What were some of the initial arguments made for the prohibition of slavery (in spite of the ban on Congressional discussion until 1808)?
Protestant dissent to the institution of slavery came to prominence after the Second Great Awakening.
This Protestant revival, while not exclusively anti-slavery by nature, did act as a catalyst for many anti-slavery Protestant voices to emerge.
One such advocate of abolition was William Wilson, Chancellor of the Protestant University of the United States.
Wilson, in the "The Great American Question", calls for an abolitionist movement to take the 1848 election, thus cleverly linking politics and religion.
Claiming that "slavery is irreconcilably at war", Wilson calls on his fellow Protestants to practice the basic tenets of their Christian faith.
Slavery, argued Wilson, goes directly against all that is taught in the Christian Bible.
