Publisher's Synopsis
Against the background of John Calvin's capitalist economy, monocratic politics, and individual faith and ethics doctrine of predestination for European middle and upper classes, this book compares and contrasts the promise and performance of double election Puritan saints in matters of human bondage, class values, color-consciousness, and caste virtue. Washington focuses on an analysis of Evangelical Calvinist major figures, such as public servant and partisan party power advocate Cotton Mather and the civil affairs-neutral Jonathan Edwards. He also examines respective proslavery and antislavery Calvinist and Quaker Puritan parsons and denominations, as well as the antiabolitionist fathers of antiabortionist Southern Baptist sons.