Where are the Christian prison abolitionists?

In 1823, John Rankin, an Ohio Presbyterian, wrote to his brother. Rankin’s hope was to spur critical self-reflection about his brother’s peculiar habit of owning of other men:

The Africans are the children of our common mother: let us not be angry with them because the sun hath looked upon them; the change of complexion ought never to break the ties of humanity. God “hath made of one blood all nations of men.” Whenever we find a man, let us treat him as a brother without regard to his color; let our kindness sooth his sorrows and cheer his heart.