Religion and Slavery

The brutality inflicted on the slaves in America was so severe, it is difficult for many of us to understand what would drive a person to act in such a way. Often, we write-off slave-owners as demented, crazy, stupid, ignorant. However, Frederick Douglass points out in What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? that "the church of this country is not only indifferent to the wrongs of the slave, it actually takes sides with the oppressors, it has made itself the bulwark of American Slavery, and the shield of American slavehunters (Mathisen 287)." Religion justified slavery, encouraging adherents to keep and abuse slaves without feeling any moral guilt.
Dougalss placed responsibility on the churches of America for preaching hatred and righteousness to white slave owners. The clergy insisted that slavery is accepted by God, and that it is every religious man’s duty to capture and return escaped slaves. In Douglass’ slave narrative, his experience with a religious slave-owner is shockingly described. In 1832, Douglass was sent back to the plantation on St. Michael’s under the master, Captain Thomas Auld. Shortly after his arrival, Captain Auld attended a Methodist camp where he became deeply religious. Due to his new-found religion, the slaves expected him to return a better man, and to possibly even free his slaves. Instead, Captain Auld found sanction in the Bible to explain his horrible mistreatment of the slaves. For example, when he whipped a female slave until the blood dripped from her body, he quoted Bible scripture to justify his wrongdoing, saying that "he that knoweth his master’s will, and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes (Douglass, 278)".
Similarly, Harriet Jacobs, a female slave in the south, was subjected to a harsh life of servitude to her master, Dr. Flint. From the age of fourteen, Dr. Flint used Harriet as his personal sex object, whenever and wherever he wanted. Following the insurrection of Nat Turner, slave-holders felt the need to send their slaves to church in order to quell a potential uprise. Church hierarchy warned the slaves that the Bible demanded them to be obedient to their masters. The reverend, Mr. Pike preached to the colored people:"You are rebellious sinners. Your hearts are filled with all manners of evil... God is angry with you, and will surely punish you, if you don’t forsake your wicked ways...Instead of serving your masters faithfully, which is pleasing in the sight of your heavenly Master, you are idle, and shirk your work. God sees you. You tell lies (Jacobs, 517)".
Thomas Poole, a published author in the Journal of Religion also points to Frederick Douglass as one of the first, and most well-known civil-rights activists. He says that Douglass’ unrest was brought on by his own devotion to Christianity. For him, to be purely Christian meant a complete rejection of slavery. Poole declares that for Frederick Douglass "America’s paramount injustice was perpetuated not because the nation had a deficiency of believers but a surplus. Too many people had been converted to a religion that provided the moral blinders that obscured the bondage and disenfranchisement of the African-American people (Poole 545)." Douglass asserted that the reason slavery existed was because religion took the place of humanity.
By referencing the Bible, slave-holders were under the impression that religion allowed and encouraged their cruel actions towards the slaves, and were convinced that they were behaving in accordance with God’s word. This ethical paradox is completely absurd. Now, in America, people of every color are welcomed into God’s church and seen as brethren to white men. Hatred, abuse, and racism towards blacks was contrived by white slave-holders for the purpose of easing their own fears.


Works Cited:

Poole, Thomas G. "What country have I? Nineteenth-century African American theological critiques of the nation's..." Journal of Religion 72.4 (Oct. 1992): 533. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. King Library, San Jose, CA. 26 Sep. 2009 .

Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself. 1845. Classic American Autobiographies. Ed. William L. Andrews. New York: Signet, 1992. 229-327.

Jacobs, Harriet. Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl, Written by Herself. 1861. The Classic Slave Narratives. Ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. New York: Signet, 1987. 445-665.