This study analyses the conflicts between Methodists - primarily white women, slaves, and the poor - and their opponents in the Revolutionary and early national American South. Cynthia Lyerly shows how, by condemning pride, violence, gentry hegemony, and slavery, Methodists fashioned an ethic radically at odds with that of southern elites and the masculine culture of honour.

This book looks at the role of Methodism in the Revolutionary and early national South. When the Methodists first arrived in the South, Lyerly argues, they were critics of the social order. By advocating values traditionally deemed "feminine," treating white women and African Americans with considerable equality, and preaching against wealth and slavery, Methodism challenged Southern secular mores. For this reason, Methodism evoked sustained opposition, especially from elite white men. Lyerly analyzes the public denunciations, domestic assaults on Methodist women and children, and mob violence against black Methodists. These attacks, Lyerly argues, served to bind Methodists more closely to one another; they were sustained by the belief that suffering was salutary and that persecution was a mark of true faith.

No topic in U.S. history is as emotionally fraught as the nation's centuries-long entanglement with slavery. How can teachers get students to understand the racist underpinnings of that institution-and to acknowledge its legacies in contemporary America? How can they overcome students' shame, anger, guilt, or denial? How can they incorporate into the classroom important primary sources that may contain obsolete and racist terms, images, and ideas? This book, designed for college and high school teachers, is a critical resource for understanding and teaching this challenging topic in all its complexity. Opening with Ira Berlin's reflections on ten elements that are essential to include in any course on this topic, Understanding and Teaching American Slavery offers practical advice for teaching specific content, utilizing sources, and getting students to think critically. Contributors address, among other topics, slavery and the nation's founders, the diverse experiences of the enslaved, slavery's role in the Civil War, and the relationship between slavery and the northern economy. Other chapters offer ideas for teaching through slave narratives, runaway ads, spirituals, films, and material culture. Taken together, the essays in the volume help instructors tackle problems, discover opportunities, and guide students in grappling with the ugliest truths of America's past.