Something that I found really interesting in our discussions in this course was the role of Christianity in the creation, maintenance, and end of slavery. At the very beginning, Christianity was used to justify the fact that Europeans were kidnapping Africans and bringing them to other countries to be used as slaves. The difference in religion between Europeans and Africans played a big role in the justification of racially based slavery, as opposed to other types of slavery that we have seen in history.
When slaves were being taken from Africa, the main argument was that since the Africans were not Christians, they were barbarians. Therefore, it was okay for them to be taken from their home and forced into a life sentence of labor for no pay. It absolutely amazes me that people were able to buy into this idea. I understand that at the time European Christians had a very dark view of those that did not adhere to their religion but I think using Christianity to justify violently kidnapping people, breaking up families, subjecting them to the conditions of middle passage, and forcing them into a life of labor is a perversion of faith. Proslavery apologists defended slavery by saying that since slavery is condoned in the Old Testament of the bible that means that it was sanctioned by God. But even so, this is the first institution of slavery that is based on race.
In Jefferson’s writings on the Africans he calls them beasts, saying that they are inferior to white people because they are not Christian. Due to this fact it makes sense that we would enslave them. Not only was Christianity used to excuse stealing Africans from their homes; it was also used to support the continued existence of slavery.
However, after years and years of living in the New World most slaves did become Christian. So the argument that Africans are barbarians because they are not Christian did not apply anymore. In fact, most antislavery moral reform proponents were affiliated with Christian churches and used Christian teachings to preach about the injustice of slavery. It is very interesting that Christianity was used to justify opposing goals. It was used both to rationalize the implementation of slavery and also to demonstrate why slavery is morally wrong. This I think mostly speaks to the adaptability of the Christian religion. There are many interpretations that can be taken from the bible and Christian teachings, and people interpreted them in ways that would serve their own purposes, whether it was taking slaves from Africa, or trying to bring about an end the institution of slavery.
It is interesting to me, the paradox that the slave system created. By rooting their "cause" in christianity in order to appear to be just and in the right, they basically admitting their guilt. The fact they they continued to perpetuate slavery even after their supposed goal was achieved (converting Africans to Christianity), shows how incredibly desperate they were to keep this extremely profitable system going. Perhaps comodification stemmed out of the failure of the "conversion excuse". In other words, when slave dealers saw the convert to christianity thing become less effective, they started pushing more towards the "property" concept and away from the "barbarian" concept.
ReplyDeleteStill, the implications this has about the adaptability of Christianity astound me.
I find it even more interesting to comment on the fact that as Africans were converting to Christianity, and as slavery was becoming an actual institution Christians began to change their opinions on the issue of slavery. By the late eighteenth century, slavery was flourishing and America was being constructed as its own nation. Also occurring at this time, were the expressions of opinions by the Methodists, Baptists, and Quakers. Each of these branches of Christianity recognized a moral issue with the enslavement of other human beings. However, rather then use the influence of their beliefs on the rest of society, they recognized that slavery was too economically beneficial to terminate. They unfortunately chose to look the other way, and declared slavery to be a political issue that should be dealt with by the state rather than a moral one that the church could answer. These members of the Christian faith condoned slavery, placed the benefits of the state above their religious beliefs about the lives of the Africans, and they in turn helped set their followers on the path to constructing a pro-slavery ideology.
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