Come-outer
Encyclopedia
Come-outer is a phrase coined in the 1830s which denotes a person who withdraws from an established organization, or one who advocates political reform.

History

The term was first applied during the Second Great Awakening
Second Great Awakening
The Second Great Awakening was a Christian revival movement during the early 19th century in the United States. The movement began around 1800, had begun to gain momentum by 1820, and was in decline by 1870. The Second Great Awakening expressed Arminian theology, by which every person could be...

 to a small group of American abolitionists
Abolitionism
Abolitionism is a movement to end slavery.In western Europe and the Americas abolitionism was a movement to end the slave trade and set slaves free. At the behest of Dominican priest Bartolomé de las Casas who was shocked at the treatment of natives in the New World, Spain enacted the first...

 who dissented from religious orthodoxy, who withdrew from a number of established churches because the churches were not progressive enough on the issue of abolition. A come-outer would not join a church which held a neutral position on the issue of slavery, and he would not vote, or run for office, or otherwise take part in a government that let slavery happen. The phrase was derived from the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...

 verse, II Corinthians 6:17 which read "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, said the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you."

Garrisonian anti-institutionalism

William Lloyd Garrison
William Lloyd Garrison
William Lloyd Garrison was a prominent American abolitionist, journalist, and social reformer. He is best known as the editor of the abolitionist newspaper The Liberator, and as one of the founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society, he promoted "immediate emancipation" of slaves in the United...

 was an influential Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

 abolitionist who founded the New England Anti-Slavery Society and the American Anti-Slavery Society
American Anti-Slavery Society
The American Anti-Slavery Society was an abolitionist society founded by William Lloyd Garrison and Arthur Tappan. Frederick Douglass was a key leader of this society and often spoke at its meetings. William Wells Brown was another freed slave who often spoke at meetings. By 1838, the society had...

 in the early 1830s. Garrison advocated an immediate end to slavery, rather than a step-by-step process working through the political system. In 1832, he printed an anti-slavery tract called Thoughts on African Colonization which included the "come out from among them" verse from the Second Epistle to the Corinthians
Second Epistle to the Corinthians
The second epistle of Paul the apostle to the Corinthians, often referred to as Second Corinthians , is the eighth book of the New Testament of the Bible...

, and a quote from a recently-deceased Reverend Doctor Thomson of Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

: "To say that we will only come out of the sin by degrees—that we will only forsake it slowly, and step by step... is to trample on the demands of moral obligation..." At the New England Anti-Slavery Convention in 1836, Garrison proposed that only churches willing to help fight slavery should be considered "the true and real church of God." This was viewed by many as too divisive, so other means were tried until the 1837 convention when a resolution was adopted urging abolitionists to leave unresponsive churches, "to come out from among them and be separate." Garrison's radical ideas defined a strong split within the anti-slavery societies, and Garrison was abandoned by all but a dedicated core group of like-minded abolitionists. The Boston-based group of reformers began to be called "come-outers".

Garrison's newspaper, The Liberator, served to spread his view of abolition and anti-institutionalism. From time to time, news items about come-outers would appear, some culled from other journals. In 1851, Garrison quoted an article entitled "Come-outers in jail" which appeared in The Barnstable Patriot
The Barnstable Patriot
The Barnstable Patriot is a weekly newspaper published in and for the town of Barnstable, Massachusetts. Although it bills itself as "an independent voice since 1830", The Patriot has been owned, since 2005, by Ottaway Community Newspapers, now a division of News Corporation.News Corp...

: "Several of these poor deluded beings in Barnstable
Barnstable, Massachusetts
Barnstable is a city, referred to as the Town of Barnstable, in the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the county seat of Barnstable County. Barnstable is the largest community, both in land area and population, on Cape Cod. The town contains seven villages within its boundaries...

, whose actions we have before noticed, are now on trial in that town for an assault upon a constable when in the discharge of his duty…the poor creatures are insane, and can hardly be held responsible for their acts. ….the most fitting place for these unfortunate beings is in the Insane Hospital
Psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental hospitals, are hospitals specializing in the treatment of serious mental disorders. Psychiatric hospitals vary widely in their size and grading. Some hospitals may specialise only in short-term or outpatient therapy for low-risk patients...

." Garrison offered his opinion that the 'poor deluded beings' were quite properly "laboring under religious insanity."

Other regions of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 that held pockets of "come-outerism" included Cape Cod
Cape Cod
Cape Cod, often referred to locally as simply the Cape, is a cape in the easternmost portion of the state of Massachusetts, in the Northeastern United States...

, New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...

 and New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

.

Abolition and church reform

Come-outers themselves split further into those, like Garrison, were against any institution at all, and those who believed that political systems and churches could be reformed into anti-slavery organizations. Non-Garrisonian come-outers split from Methodist, Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...

 and Presbyterian churches to form new church doctrines that were either completely free of slavery or focused on anti-slavery. The American Baptist Anti-Slavery Convention in 1840 brought the issue to the fore, defining a split among Baptists. The American Baptist Free Mission Society formed in 1843 in Boston when 17 Baptists led by William Henry Brisbane
William Henry Brisbane
Reverend Dr. William Henry Brisbane was a Baptist minister of the southern United States who, having convinced himself of the immorality of slavery, freed and settled a group of slaves he had inherited, and became an active abolitionist.-Biography:His father, Adam Fowler Brisbane appears, from...

 left their church to create a non-racist, anti-slavery evangelical group with missions to Haiti, Burma and Africa. James G. Birney
James G. Birney
James Gillespie Birney was an abolitionist, politician and jurist born in Danville, Kentucky. From 1816 to 1818, he served in the Kentucky House of Representatives...

 and Gerrit Smith
Gerrit Smith
Gerrit Smith was a leading United States social reformer, abolitionist, politician, and philanthropist...

 were among those who left the Presbyterian church. The integrated American Missionary Association
American Missionary Association
The American Missionary Association was a Protestant-based abolitionist group founded on September 3, 1846 in Albany, New York. The main purpose of this organization was to abolish slavery, to educate African Americans, to promote racial equality, and to promote Christian values...

, a non-denominational group, formed in 1846 mostly of Presbyterian and Congregational members who were unable to get their churches to commit to fight slavery. The Wesleyan Methodist Connection was organized in 1843 and grew to some 15,000 members, many of whom were not Methodist. By 1850, membership in come-outer churches, combined with those in religious denominations such as Free Will Baptist who had long been against slavery, reached 241,000 in America.

Tax resistance

Some come-outers engaged in tax resistance
Tax resistance
Tax resistance is the refusal to pay tax because of opposition to the government that is imposing the tax or to government policy.Tax resistance is a form of civil disobedience and direct action...

 because of their unwillingness to fund a government that didn't work to end slavery. Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and leading transcendentalist...

 and Amos Bronson Alcott
Amos Bronson Alcott
Amos Bronson Alcott was an American teacher, writer, philosopher, and reformer. As an educator, Alcott pioneered new ways of interacting with young students, focusing on a conversational style, and avoided traditional punishment. He hoped to perfect the human spirit and, to that end, advocated a...

 both used tax resistance in this way. Utopian Brook Farm
Brook Farm
Brook Farm, also called the Brook Farm Institute of Agriculture and Education or the Brook Farm Association for Industry and Education, was a utopian experiment in communal living in the United States in the 1840s...

 has been described as "a come-outer enterprise".

People

  • Maria Weston Chapman
    Maria Weston Chapman
    Maria Weston or Maria Weston Chapman was an American abolitionist. She was elected to the executive committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1839 and from 1839 until 1842, she served as editor of the anti-slavery journal, Non-Resistant.-Family:Weston was born in 1806 in Weymouth,...

  • Stephen Symonds Foster
    Stephen Symonds Foster
    Stephen Symonds Foster was a radical American abolitionist known for his dramatic and aggressive style of public speaking, and for his stance against those in the church who failed to fight slavery. His marriage to Abby Kelley Foster brought his energetic activism to bear on women's rights...

     called the clergy "a brotherhood of thieves".
  • Timothy Gilbert
    Timothy Gilbert
    Timothy Gilbert was an American piano manufacturer, abolitionist and religious organizer in Boston, Massachusetts...

     left his unresponsive Baptist church to join the Free Baptist Church in Boston.
  • Abby Kelley
    Abby Kelley
    Abby Kelley Foster was an American abolitionist and radical social reformer active from the 1830s to 1870s. She became a fundraiser, lecturer and committee organizer for the influential American Anti-Slavery Society, where she worked closely with William Lloyd Garrison and other radicals...

     left her Quaker church in 1841, "feeling it a duty to 'come out and be separate'.
  • Wendell Phillips
    Wendell Phillips
    Wendell Phillips was an American abolitionist, advocate for Native Americans, and orator. He was an exceptional orator and agitator, advocate and lawyer, writer and debater.-Education:...

  • Parker Pillsbury
    Parker Pillsbury
    Parker Pillsbury was an American minister and advocate for abolition and women's rights.Pillsbury was born in Hamilton, Massachusetts...

  • Nathaniel P. Rogers
    Nathaniel P. Rogers
    Nathaniel Peabody Rogers was an American abolitionist writer who, from June 1838 until June 1846, served as editor of the New England anti-slavery newspaper Herald of Freedom.-Biography:...

    , once introduced to it, held to the "come-outer" doctrine more strongly than Garrison.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK