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Justification Of Slavery In The Bible

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Justifications of Slavery in the Bible
Slavery was probably one of the most significant and inhumane treatment in the history of the United States. Slave owners and authorities of that time, thought that the Bible, as a book of Christianity, is convincing and a proposal for executive of slavery. Therefore, they used it as a way to persuade those who disagreed with holding humans in captivity and abusing them as they are their own possessions. So, religion was the most proper way to serve a purpose of unburdens consciences of “white master” and super class that surrounded him in the religious community of that time. In the Bible there is a story that tells the origin of the African. This story used as a main justification and impose of slavery …show more content…

Those people were Noah, his wife, their three sons and their wives. The story of Ham being cursed takes place on the Bible right after their survival from the anger of God arriving earth by the way of flood. In his book about the Bible and its justifications for slavery in modern era David Whitford explains the possible meaning of oath taking place in the Old Testament. According to Whitford “The Curse of Ham comes from the story of Noah’s curse upon Ham’s son Canaan in Genesis 9. In that chapter, Noah curses Canaan into slavery. Though Ham is never cursed himself, the so-called “Curse of Ham” was the used to explain the origins of slavery for more than fifteen hundred years.” (25) So the belief of thinking Africans cursed and they are to be slaves eventually started when Ham mocked with his father and made Noah …show more content…

The purpose was to spread Christianity to the across the ocean to Africa continent. According to this view of seeing, enslavement was something beneficial and blessed. About this argument, John C. Calhoun said: "Never before has the black race of

Central Africa, from the dawn of history to the present day, attained a condition so civilized and so improved, not only physically, but morally and intellectually." (Bell 3) So, according to inference of this view, slave masters, by capturing and ‘protecting’ they educate them religiously they provide them better living conditions. 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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Christianity was, to the slaves of America, (something with a double meaning). In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave, Frederick Douglass, the author, argues about how Christianity can mean one thing to a free white man and something completely different to a black slave. The slave owners follow the ‘Christianity of the Land’ while the slaves follow the ‘Christianity of Christ.’ Frederick begins to build his credibility to a, white, northern, audience by including documents from trustworthy writers and by getting into personal experiences through his writing. Throughout the narrative, he is articulate in how he writes, and it shows the reader that he is well educated.

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