Iain Whyte's SEND BACK THE MONEY! to Be Released 11/29

Iain Whyte's SEND BACK THE MONEY! will be released on November 29, 2012. 'Send back the Money' has now become the hue and cry of the day. The Guardian may try to throw ridicule and contempt upon the itinerating orators and The Witness may disdain to ignore them. But the public mind will be roused and the public indignation will cry out – against the gross inconsistency of men calling themselves Free, patronising and encouraging slavery, of men repudiating all communion with the established ministers of the Church of Scotland on the grounds that they are slaves to the state' ['Observer' writing to The Witness 2 May 1846].

'Send Back the Money!' is a gripping exploration of how ecclesiastical politics triumphed over absolute principles to help abolish transatlantic slavery.

When the Free Church broke from the Church of Scotland in the "Disruption of 1843" the new denomination sought financial support from inside and outside Scotland. A delegation which went to American in 1844 returned with money gifted by sympathisers in the Southern slave states resulting in a huge moral and ethical backlash. A campaign to 'Send Back the Money' was launched, fully endorsed with ballads, broadsheets and songs, and famously championed by the celebrated orator Frederick Douglass, then still a slave himself.

Whyte meticulously traces the Free Church of Scotland from its dramatic conception to its rise to eminence as a symbol of democracy; presenting portraits of some of its most significant leaders and American abolitionists along the way.

Although no money was ever sent back this neglected chapter in the abolition of slavery is important as it showed to many the realities of slavery and raised the still-important question of whether or not Churches should continue in 'Fellowship' with others who seem to overlook practices in its members that are at odds with Christianity. Parallels with churches that supported the apartheid system in South Africa's recent history are drawn by Whyte but even more could be inferred by those with a mind to the global state of Christianity for whom this book is essential reading.

About the Author:

Iain Whyte is the President of the Scottish Church History Society and an Honorary Post Doctoral Fellow at the Centre for Diaspora Studies, University of Edinburgh for his work in the history of slavery and abolition. He is the author of Scotland and the Abolition of Black Slavery 1756-1838 and Zachary Macaulay 1768-1838: The Steadfast Scot in the British Anti-Slavery Movement.

About the publisher:

James Clarke and Co Ltd is a long-established British academic publisher specialising in historical and theological books and also in reference material. It has been associated with the Lutterworth Press since 1984.