1899)Google Scholar; Parsons, Ellen C., Christus Liberator: An Outline Study of Africa (New York, ca. 1906)Google Scholar; and Pierson, Arthur T., The Crisis of Missions: or, The Voice Out of the Cloud (New York, 1886).Google Scholar

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58. Haygood, , Pleas for Progress, p. 136Google Scholar; Strieby, Michael E., “The Destiny of the African Races,” American Missionary 44 (12, 1890): 374–375Google Scholar; Strieby, , “The Training of American Freedom as Factors in African Civilization,” Report of the Centenary Conference on the Protestant Missions of the World, Held in Exeter Hall (June 9th–9th), London, 1888, ed., Johnson, James (New York, n.d.) 2:390–393Google Scholar; Slattery, J. R., “The African Slave Trade,” Catholic World 50 (02, 1890): 676–677Google Scholar; Storrs, Richard Salter, Our Nation's Work for the Colored People: A Discourse Delivered in the Church of the Pilgrims, Brooklyn, N.Y., in Behalf of the American Missionary Association (New York, 1890), pp. 19–20Google Scholar; Sanford, Henry S., “American Interests in Africa,” The Forum 9 (06, 1890): 428–429Google Scholar; Cook, Josephus, “The Divine Program on the Dark Continent,” Our Day 12 (09, 1893): 193 and 210Google Scholar; Noble, Frederic P., “The African Slave-Trade of 1890,” Our Day 7 (02, 1891): 101–102Google Scholar; Noble, , “An African Devil's Business and Its Arab Agents; or, The Slave Trade of the Present Day: Who Carries It On, Where Are the Slaves Used, and What Can Be Done to Stop the Business,” Missionary Review of the World 14 (06, 1891): 435Google Scholar; Noble, , “Evangelical Chrisitanity and Africa,” Missionary Review of the World 21 (06, 1898): 426Google ScholarNoble, , Redemption of Africa, 1:xviii–xix; 2:479 and 511–512Google Scholar; Ryder, Charles J., “The Theology of the Plantation Songs,” American Missionary 46 (01, 1892): 16Google Scholar; and Hartzell, Joseph C., “The Outlook for Africa,” Liberia 13 (11, 1898): 5.Google Scholar

59. Redkey, , Black Exodus, pp. 118–144.Google Scholar See also “Address of President Potter,” Liberia 2 (02, 1893): 17–18Google Scholar; and Potter, Henry Codman, “The Two Africas,” Liberia 4 (02, 1894): 12.Google Scholar

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64. See, for instance, “Bishop Fitzgerald on Lynching,” Independent 44 (06 2, 1892): 765,Google Scholar“Bishop Fitzgerald on Lynching,” Independent 44 (06 23, 1892): 874Google Scholar; Douglass, Frederick, “Lynch Law in the South,” North American Review 155 (07, 1892): 18–24Google Scholar; “Thugs and Fiends,” Richmond Christian Advocate (02 23, 1893),Google Scholar reprinted in “Worse Than Lynch Law,” p. 140; Haygood, , “Black Shadow in the South,” pp. 174–175Google Scholar; Page, , “Last Hold of the Southern Bully,” p. 309Google Scholar; and Slattery, , “South in the Saddle,” p. 1537.Google Scholar

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69. Olsen, , Carpetbagger's Crusade, pp. 325–326 and 334–338.Google Scholar the collapse of efforts at racial reform in the 1890s was not limited to white or bi-racial groups, of course. The Afro-American League died in 1893. See Thornbrough, Emma Lou, “The National Afro-American League, 1887–1908,” Journal of Southern History 27 (11, 1961): 494–512CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Thornbrough, T. Thomas Fortune: Militant Journalist (Chicago, 1972), pp. 105–122.Google Scholar

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71. Redkey, , Black Exodus, pp. 143–147Google Scholar; and Heard, William H., The Bright Side of African Life, (n.p., 1898), pp. 31 and 96.Google Scholar

72. See Going, Allen J., “The South and the Blair Education Bill,” Mississippi Valley Historical Review 44 (09, 1957): 267–290CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Welch, Richard E. Jr, “The Federal Elections Bill of 1890: Postscripts and Prelude,” Journal of American History 52 (12, 1895): 511–526CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Redkey, , Black Exodus, pp. 47–72.Google Scholar

73. Haygood, Atticus G., “The Negro Problem: God Takes Time—Men Must,” Methodist Quarterly Review 42 (09–08, 1895): 41–53.Google Scholar The appeal to time had been a minor theme in the process-oriented mind of the missionary-educators. The effect of Haygood's argument was to reverse the emphasis from education over time to education over time.

74. Davis, J. E., “Early Days of the ‘Ogden Movement,’“ Southern Workman 44 (11, 1915): 615–622.Google Scholar See also Harlan, Louis R., Separate and Unequal: Public School Campaigns and Racism in the Southern Seaboard States, 1901–1915 (Chapel Hill, 1958), passim.Google Scholar

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