Send Back the Money! - by Iain Whyte (Paperback)

About the Book

This new title is an exciting and insightful investigation of the history of slavery and its abolition with a particular assessment of Scotland's role in emancipation.

Book Synopsis

'Send Back the Money!' is a thorough and gripping examination of a fascinating and forgotten aspect of Scottish and American relations and Church history. A seminal period of Abolition activity is exposed by Iain Whyte through a study of the fiery 'Send back the Money!' campaign named after 'the hue and cry of the day' that encapsulated the argument that divided families, communities, and the Free Church itself. This examination of the Free Church's involvement with American Presbyterianism in the nineteenth century reveals the ethical furore caused by a Church wishing to emancipate itself from the religious and civil domination supported by the established religion of the state. The Free Church therefore found an affinity with those oppressed elsewhere, but subsequently found itself financially supported by the Southern slave states of America. Whyte sensitively handles this inherent contradiction in the political, ecclesiastical, and theological institutions, while informing the reader of the roles of charismatic characters such as Robert Burns, Thomas Chalmers and Frederick Douglass. These key individuals shaped contemporary culture with action, great oratory, and rhetoric. The author adroitly draws parallels from the twentieth century onwards, bringing the reader to a fuller understanding of the historic and topical issues within global Christianity, and the contentious topic of slavery. 'Send back the Money!' throws light upon nineteenth-century culture, British and American Abolitionists, and ecclesiastical politics, and is written in a clear and engaging style.

Review Quotes

'Iain Whyte's study of this little known episode in Scottish history makes for an engrossing read. [...] Popular ballads and songs, many written in a lively and earthy Scots, contrasted dry theological argument. Dr Whyte captures the excitement and emotion of these times.[...]...excellent...' Dr James Robertson, University of Glasgow'...An accessible, scholarly, and enjoyably-readable monograph[...] ...A fine miniature of the perils of moral decision-making...' David Cornick, Reform Magazine, April 2013'...In 'Send Back the Money!' Iain Whyte has pulled off the difficult feat of making a piece of pure historical research amusing as well as enlightening. Reading his book, we can hear those passionate Nineteenth Century voices and their echoes today...' Richard Holloway, author and former Bishop of Edinburgh in the Scottish Episcopal Church'Iain Whyte gives us a book here whose absorbing story echoes far beyond its immediate space and time of Scotland and the USA before the American Civil War. It is a lesson, often tragic, of the international demands on the conscience of moral men and women, and the perpetual temptation to ignore cruelty beyond our own horizons. But God knows no frontiers.' Owen Dudley Edwards, Reader at the University of Edinburgh, Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh"Thoroughly researched and compelling written book."John S. Ross, The Record, June 2013"Thank you, Iain Whyte. Through the clarity of your history lesson you have reduced our wriggle-room!"Jim Wilkie, Coracle 2013"The author provides interesting insight into this all-but-forgotten episode of Scottish history, carefully detailing the incidents and issues as the story unfolds. The book is attractively produced and reads very fluently."Don Martin, Scottish Local History, Issue 86, Autumn 2013'Dr Whyte has taken his research on an obscure and not very creditable part of Free Church history and given it a relevance for today in a book which is short enough not to scare the non-historian, readable, well-founded in original sources, thought-provoking and much to be welcomed by general reader and historian alike.'Andrew Muirhead, The Innes Review, Vol. 64, No. 2, 2013 "This book not only explains the context and the evolution of public opinion with regards to slavery in both countries, but the author situates as well many other events related with the Free Church, the American Presbyterianism, and religions in general, following the methods of comparative studies, in the tradition of Atlantic Studies. 'Send Back the Money' The Free Church of Scotland and American Slavery is neither a mere history book, nor entirely focused on theology; it is rather an interdisciplinary account about how political, ethnical, religious ideas were confronted with the issue of slavery during an epoch when it was considered as 'normal' and even 'necessary'." Yves Laberge, Universite Laval, in Theological Book Review (tbr), Vol. 25, No.1, 2013A short, narrative and interesting tale of a few years in the history of a new branch of the Presbyterian church in Scotland, yet the story develops into a multi-layered tale featuring well-known international speakers, major ethical dilemmas, and the fickleness of popular support ... Overall, with this study Whyte continues to cement his position as the historian of Scottish anti-slavery.Paula E. Dumas, Journal of Scottish historical studies, Issues 1, 2014"By drawing attention to this little-known episode Whyte undermines hagiographic depictions of the Free Church's struggles, pointing to the politicking which lay beneath the Church's avoidance of the candid abolitionism [...] this is a balanced and well-researched account which sheds new light on Scotland's complex relationship with slavery."Valerie Wallace, The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, Vol 65, Issue 4, (October 2014)