I had not remembered Angelina Grimke as an abolitionist and women's rights activist and I had never read any of her speeches or her pamphlet. I am extremely impressed by how well she writes and speaks and how courageous she is in the very face of danger.

I am very familiar with the King James Version of the Bible and she has the issue of slavery dead to rights in my opinion. I know every single passage she quoted and all the scenarios she presented from Adam, Noah, Moses, Jesus, Paul, and all the other examples given.

Slavery is a horrible sin and I agree with her that God has given all people the rights to liberty and that they are made in His image. Christians should never be fine or supportive of slavery in any fashion. This includes the sex-trafficking issues and slavery of today.

Being a servant who is paid wages is acceptable. In one regard, I am a servant to my employers. I receive wages for jobs done. I am accountable to them for my behavior and job completions. The Jewish law of setting servants free every 7 years and all servants free every 50 years was a great protection against slavery and the dehumanization of those servants.

I also found it interesting how she tied the same passages to women's rights and how she encouraged women to fight against slavery and for women's rights in spite of the fact that immediate results could not be seen. I thought that the playing on the sympathies of the men in their lives to be a clever ploy to advance her agenda in both realms.

I cannot imagine what it must have been like growing up watching the brutality of slavery. I am glad that her heart was not hardened and made agreeable that slavery was acceptable.

I also found her courage in the face of very real danger, and her encouragement to other women to stand fast in the face of danger, very heartening to me. I only hope that I could be as courageous as she in the defense of my beliefs.

As I was reading this, I was struck by how disorganized Mr. Turner's thought processes seemed to be. Slavery is so dehumanizing and violent and I can empathize strongly with slaves wanting to be freed. They were made into nothing more than animals, nothing more than to be used dreadfully and/or bought and sold regardless of their family ties and emotions. I don't blame them for rebelling. A slave rebellion could be likened to the American Revolution against Britain; fighting for freedom. However, I don't believe God, or the Spirit, as Mr. Turner calls Him, condones murder. War, yes, and all the death on the battlefield. But murder of innocents is never condoned. To me, the voice Mr. Turner heard is more akin to an evil voice. His descriptions of his visions and how he saw nature, such as the trees and the dew, remind me to a considerable degree of schizophrenia.

I think this portion of the sermon is actually speaking of God's mercy. God is continuing to hold them up even when they have sat in the sanctuary of the church and have not really had a heart experience with God. That would also horrify some persons. In a "fire and brimstone" sermon such as this one, it would be very much in contrast to the usual church services of that time and could cause the people listening to be very frightened and to really search themselves as to their relationship with God. In my opinion, this is one of the main reasons why The Great Awakening was such a major movement in history.

The picture here of God holding a person as I would hold a disgusting, repulsive insect,(I wouldn't hold a spider as I'm afraid of them) speaks volumes to me. I can well imagine that a Puritan, whose main religious directive is to purify the Anglican church, would have been very shocked to consider themselves impure and that repulsive. Another creature that I'm terrified of is snakes and my only thought when I see one is of evil incarnate. That also must have shocked them very much to be considered as a serpent; the Devil as it were, as the King James Bible calls Satan a serpent.

Mr. Edwards does a fantastic job of describing a terrifying hell. If I had been present at that sermon, it would have scared me and I would probably have been literally shaking as described in our lectures and text book. As nurses are aware, the "flight or fight" syndrome can make you shake and faint and have the symptoms described in the lecture.

*American Yawp, Chapter 4, Sections I-IV and VIII UTA History Department, Lecture Video: The Great Awakening in Unit 2, Lesson 2.1