Date of Graduation
2002
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Type
MA
Committee Chair
Ronald L. Lewis
Abstract
When Alexander Campbell, a young Scots-Irish minister, immigrated to the United States in 1809, he encountered a new nation that was pulsating with religious revival, hungry for more territory, and already divided by the “peculiar institution” of slavery. Within twenty years, Campbell established himself as a well-known religious reformer, educator, and landholder in Virginia’s Northern Panhandle. Although Campbell otherwise believed in separation of church and state, he agreed to participate as a western political delegate to the 1829-1830 Virginia Constitutional Convention. Campbell’s able representation of western sectional interests astounded other more politically experienced delegates. Disheartened by eastern Virginia’s suppression of reform measures at the Convention, Campbell returned to his home in Brooke County, Virginia, where he later established Bethany College. In the years between 1830 and 1861, Campbell moderated his position on the slavery issue under increasing pressure from family, church, and college ties. By 1863, the year in which the new state of West Virginia was admitted the Union, Campbell was a broken and increasingly confused old man. Nevertheless, Campbell played an early and significant role in the western reform movement and 1829- 1830 Convention, which occurred at a critical time in Virginia and national politics.
Recommended Citation
Rogers, Jill Adana, "The reluctant delegate: Alexander Campbell and the statehood movement in western Virginia." (2002). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD). 10664.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/10664