Covenant in Crisis: Orthodox Reactions to Slavery in Antebellum America, 1848-1861

This thesis provides an intellectual history of Orthodox reactions to slavery in the antebellum United States. It situates the Orthodox discourse within a dynamic mid-nineteenth century, including Judaism’s schism in Europe, Jewish migration to the United States, and the Protestant American religious debates about slavery. This paper highlights a key but under-examined moment in the development of American and post-Enlightenment Jewish thought.