This essay offers an interpretation of certain sections of the American abolitionist movement before the Civil War. It posits that many antebellum opponents of slavery and enslaved people alike subscribed to a theory of Christianity that, following Scottish common-sense theology and the experiential, liberation-oriented Christianity of the enslaved, maintained that morality and immorality were equally comprehensible and perceivable to all humanity. When, therefore, reports of physical violence and oppression wreaked upon enslaved people in the South began circulating in the North, the conclusion that slavers must be atheists who were not truly practicing Christianity united both black Christians and white Unitarians in a common critique of slavery. The accusation that slaveholding was a form of atheism lent weight to common fears that slavery was a form of tyranny undermining the potential of American democracy among Northern Americans.

中文翻译：

---

废奴时代的暴力与无神论

本文对内战前美国废奴运动的某些部分进行了解释。它假设许多战前反对奴隶制和被奴役的人都赞同一种基督教理论，该理论遵循苏格兰常识神学和被奴役者的经验、解放导向的基督教，认为道德和不道德对所有人来说都是同样可以理解和感知的人性。因此，当关于南方被奴役的人遭受身体暴力和压迫的报道开始在北方流传时，关于奴隶主一定是没有真正信奉基督教的无神论者的结论将黑人基督徒和白人一神论者联合起来，共同批评奴隶制。