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Reply to Professor Tayler Lewis’ Review of Rev. Henry J. Van Dyke’s Sermon on Biblical Slavery

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1861 reply by J. Holmes Agnew critiquing defenses of American slavery; examines biblical texts, contrasts patriarchal servitude with modern ownership, and disputes Lewis’s exegesis.
Archive ⬩ Hermeneutics, Slavery
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John Holmes Agnew (May 9, 1804 – October 12, 1865) was an American Presbyterian clergyman, scholar, and educator who graduated from Dickinson College and Princeton Seminary before serving briefly as a pastor and then moving into academia as a professor of languages at institutions including Washington College, Marion College, and the University of Michigan. He was notable as the first editor of The Eclectic Magazine and The Knickerbocker, authored A Manual on the Christian Sabbath, assisted in translating Winer’s Grammar of the New Testament, and later led Maplewood Female Seminary in Massachusetts, reflecting his breadth of influence in religious and literary circles. Agnew was widely respected for his scholarly gifts and genial character, and at his death in Peekskill, New York, he was remembered as a generous and learned figure in both church and education.

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