Of One Blood: Abolitionism and the Origins of Racial Equality. By Paul Goodman. (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1998. Pp. xxi, 303. $35.00.)

Tens of thousands of Americans participated in the revivals of the Second Great Awakening. Yet, few made the leap from the pursuit of individual salvation to saving society by eliminating slavery. Scholars have long recognized the connection between the two movements, but why those few revivalists adopted this reform remains indistinct.

Paul Goodman confronts that problem in this posthumously published book. In particular, Goodman focuses on those who embraced "immediatism" in the early 1830s, rejecting the more socially acceptable colonization plan. His best evidence is drawn from the collective biography of the leaders. Although some of the themes are familiar to scholars, Goodman vigorously argues that the deep commitment of William Lloyd Garrison and other earlier abolitionists to racial equality has not been...