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Francis Wayland

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Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Brown University slaveryandjusticereport.brown.edu Brown University 12 facts

referenceIn his 1838 book 'The Limitations of Human Responsibility', Francis Wayland argued that while individuals have an obligation to persuade slaveholders of the error of their ways, the ultimate responsibility for acting on that advice rests with each individual slaveholder.

perspectiveFrancis Wayland opposed slavery, viewing it as an offense against God and a violation of the United States' founding principles.

claimRev. Francis Wayland, who served as president of Brown University from 1827 to 1855, encouraged students to grapple with the moral and political issues raised by the abolition controversy, despite the university not formally supporting the abolitionist movement.

quoteFrancis Wayland wrote to a correspondent in 1837: "Slavery in this country will yet cease, for it is wrong. But it will never be made to cease by the present efforts. They have on them, in my opinion, every mask of failure, for they are not made in the fear of God or with love to man. They may destroy the union, plunge this country into a civil war, break us up into a half dozen different confederacies, but abolish slavery as they are now attempting to do it — they never will. You may note my words, they never will."

claimFrancis Wayland served as the president of a university in a state dominated by textile interests and as the president of the national convention of the Baptist Church.

claimFrancis Wayland, a Brown University educator, provided a framework that allowed students to discuss the morality and politics of slavery, though his arguments did not emphasize the responsibilities people might have toward those who were enslaved.

perspectiveFrancis Wayland expressed hostility toward abolitionists, characterizing them as irresponsible agitators whose methods were doomed to fail and risked destroying the Union or causing civil war.

claimFrancis Wayland, a prominent nineteenth-century moral philosopher, authored the textbook 'The Elements of Moral Science', which sold over two hundred thousand copies during that century.

quoteFrancis Wayland wrote in 'The Limitations of Human Responsibility': "I have no right, for the sake of carrying a measure, or stirring up excitement, or swaying the popular opinion, to urge, as a matter of universal obligation, what God has left as a matter to be decided by every man’s conscience."

accountFrancis Wayland dedicated several weeks of his senior seminar at Brown University to the problems of slavery and abolition, allowing students significant liberty to question and discuss the topic provided they stated their points with precision.

claimFrancis Wayland authored 'Domestic Slavery Considered as a Scriptural Institution', which was a published debate with a pro-slavery clergyman from South Carolina.

perspectiveFrancis Wayland believed that moral progress should be achieved through a gradual process of enlightenment, nurtured by respectful, reasoned dialogue, rather than through conflict and name-calling.