The "Regular Movement": Pro-Slavery Methodist Ministers During the U.S. Civil War

The Regular Movement was a faction of Methodist Episcopal ministers who organized during the American Civil War (1861–1865) to defend slavery and support Southern secession — opposing their denomination's official anti-slavery stance.

Origins

The Methodist Episcopal Church had split in 1844 over slavery (creating the Methodist Episcopal Church, South). The Regular Movement emerged from Northern ministers who remained in the MEC but rejected abolitionism, arguing the church had strayed from its "original" doctrines and discipline.

Key Leaders

• Bishop James O. Andrew (Georgia; his slaveholding triggered the 1844 split)
• Bishop George F. Pierce
• Bishop William W. Duncan

Activities

• Held conferences during the war.
• Published pro-Confederacy newspapers/pamphlets.
• Influenced Southern public opinion; framed secession as religious duty.

Aftermath

Post-war, the MEC reunited (1870). The Regular Movement faded, absorbed back into the mainstream. It remains a case study in how religious institutions fracture over moral-political crises.