Angelina Grimke was a powerfully persuasive woman. It is one thing to stand in arms with men during the tea party protests and work together. This however, is a direct appeal to women to support a cause that their husbands may not agree with, and they that may be condemned for supporting. She had no choice but to incite raw emotion in these women if they were going to stand up against men in their convictions. This is an impressive movement for the time, and I do not believe I had heard Angelina Grimke;s name prior to this unit. I am thankful and proud to learn this history though.

She is quoting Ephesians 6 here making reference to a spiritual call to arms. It is very clear, this is not about what you have been taught or grown up with, but deal directly with the morality of slavery in general.

This appeal here would serve as a push for those to use action from the moral feeling that they must be sensing despite the commonality of slavery during time. She is appealing to that moral dilemma that resides in us all.

I like that she is choosing her quotes to be in support of the original plan for the United States. She uses the Declaration of Independence and the Bible, references that would not only be well known but admired, especially considering the timeline of the 2nd Great Awakening.

Here not only has she appealed to those that know and respect her, but she is reaching out to express her care and concern for those women that do not know her. She is being very personable and ensuring that she is coming from a place of reserve where thoughts and prayer have already be done, and she is sure to inform the women that this is now her response to that prayer.

This is a great way to start such a persuasive writing. She is appealing as someone known and cared about be others, and probably whose opinion is respected. So whatever follows will be received be more open ears than closed because of the personalization already setup for the reader.

The use of "lord and master" here, further parallels the comparison of women to slaves, no doubt to conjure up a sense of wrong doing and lack of equality. People are more prone to act when the offense can stir up that emotion and call the act.

So now she is creating a relatability between the women and slaves. This will serve well to aide in the cry of moral corruption.

I mean, this is a pretty powerful statement here. To say men have molded women into the rank they possess now in society and in the same sentence bock that this person that they molded is seen to them as inferior is quite an insult to hurl at men in general.

Scripture is constantly taken out of context by many. Slave owners felt justified in their treatment and ownership of slaves because they took passages from the bible about how slave should act as justification for owning and treating slaves poorly. It is so wrong and shows a gross misrepresentation of what the bible teaches as a whole. As for Nat Turner I do not believe he read the bible wrong, it sounds to me more like he had a true mental illness. I think that illness presented itself in such a religious grounding because he was told at a young age that he had this special connect with God and was possibly a prophet. If you are told that as a child and then start hearing voices as an adolescent, of course it will seem justified and right to listen to those voices, you have been told your whole life you have this higher connect to God.

I find it interesting that he specifically states here, he communicated this miraculous Spiritual communication to BOTH whites and blacks. For me that is interesting to his case. He was trying to get this message to everyone before something bad happened. That to me shows he cared for both. I still must conclude he probably had a mental illness, but I think it dissolves him somewhat of responsibility of just trying to free slaves through murders of slave owners and their families. I reminds me of Noah trying to convince people to change before God flooded the earth. I'm certain many of his religious ideals combined with mental illness made this make sense in his brain. I feel he felt he did his due-diligence in telling everyone what he was seeing and being told and felt they decided their own fate through their reactions.

As tough as this sermon is to read let alone to have preached to you, it is probably what Edwards felt was needed. This was not just some happy go lucky time. Many things have taken place, many people overrun or killed to get to the place of these colonies trying to survive. I would imagine some bit of humanity and humility was lost in effort to achieve their goal. I can imagine why this sermon was met with tears and overwhelming conversions/recommitments to God. People had probably been pushing guilt down for quite some time, and here comes this traveling preacher calling you out, giving you permission to admit you have done wrong and providing a call out to make an about face with your life. People had to of felt and believed what he was saying or the response may have been more anger than repentance.

I can not even imagine my children sitting through this sermon, listening to these words. I can see the animation from the pulpit. I can feel the terror and threat in his voice. This was probably terrifying to adults and down right traumatizing I bet for children to hear. I am going to assume no parents got any sleep that night because their kids were probably terrified to even close their eyes. This is a terrible tactic to get the children on board. If the sermon didn't effect the parents then, their kids would be spending a huge amount of time reminding their parents to repent and obey. Fear can be a great motivator, but probably does not lead to much authenticity in faith.

This part ensured that no one felt they were saved. He knew exactly what to say to make even those confident in their salvation have a twinge of doubt that they would be spared the eternal torment of hell.