Slavery and Religion in the United States

By 1800, most current religious entities were organized in this country. The Roman Catholic Church was well established in both the southern and northern United States. The Protestant Episcopal Church, which almost vanished during the Revolutionary War, had established governance which did not rely on the bishops of the Church of England (Anglicans). John Wesley, the founder of the Methodists, lived in Georgia briefly in the late eighteenth century. The Methodist Episcopal Church, similar theologically to the Protestant Episcopal Church, but with a "low church" worship style, ordained its own bishops in America. The Church of Scotland, another Reformed- theology church, reconstituted itself as the Presbyterian Church in this country. German Lutherans had a presence in both the South and North, as did German-speaking pacifist Anabaptists churches, including Hutterites, Amish, and Mennonites. Baptists were established, as were Jews. Puritans, with their congregational structure, became Congregational and Unitarian churches. There was considerable overlap between Congregational and Unitarian churches: it wasn't until later that they divided into what are now the United Church of Christ/Congregational and Unitarian-Universalist Churches. The Mormon Church, which became the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, began in New York in the mid 1830's, and relocated to what is now Utah in 1847. I will consider each faith's response to slavery.

Africans were forcibly brought to America in 1619 ("Slavery and the Churches" p.1). They came at first as indentured servants, but unlike Europeans who had their passage to America paid by this method, Africans were soon classified as "permanently" indentured. They did not choose to come here. Spanish and English settlers first sought to enslave American Indians, but many Indians succumbed to European diseases, and those who did not knew the terrain well enough to escape. By 1787, slavery was abolished in states north of the Mason Dixon line ("Slavery and the Churches" p. 1). Northern slaves worked chiefly as domestics, and were replaced by cheap immigrant labor. In the early 1800's, cotton became the United States' chief export, and was produced on larger and larger farms in the south ("The Final Abolition of Human Slavery in Christian Countries" p. 1). Cotton production grew dramatically with the invention of the cotton gin. White southern farmers used slavery to increase profits.

The slave trade was criminalized in 1808 in the United States ("The Final Abolition" p.1). In spite of this, the number of slaves in the south grew from 900,000 in 1800 to four million by 1860 ("Slavery and the Churches" p. 2). This increase was due to continued illegal imports, and forced sex among blacks (rape). Less than ten per cent of southerners owned slaves ("Jews and Slavery in the South" p.3). Nonetheless, these wealthy southerners convinced the vast majority of non-slave owners to secede from the union.

Few churches or temples in either the North or the South were affiliated with the Abolitionist movement, although some did have anti-Slavery platforms. Abolitionist societies were considered too radical by many Americans with religious affiliation. Most northern churches were members of the American Colonization Society which began in 1817 ("Slavery and the Churches" p.2). The Society wanted to remove Blacks back to Africa. This solution satisfied racial bigots, who simply wanted Blacks gone. It also satisfied the missionary zeal of many Protestants, who hoped that Christianized Blacks would carry an evangelical message back to Africa.

In the early 1800's, the Roman Catholic Church placed most anti-slavery tracts on its Index of Forbidden Books ("The Final Abolition" p.1). In 1839, Pope Gregory XVI condemned the "unjust" enslavement of peoples ("The Final Abolition" p.2). Roman Catholic Bishops in the South concluded that this condemnation did not apply to those who were already slaves or born into slavery. In 1866, the Vatican issued a statement in support of slavery, which many believe was aimed at the recently passed 13th Amendment of the United States Constitution ("The Final Abolition" p. 3). The 13th Amendment, ratified in 1865, abolished slavery in the United States, something that the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation did not completely do. It would not be until 1888 that Pope Leo XIII unequivocally condemned slavery, and 1917 before the Vatican would declare that "selling a human being into slavery" was a crime ("The Final Abolition" p. 3).

Most Protestant churches split over slavery along geographical lines. The Protestant Episcopal Church separated during the Civil War. While northern Episcopal churches were anti-slavery, the southern churches were not. The Episcopal Church in the South formed a separate entity called the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Confederate States in 1861. The Episcopal Church in the North did not recognize the southern church's secession. At the 1862 denominational convention held in New York, the roll of the southern churches was called. When no one responded, they were simply marked absent from the meeting ("Protestant Episcopal Church" p.2). In 1865, at the close of the war, the two churches quietly reunited.

Although the founder of the Methodist Episcopal Church, John Wesley, was opposed to slavery, ("The Slavery Question and the Civil War" p.1), the Methodist Episcopal Church remained neutral on the topic until 1844 ("The Final Abolition" p. 1). Blacks in the North founded their own Methodist churches, the African Union Church, in 1807, and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in 1821 ("The Final Abolition" p.1). Frustrated by northern neutrality, as well as by doctrinal differences, the Wesleyan Methodist Church in America began in 1843. This church continues today as the Wesleyan Church ("The Final Abolition" p.2).

Both clergy and members of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the South were slave owners. In 1844, the question of slavery could no longer be ignored, and the denomination split into the Methodist Episcopal Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The two denominations did not reunite until 1939. The rejoined church became the Methodist Church, until it merged with other small denominations to become today's United Methodist Church ("The Final Abolition" p.2).

The story of the Presbyterians is slightly more complex, and similar to the division between Wesleyans and Methodist Episcopals, since issues of doctrine as well as the slavery question divided the church. Doctrinal differences within any denomination are beyond the scope of this article, but may in this instance be illustrative of a larger conflict. Presbyterians first divided in 1837 over differing approaches to the Bible. The New School theology, which dominated the North, emphasized historical scholarship and archaeology in its biblical interpretation. So-called Old School theology eschewed such scholarship, and especially disdained German research which examined the historical Jesus. Old School theology continued to be taught in seminaries in the South. Since neither the Hebrew scriptures nor the Christian New Testament condemn slavery, opposing views of the Bible were important when considering slavery. Biblical literalists of all faiths maintained that since the Bible did not condemn slavery, it should remain legal. In 1861, after the start of the Civil War, southern Presbyterians, steeped in old school theology, withdrew from the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. to form the Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States, which later became the Presbyterian Church in the United States. These factions did not reunite until 1983, to form the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). The first Black Presbyterian pastor was ordained in 1807. Today, 72% of African American Presbyterians attend predominately Black Presbyterian churches.

Today's Lutheran Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, is a merger of smaller Lutheran groups, and represents about two thirds of American Lutherans. Most Lutherans did not oppose slavery, and there was no stated opposition from the denomination per se. Lutherans who opposed slavery joined the efforts to resettle Blacks in Africa. Lutheran abolitionists were charged with not being actual Lutherans (see Randall Miller and John D. Smith in Dictionary of Afro-American Slavery, p. 427 for this complicated explanation). The Lutheran General Synod met in 1862, having severed ties with its southern branch, not over the slavery question, but over secession ("A Lutheran Resolution on the Civil War and President Abraham Lincoln's Response to a Lutheran Delegation" p.1). Secession was strongly condemned by this body, which counted only one southerner in its ranks. German Lutherans believed in the Pauline admonition to obey the temporal government (see Romans 13:1-7). Perhaps this explains why Lutherans were more disturbed by secession than they were by slavery, which was legal in southern states.

German speaking Anabaptists, Hutterites, Amish, Mennonites and United Brethren, were unequivocally opposed to slavery. In fact, Mennonites and Brethren, along with their pacifist Quaker allies, were instrumental in helping southern slaves escape ("The Final Abolition" p. 1 and "Mennonites, Amish, and the American Civil War" p.1). Many churches and parishioners participated in the "Underground Railroad." Most of these religious folk had settled in the North, although there were Mennonites in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. Southern Mennonites, who were pacifists opposed to slavery, faced difficult decisions during the Civil War. Some were incarcerated for their refusal to fight in the Confederate Army. Quakers from England were ardent and unabashed Abolitionists, along with Congregational church goers and Unitarians. Quakers and Unitarians ran anti-slavery newspapers, and greatly advanced the cause of emancipation.

Blacks created Baptist churches as well as founding Methodist ones. Nat Turner, a Baptist slave pastor, led a sustained slave revolt in Virginia in 1831 ("the Final Abolition" p.2). Baptists had an uneasy silence on the subject of slavery until 1840. In that year, the American Baptist Anti-Slavery Convention was formed, and brought the issue into the open. Southerners responded by calling Abolitionism "agitation," and predictably noted that the Bible did not condemn it. Tensions remained high through 1844 when the Southern Baptist Convention withdrew from the American Baptist Church. The two groups have never reunited, and the Southern Baptist Convention is the largest Protestant body in the United States today ("The Final Abolition" p.2).

American Jews, like members of other faiths, generally reflected the ideas of their geography. Northern Jews were against slavery, citing the Exodus story in the Bible. Southern Jews were for slavery, citing the fact that the Bible did not condemn slavery; indeed, Abraham had slaves. There were about 150,000 Jews living in the country by the start of the Civil War in 1861, the vast majority of whom lived in the North ("Jews for Slavery- Jews Against Slavery" p.3). Northern Jews opposed to slavery did not often join Abolitionist organizations, finding them anti-Semitic. Northern Abolitionists were not free of the religious stereotypes and attitudes of their day.

About ten per cent of American Jewry lived in the South at this time. The first two Jewish elected officials were in the South, a senator from Florida, 1845 (David Yulee) and a senator from Louisiana in 1852 ("Jews For - Against" p.4). Jews fought on both sides in the Civil War, and successfully petitioned President Lincoln to honor their faith by appointing Jewish military chaplains, which he did ("Jews For - Against pp 7-8). In the past decade, some have suggested a "secret" connection between Jews and Blacks, claiming Jews were predominate in the slave trade, were egregiously cruel to their slaves, and "instigated" racism. It is beyond the scope of this study to present or refute these claims. A cursory exam of these propositions renders them statistically improbable, given the small number of southern Jews, and the even smaller number of southern Jewish slaveholders.

The last American religion to appear in pre- Civil War America, Mormonism, began in the mid 1830's in a small town near Buffalo, New York. Joseph Smith, founder of this faith, was believed by some to have anti-slavery views. However, in the 1836 Messenger and Advocate, an early Mormon newspaper, he repudiates Abolitionists and cites biblical evidence in support of slavery. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, like Baptists and Lutherans, required slaves to be baptized in their owner's religion. Southerners brought their slaves with them to Utah when it was settled in 1847. Slaves were not freed, but became "indentured servants" for life. According to the LDS Church, this improved their status. For elaboration of this stance, as well as the argument that not ordaining Blacks until 1978 was not racist, see the LDS Church's web site.

By the 1990's, most Protestant denominations, including the United Methodists, the Presbyterian Church (USA), and the Southern Baptist Convention, apologized for either their neutrality or support of slavery. Some denominations have even considered the question of reparations ("Episcopal Church weighs reparations for slavery" p. 2). Members of almost all faiths in the United States had members or clergy who profited from slavery. Exceptions to this were the northern branches of Protestant churches, northern Jews, and the Quakers, Unitarians, Mennonites, and Congregational church. Quakers, Unitarians, Congregationalists, and Mennonite groups ran Abolitionist newspapers and participated in "Underground Railroads" that helped slaves escape. This was made even more dangerous after the Fugitive Slave Act.

Questions about organized religion and slavery remain. Churches and temples that supported slavery used the Bible to justify their position. There were any number of ancient social traditions condoned in the Bible that would have been distasteful to the religious sensibilities of the nineteenth century. Other than early Mormons, no one was advocating a return to polygamy. Other than the Jewish community, no one sought to reinstate universal male circumcision. The execution of witches stopped in the late seventeenth century. There was no return to crucifixion on the grounds that the Bible did not condemn it as a method of capital punishment.

Equally perplexing is the fact that less than ten per cent of southerners owned slaves. The wealthy elite convinced half of the United States to go to war on its behalf. This, too, merits further study. Thomas Frank, in What's the Matter with Kansas considers the issue.

Finally, some religious groups used elaborate myths to justify enslaving Africans. Blacks were seen by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, among others, as bearing the "mark of Cain." Some claimed that Blacks were the descendants of Eve and the Serpent. These perplexing beliefs indicate a deep racism. Defining Africans as "other," "marked," or "accursed" as well as "ignorant" or culturally backward (Miller and Smith p. 427) are part of the shameful history of American racism and the "peculiar" institution of slavery. Few churches or temples are exempt from some complicity in this legacy.

Sources

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James Lehman and Steven Nolt, "Mennonites, Amish and the American Civil War." Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007, p. 353.

Randal Miller and John D. Smith, Dictionary of Afro-American Slavery,p 427, retrieved 9/11/2009.

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"Slavery - God's Will," Joseph Smith Jr. and Family, www.waltermartin.com/slavery.html , retrieved 9/14/2009.

Andrew Welsh-Huggins, "Episcopal Church weighs reparations for slavery," Associated Press, 2006.

John R. Stumme, "A Lutheran Resolution on the Civil War and President Abraham Lincoln's Response to a Lutheran Delegation. Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, www.elca.org/ retrieved 9/11/2009.