Slavery would have ended earlier, if ...

“The Church, by her professions, should have been the right arm and shield of this beneficent movement; but alas! she proved false to her trust, abandoned her right mission of striking down slavery, and attempted to strike down liberty. The slave, under the uplifted lash of the task-master, quivering with fear, and imploring mercy, could no longer look to the Church for succor. The buyers and sellers of men were welcomed to her bosom, and the slave, in his chains, was driven away. . . . Had the Church of this country welcomed this movement, as a long lost child, which had strayed away from its home, in the church—had she given to it the endorsement of her name, adopted it as her own, lent to it the aid of her co-operation, the influence of her example—had she given it the facilities of her wide-spread organization, the support of her press, and the might of her eloquence, the great battle of liberty would, long ere this, have been decided. The slave’s chains would have been broken into a thousand fragments, and millions, now pining in bondage, would have been rejoicing in their liberty.”

—Frederick Douglass, lecture before the Rochester Ladies' Anti-slavery Society, 1855