Kevin Burton will speak on Apocalyptic Abolitionism: How Millennialists Helped Abolish Slavery and
Reform America at 3 p.m. Monday, August 3, 2026, at the Smithfield Community Center, 5255 Pleasant
Valley Road, Peterboro NY 13134. Dr. Burton studies the relationship between minority religions and
evangelicalism in the antebellum United States, particularly in reference to politics, race, and gender. He
has presented papers and published articles on the subject, and Apocalyptic Abolitionism, published in
June, is his first book.
Drawing from rare and overlooked sources to create a database of biographies of nearly 2000 people to
track their religious affiliations and activism over time, Burton offers valuable data to develop a robust
framework for understanding apocalypticism, evangelicalism, and social reform politics of the nineteenth
century. Burton uncovers the untold story of how apocalypticism helped drive anti-slavery abolitionism
and inspire progressive social reform in nineteenth-century America.
Burton further explains that the revival fires of the Second Great Awakening (c. 1790-1840) did not drive
most evangelicals to progressive social reforms like abolitionism. Rather, before the Methodist and
Baptist denominations split along sectional lines, most abolitionists, particularly members of
the Adventist movement, had already left their churches in what was likely the largest mass exodus from
mainstream evangelicalism in American history, precisely because most evangelicals opposed radical
social reform movements. Burton also highlights Millerite Adventists, who played a crucial, often
forgotten role in the American anti-slavery movement between 1840 and 1844. Burton states that “the
book will be particularly relevant for this region because it helps explain why Gerrit Smith became a
Millerite and shows how that religious movement naturally fit with abolitionism.”
Kevin M. Burton (Ph.D. 2023, Florida State University, Religion) has served at Andrews University as
the Director of the Center for Adventist Research and Assistant Professor of Church History at the
Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary. He teaches graduate courses on American religious history,
historiography, and research methods. He has previously taught American religious history at Florida
State University and American history at Southern Adventist University. He is also President Elect,
Association of Seventh-day Adventist Historians.
Kevin is in Peterboro again this year due to the New England Adventist History Study Tour from
Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan. Andrews is a private Seventh-day Adventist college
founded in 1874 as Battle Creek College. Andrews was the first higher education facility started by
Seventh-day Adventists.
This program is free and open to the public.
Apocalyptic Abolitionism books will be available for sale and signing.
For more information: http://www.PeterboroNY.org info@gerritsmith.org and 315.308.1890
Apocalyptic Abolitionism: How Millennialists Helped Abolish Slavery and Reform America
studies the relationship between minority religions and evangelicalism in the antebellum United States,
particularly in reference to politics, race, and gender.
