This study examines the distinctive discourse of reform that animated American antislavery appeals published between the years 1754 and 1776. Examining the relationship between these appeals and the rhetorical, ideological, and civil-religious conventions of revolutionary-era American civic culture, I argue that we see the birth of a distinctively prophetic tradition of American reform discourse—a tradition whose legacy we see again in American abolitionism, in Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address, and in the speeches and letters of Martin Luther King, Jr.

To make this case, I focus attention upon three key aspects of revolutionary-era pamphlets published by John Woolman, Anthony Benezet, Benjamin Rush, John Allen, Levi Hart, Thomas Paine, and Samuel Hopkins. Leveraging Giambattista Vico's notion of civic ingenium, I explore these texts' distinctive vision of national civic covenant, their image of "God," and their attitude toward public persuasion. Their civic covenant required a disciplined pursuit of purposes higher than self interest. Their civil religion assumed a "God" who was not an amorphous "Creator" or "Supreme Being" but whose will was revealed most clearly in the Hebrew Prophets and the example and teachings of Jesus. Their persuasive efforts rode upon influences drawn from eighteenth-century revivalism, enlightened idealism, and sentimental humanitarianism, and they sought nothing less than moral and civil repentance and conversion. Recognizing these distinctive features of revolutionary-era antislavery appeals helps to shed important light on later generations of American reform movements. It may also illuminate latent sources of reforming potential still yet living in American civic culture.