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A Brief History Of Slavery In The United States

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Background: To understand the history of slavery in the United States the historical background needs examining. How did the slaves get from Africa the new country? Why were the people brought here? What purpose did slavery serve? Only three percent of the international slave trade arrived in the new colonies. Many African was sold into slavery because their family owed a debt and they had no other means to pay for it. Sometimes an individual voluntarily enter into a service contract, so they can pay off debt. Furthermore the individual would work for a specified period then eventually gain their freedom. When the first Africans slaves came to the new colonies they operated under a similar arrangement. “ these first African arrival, Angolan …show more content…

(Medved 2008) Depending on the slave owner this system work but not always because the debt would be so high that a family or individual had no way to repay it. “For generations, the British settlement did little to codify or clarify the status of African many whom continued to toil like white indentured servants”. (Medved 2008) Initially slavery was a form of repayment, the debtor would work and the debt would be forgiven. The slave owning states use the bible as way to justify involuntarily servitude.
Justification for Slavery
Since God place a cursed on Cain and Noah cursed Ham the south use this and literal meaning of the biblical slavery to justify the practice in the United States. There countless bible verses that addresses slavery, so the southerners took this as an endorsement of slavery. “The emphasis from proslavery defenders was always upon a literal reading of the Bible which represented the mind and will of God himself. Slaveholding was not only justified but also moral because it was recognized as such in Holy Scripture.” (Morrison n.d.) During this time many people on the lower side of the socioeconomic were illiterate so they …show more content…

The following passages were used to combat the proslavery use of the bible because they believe the type of slavery happening in the United States was different from what the bible referred to. They believed having generation born into slavery and never having a chance to earn their freedom was morally reprehensive able and wrong. Furthermore they believed Christians should not take part in this practice. Exodus “Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found in possession of him, shall be put to death. Deuteronomy 23:15-16 “You shall not give up to his master a slave who has escaped from his master to you. He shall dwell with you, in your midst, in the place that he shall choose within one of your towns, wherever it suits him. You shall not wrong him. Proverbs 14:31 whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors

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The idea behind keeping the slave’s faith in the Lord was that the Lord allows slavery because white people are better than the blacks. Basically, any slave who disobeyed their owner was disobeying the Lord, resulting in an eternity in hell, “To be good children of the Lord, the slaves must beware of Satan who created their cunning wicked master of Hell – for it was Satan who created their desires for freedom and tempted them to run away” (Oates

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This is against what God would want for us and the overall cost of slavery. As previously mentioned, how can a liberty loving people deny this same right to someone else? As we are all "the sons of Adam, are coheirs, and have equal right unto liberty, and all other outward comforts of life...." Sewall further uses religion to refute claims that slavery is allowed / acceptable in the Bible. "

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The slaveholders stated that slavery should not be abolished because it is described in the Bible

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In Africa, men, women, and children were being kidnapped and sold. Once abducted from their home, Europeans would make their way back to the port to transport the slaves to the New World. Most of the time salves never knew where they would end up. Before Africans would be transported, each slave would be branded on the chest and this was a way to claim a slave for when they tried to escape (Hylton). Once boarded on a ship

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In order to form a more perfect union, the people of the United States must recognize the contrasting nature of slavery, and the founding ideals of the United States. The history of slavery, as with all subjects of history, is long and complicated. If some hapless historian were to attempt to detail the entirety of slavery from its first beginnings to its most modern forms, his work would surely never be done. Unfortunately, from the biblical and ancient Grecian years of involuntary servitude, to the russian and medieval periods of serfdom, and all the way to the human trafficking problems that still occur in first world countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom, slavery has been a constant plague upon the world.

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The author states, “A very large party in the United States believe that holding slaves is morally wrong; this party founds its belief upon precepts taught in the Bible, and takes that book as the standard of morality and religion” (Finkleman, 108). The author of the essay ties slavery with morality since it was taught in the Bible as right. “The Bible teaches clearly and conclusively that the holding of slaves is right; and if so, no deduction from general principles can make it wrong” (Finkleman, 109). He states that the teachings of the Bible are regarded as the moral truth and because slavery is evident in the Bible, it must also be regarded as the moral

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In 1619, when slavery began in America, slaves were used as a force of labor to build and work on the new land. Unfortunately, slavery continued on for the next three centuries in the United States. Today, people view slavery as an inhumane and cruel way of treating people, but back then many people saw nothing wrong with the holding of slaves. For the most part, slavery was morally and ethically wrong since the enslavement of people was terrible. In general, slavery is unfitting because Thomas Jefferson once said “...that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights...”

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Douglass explains that the slaveholders use their religion as a blanket for the evil deeds they commit to the slaves. “I assert most unhesitatingly, that the religion of the south is a mere covering for the most horrid crimes,--a justifier of the most appalling barbarity,--a sanctifier of the most hateful frauds,--and a dark shelter under, which the darkest, foulest, grossest, and most infernal deeds of slaveholders find the strongest protection.” (Douglass 72). This quote suggests that the slaveholders are using Christianity as a way of excusing their actions. How their most horrid crimes against their slaves are justified by the fact that they call themselves Christians.

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Lincoln’s political religion grounds itself in the American principle of equality. His political religion was necessary to bind the nation together in a time of dire need. The nation stood divided. One side believed it was their natural right to reap the fruits of another man’s labor, which denied his natural rights as well as his humanity, while the other side disagreed, affirming the humanity of the slaves and remained free. Lincoln pushed to change public sentiment in regard to slavery.

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Around the time of Fredrick Douglass, there was people claiming to be Christians used the bible and their religion to justify their injustice actions against humanity. Some Slaveholders mostly abused the religion for their own means. The majority of slaveholders use their religion as a reason for abusing their slaves. These slaveholders acted as if they were God. Slavery has a long and very ancient history, but it is the Christian slaveholders who are considered to be the worst slaveholders in history.

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Slavery in the U.S. Constitution After the Unites States declared Independence from Great Britain in 1776, they greatly feared a strong national government that would be like a monarchy like the one Great Britain had. To prevent this tyrannical government from happening in the U.S., a convention of delegates from all thirteen states were brought together to create the U.S.’s first written constitution: the Articles of Confederation. This convention was called the Continental Congress. The Articles of Confederation focused on having a federal government, or a loose alliance of the states.

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Moreover they thought that they gain the appreciation of God by being the missionary of Christianity and by helping the enlightenment of African-Americans’ religious pursuit. In conclusion, in the era of enslavement of the United States, the Bible and the religion were the one of the cover that Southern slave owners used to defend

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The justification of Southerners came from a literal interpretation of the Bible, and many Biblical tales were utilized to justify slavery. For instance, according to Frederick Dalcho, a Southern Carolina Episcopal clergyman, Noah’s curse of the whole of Canaan was what enslaved the Africans. In the Biblical text, one story of Noah goes on to say that he slept naked after being drunk, and Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness and told his two brothers. After Noah woke up and realized what his son had done to him (presumably an act of homosexuality, rape, or humiliation), Noah said, “Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers” (Gen. 9:25).

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and by those too, who profess religion?”(Apess, 6). In this way, Apess argues by pointing out the hypocrisy found in the Christian ideology of the time, insisting that the ideas held on racial superiority and slavery, while not explicitly condemned in the Bible, go against the ideas of the teachings of Jesus. Apess also uses an appeal to authority, to Jesus nonetheless, in order to shame those who would argue for slavery by mentioning that their savior would be discriminated against in American society. Another voice against slavery, Frederick Douglass, not only uses his religion as an argument against slavery, but also condemns the branches of Christianity which supported it over the course of his 1845 “Narrative”. In his appendix, Douglass states “I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt,

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For more than three hundred years, African Americans were ‘legally enslaved’, enduring manual labor, gruesome beatings, and horrific deaths. Master expected absolute loyalty and submission from the servants while inflicting pain and fear. After studying slavery in the bible, comparing and contrast modern and ancient slavery, and interpreting the biblical text that was used to justify slavery, left me with unanswered questions and mixed emotions. What made a person think that it is ok to enslave a race for more than 300 years?

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