Reverend William Ellery Channing was a leading liberal Congregationalist minister whose 1819 sermon “Unitarian Christianity” laid the foundation for the Unitarian movement in the United States. Although Channing was considered a religious visionary and is today celebrated for his devotion to the causes of abolitionism and education reform, his views on race did not transcend the pernicious prejudices of his era.

Channing became a vocal opponent of slavery after witnessing its evils firsthand while living for two years in Richmond, Virginia. In 1835 he published the pamphlet "Slavery," an influential attack on the institution. However, he did not share the rhetoric of many abolitionists, instead professing many of the racist beliefs historically used to uphold slavery. For example, he maintained that freedpeople required overseers—likely their former enslavers—because theycould not be trusted to look after themselves.