Slavery and the Bible

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Slavery and the Bible
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The African slave trade spanned 450 years. It
involved the kidnapping of 11.5 million Africans.
Billions of people today still profit and suffer
in the aftermath of it.
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• Nothing is more susceptible to oblivion than an
  argument, however ingenious, that has been
  discredited by events and such is the case with
  the body of writing which was produced in the
  antebellum South in defense of Negro slavery. 
• Eric McKitrick, Slavery Defended The Views of
  the Old South (1963). 

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• From 1830 through the 1850s, slavery was
  defended in the Old South as just, Biblical, and
  good.
• Sources
• William S. Jenkins, Pro-Slavery Thought in the
  Old South (1935)
• Larry E. Tise, Proslavery A History of the
  Defense of Slavery in America, 1701-1840 (UGA
  Press 1987)

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• Tise studied the writings of 275 leading
  pro-slavery ministers of the day.
• They came from all over the United States, not
  just the South.
• They came from all denominations
• Presbyterian (almost 30 percent)
• Episcopalian (20 percent)
• Baptist (17 percent)
• Plus Unitarian, Roman Catholic, and Jewish.
• Old South and Northern proslavery advocates
  echoed British and West Indian proslavery writers
  from 1770-1830.

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• In addition to tracts and pamphlets, there were
  many nonfiction proslavery books, such as
• An Inquiry into the Law of Negro Slavery (1858)
  (reprinted by the UGA Press in 1999), Thomas R.
  R. Cobb (lawyer from Georgia). Cobb authored the
  Confederate Constitution and the Georgia
  Constitution of 1861, and was one of the founders
  of the UGA School of Law.  In 1860, upon South
  Carolinas secession from the Union, he painted
  large letters on his house
• RESISTANCE TO ABOLITION IS OBEDIENCE TO GOD. 
• Became a general in the Confederate army, died in
  1862 at the Battle of Fredericksburg defending
  slavery.

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• There were also many novels, counterpart to Uncle
  Toms Cabin, such as
• Nellie Norton or, Southern Slavery and the
  Bible A Scriptural Refutation of the Principal
  Arguments Upon Which the Abolitionists Rely A
  Vindication of Southern Slavery From the Old and
  New Testaments, (1864)
• by Ebenezer Willis Warren, an obscure 44-year old
  Protestant clergyman from Macon, GA.  Last major
  defense of slavery in the U.S.

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• Story begins in November 1859, ends in July 1860.
  
• Nellie Norton, beautiful young New Englander,
  believes slavery is cruel. Travels with mother to
  Savannah to visit relatives who own a plantation
  with slaves. She becomes convinced, after long
  arguments, that
• Slave-owners are victims of malignant abuse and
  wicked and malicious slander by ignorant,
  arrogant Northerners. 
• the world is wrong on the issue of human
  slavery, and the South must set it right
• the world is in error, and is dependent upon the
  South for the truth
• the welfare of the negro is best promoted when
  he is under the restraints of slavery
• slavery is the normal condition of the negro.
• As the novel ends, Nellie falls in love with a
  wonderful slaveowner,and turns her home into a
  hospital for wounded confederate soldiers.

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• 5 Arguments In Defense of Slavery

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• 1. The Biblical Argument
• Probably ... the most elaborate and systematic
  statement of any of the types of pro-slavery
  argument.  (William S. Jenkins)
• Leviticus 2544-46 (relating to the buying,
  keeping, and inheriting of slaves) was the rock
  of Gibraltar in the Old Testament justification
  of slavery. Proslavery characters in Nellie
  Norton refer to it repeatedly.

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• Leviticus 25
• Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou
  shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are
  round about you of them shall ye buy bondmen and
  bondmaids. Moreover of the children of the
  strangers that do sojourn among you, of them
  shall ye buy, and of their families that are with
  you, which they begat in your land and they
  shall be your possession. And ye shall take them
  as an inheritance for your children after you, to
  inherit them for a possession they shall be your
  bondmen for ever.

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• Other passages in the Old Testament frequently
  cited by Old South proslavers--
• Exodus 212-6 (relating to the slavery of poor
  Hebrews)
• Deuteronomy 1516-17 (also relating to the
  slavery of poor Hebrews)--
• Genesis 926-27 (relating to the curse of Canaan
  to legitimize racism)
• There is nothing, not one word, in the Old
  Testament to condemn, but very much to establish,
  enforce, and regulate slavery.
• (Proslaver to Nellie Norton)

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• Proslavers in Nellie Norton assert that the New
  Testament confirms the Old Testament witness. The
  Golden Rule is not inconsistent with human
  slavery, they say.
• In fact, slavery is a form of neighborliness
  because it puts slaves in better conditions than
  in Africa, and exposes them to Christian
  influences, a theme known as the Ennoblement of
  the Heathen which was also used to justify
  treatment of the Native Peoples.

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• New Testament Passages in Nellie Norton
• Ephesians 65-8 (exhorting servants to be
  obedient to their masters)
• Titus 29-10 (also exhorting servants to be
  obedient to their masters)
• Colossians 322-24 (requiring slaves to obey
  their masters)
• in the catalogue of sins denounced by the
  Savior and His Apostles, slavery is not once
  mentioned not one word is said by the prophets,
  apostles, or the holy Redeemer against slavery
  the Apostles admitted slaveholders and their
  slaves to church membership, without requiring a
  dissolution of the relation.

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• Additional quotes from Nellie Norton
• slavery is right, and its enforcement is
  according to the Scripture,
• slavery is taught in the Bible, and instituted
  in Heaven,
• God has ordained slavery,
• slavery was made perpetual by the positive
  enactment of heaven,
• there cannot be found ... in the Bible a single
  injunction to slaveholders to liberate those held
  by them in bondage. 
• To speak against slavery is to abominate the law
  of God, and the sentiments inculcated by his holy
  prophets and apostles. 
• A slave cannot sunder bonds which bind him to
  his earthly master, without breaking those which
  unite him morally to his Redeemer.

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• Nellie Norton
• the Bible is a pro-slavery Bible, and God is
  a pro-slavery God,
• the North must give up the Bible and religion,
  or adopt our views of slavery.

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• John Saffin, another proslaver of the period,
  wrote
• Since Abraham owned slaves
• our Imitation of him in this Moral Action is as
  warrantable as that of adopting his Faith. God
  set different Orders and Degrees of Men in the
  World ... some to be High and Honourable, some to
  be Low and Despicable Servants of sundry sorts
  and degrees, bound to obey yea, some to be born
  Slave, and so to remain during their lives.

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• 2. The Inferiority Argument
• William S. Jenkins notes The entire pro-slavery
  thought was imbued with the belief of Negro
  inferiority. 
• In Nellie Norton, blacks are said to be
  exceptions to the common brotherhood of man,
  and are
• sensual and stupid, lazy, improvident, and
  vicious an ignorant, degraded, indolent people
  could never ... be equal with the white man.
  
• Their inferiority was designed by their creator
  i.e., God.

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• 3. The Southern Paradise Argument
• More from Nellie Norton
• The slaves have many rights.  The right of life
  and limb, the right to be fed and clothed, to be
  nursed when sick, and cared for in old age when
  they become helplessly infirm.  They are
  rightfully entitled to protection from ill
  treatment
• Slave children are fat and saucy, jolly and
  lively and constantly enjoy cheerful songs and
  merry laughter
• Adult slaves are happy Ethiopians with bright
  countenances, ... smiling faces, and ivory
  teeth who are fed bountifully, clothed well,
  nursed when indisposed, and afforded a suitable
  diet. They talk, and laugh, and sing, and pat,
  and dance, and are constantly singing, dancing,
  laughing, chattering. 
• Slavemasters are highly cultivated ... men of
  superior general intelligence, refined, polite,
  and genteel I know of no case where the
  master lives on his plantation with his slaves
  but what they are treated with justice and
  moderation.

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• 4. Historical Realism Argument
• The truth is, the world never has, and never
  can exist without slavery in some form Where is
  the country or the period of history wherein
  slavery did not exist in some shape or other? ...
  Slavery has always existed, and will continue so
  long as there is a disparity in the intellect or
  energy of men.
• - from Nellie Norton

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• 5. The Ad Hominem Argument
• In Nellie Norton
• Abolitionists are ruthless and fanatical.
• They take positions which embody the worst forms
  of infidelity ever known to the world. 
• They are sounding the funeral knell of a pure
  Christianity.
• I tell you, Abolitionists an offense against
  God, the Bible, religion, the peace of the
  Christian world, and against common sense, and
  the more enlightened experience of the age.

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• The Biblical Argument
• The Inferiority Argument
• The Southern Paradise Argument
• The Historical Realism Argument
• The Ad Hominem Argument
• All five arguments

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• return to the Biblical Argument
• The Oracular Decisions of God have positively
  declared that the Slave-Trade is intrinsically
  good and licit, and that the holding of slaves
  is perfectly consonant to the principles of the
  Law of Nature, the Mosaic Dispensation, and the
  Christian Law Thus slavery has the positive
  sanction of God in its support."
• Raymond Harris, Scriptural Researches on the
  Licitness of the Slave-Trade.

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Slavery and the Bible
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• Howard Thurman, former dean of chapel at Howard
  University
• My regular chore was to do all of the reading for
  my grandmother she could neither read nor
  write. With a feeling of great temerity I asked
  her one day why it was that she would not let me
  read any of the Pauline letters. What she told
  me I shall never forget. During the days of
  slavery, she said, the masters minister would
  occasionally hold services for the slaves
  Always the white minister used as his text
  something from Paul. At least three or four
  times a year he used as a text Slaves be
  obedient to them that are your masters as unto
  Christ. Then he would go on to show how, if we
  were good and happy slaves, God would bless us.
  I promised my Maker that if I ever learned to
  read and if freedom ever came, I would not read
  that part of the Bible. (Struggling with
  Scripture, p. 58)

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• In Liberty County Georgia, in 1833 a group of
  slaves were listening to a white minister hold
  forth on a staple topic the escaped slave
  Onesimus, and his return to his master.
  According to the report from Georgia, half of the
  Negro group walked out when the point of the
  sermon became clear, and the other half stayed
  mostly for the purpose of telling the preacher
  that they were sure there was no such passage in
  the Bible. (59)

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Slavery and the Bible
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• Has the Bible been used for evil purposes?
• Is the Bible therefore evil?
• Is the proslavery way of interpreting the Bible
  evil?
• Is our contemporary way of interpreting the Bible
  any different?
• How can we be sure we arent perpetuating evil
  today in our use of the Bible?

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• Meanwhile in France
• A song lyric was written in 1847 by Placide
  Clappeau, a French wine merchant, mayor of the
  French town Roquemaure.
• Adolphe Adam wrote the music.
• Later the song was translated into English by
  John S. Dwight
• It is said to have been the first music ever
  broadcast over radio.

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• O holy night, the stars are brightly shining
• It is the night of the dear Saviors birth!
• Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
• Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.
• A thrill of hope, the weary soul rejoices,
• For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
• Fall on your knees, O hear the angel voices!
• O night divine, O night when Christ was born!
• O night, O holy night, O night divine!

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• Truly He taught us to love one another
• His law is love and His Gospel is peace.
• Chains shall He break for the slave is our
  brother
• And in His Name all oppression shall cease.
• Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
• Let all within us praise His holy Name!
• Christ is the Lord! O praise His name forever!
• His powr and glory evermore proclaim!
• His powr and glory evermore proclaim!

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Slavery and the Bible