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SLAVERY / FREEDOM
About five hundred years ago, when adventurers from Europe came to explore North America they found Indians living here. In the early
part of the seventeenth century colonists arriving from Europe began to form settlements along the Atlantic coast. Almost all of these people
came of their own free will, to establish for themselves homes in a new country, where conditions would prove more favorable for their prosperity
and happiness than in lands from which they came. They and their descendants constituted by far the largest of our population as well as
the chief factors in development of our civilization here in America.
The Africans brought to this country were not immigrants, coming
of their own free will to seek their fortunes in a new country; they were seized in Africa, carried away from their native land, their homes, their
friends, and brought to America in the holds of sailing vessels where they suffered many hardships, and were sold into slavery. The first slave-ship
landed at Jamestown, Virginia, 1619, and thus introduced on American soil an institution which was destined to play a very significant part in
future history of the American people. The "Mayflower" which landed at Plymouth, Mass., in 1620, brought a company of intelligent Christian
white people, who laid the foundations of a new civilization characterized by freedom.
America is pre-eminently the land of equality. Every citizen of
this nation (the republic as it was called then) has a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and rightfully claims the equal protection of
the laws under which he lives. The slave-ship brought slaves, those who could claim no rights whatever, but were to receive in silence and
submission whatever treatment was accorded to them by their masters. In a new country such as this then was, there was great demand for the work of the Africans brought from Africa to America.
At first, the Africans were sold to any that would buy them in the Colonies; slavery existed in the northern portions of the country as well
as the Southern. In the course of time, however, slavery came to be confined entirely to the Southern States. The Northern communities
abandoned it partly because it was less profitable in the North and partly because of growth of strong public sentiment against it.
Slaves were used for the performance of all kinds of service: the women as cooks, chambermaids, laundresses, sewing girls, nurse; the
men as coachmen, gardeners, and field hands. A very large part of the hardest work in the South was done by the slaves, and those who could
afford to do so usually preferred to own their servants rather than to hire them.
Slaves were not taught to read or write; they did not own
property; everything they had belonged to their masters; they were not allowed to have their own homes, but must live wherever required to by
their masters; sometimes a husband lived on one plantation and his wife on another, while the children, perhaps were sold and carried away into
distant States. Slavery left no place for recognition of manhood or womanhood; it made no provision for the cultivation of self-respect,
industry, thrift, intelligence, enterprise, independence; it crushed out in the slave most of the nobler sentiments of the human heart. Slavery was
a monster, and the mother of vices. It developed in men sloth, improvidence, and servility; in women, fawning and impurity. In the masters, it developed arrogance, pride, and cruelty. As a system, it
stands condemned at the bar of the world's best public opinion as utterly irreconcilable with correct principles of political economy, morality, or religion.
The Africans brought to this country as slaves were full-blooded
blacks; were ignorant, superstitious, and generally very degraded -- Africa at the time being mostly a land of barbarism. They learned to speak the
English language as part of becoming acquainted with the white man's ways, acquired the taste for freedom and real prosperity, and an intense desire for learning.
When the Civil War began, in 1861, there were about four million or so slaves, but of these only a very small number were originally
Africans (the slave trade having been stopped), and among them were a large number of mulattos, some of whom were almost entirely white.
These slaves, multitudes of whom through the preaching of the gospel and religious instruction had become Christians, were far removed in
most respects from the degraded condition of the first shiploads of captives that were brought from Africa.
From the very first introduction of slavery there were those who looked upon the institution as wrong, but it was suffered to remain and
grow until the evils of it became very many and very manifest. Some of the wisest and best people in the South considered it not only a moral
wrong, but also an economic evil, and believed that the country would be more prosperous without it than with it. When, however, the sentiment
against it in the North became very strong, and efforts were made to prevent, by legislation, its spread into new Territories and States, the
question became a political one and the South united almost solidly in advocating both its continuance and extension. Some said it could not be
abolished; that (so-called) Negroes were unfit for freedom; that the abolition of slavery would produce such a revolution in the condition of the
South as would threaten that entire region with the greatest evils, economic, social, and political. Some very curious arguments were used
in its favor: a few were that God intended the Negroes to be slaves, and hence made them black; another that all working people should be
slaves, so they could be better controlled by their masters; that the white race would reach a higher stage of civilization by holding the blacks in
slavery. Some folks would go about declaring that Negroes were not even human beings at all, but beasts; that had no souls; these same folks
would have had a time trying to explain such a phenomenon as in Fredrick Douglas.
In the North there slowly grew up a very strong public sentiment in favor of the entire abolition of slavery, and those who advocated this
action were called "Abolitionists." Among them were William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Owen Lovejoy, Charles Sumner, and Henry Ward Beecher, to name a few. Harriet Beecher Stowe who published "Uncle Tom's Cabin," depicting the horrors of slavery which exerted a
profound influence, notwithstanding the fact that many Southern people insisted that the picture was overdrawn, and that slavery was not so bad as she described it.
In 1856 the Free Soilers, as they were called, had acquired force
enough in politics to secure the nomination of General John C. Fremount
as a candidate for the presidency. The campaign in his behalf intensified the public sentiment against slavery, and, in consequence of this, in
1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States. Many of the prominent politicians of the South professed to see in his election
an act of hostility to slavery and an encroachment upon the rights of the Southern people, and they finally induced a large number of the states to
try to secede from the Union and form a confederate government. The fundamental principle of the secession movement was the doctrine of state rights: that every state of the Union had the right to secede
whenever the people thought it best for their own interest.
One of the principal motives that led to the formation of a
confederacy was the protection and perpetuation of slavery. The secession movement led to one of the most disastrous wars ever waged,
which continued from April 1861, to April 1865, and cost both the North and the South the expenditure of an enormous quantity of blood and
treasure. The South began this war. President Lincoln immediately called into service thousands of volunteer soldiers; and continued to call for new
troops as long as they were needed, until the war was ended. His purpose, and that of the great army he called into existence, was not to
destroy slavery, but to preserve the Union. From the beginning, the Abolitionists, and many others believed the war could end in no other way than the destruction of slavery.
President Abraham Lincoln, after a great deal of discussion and very much urging from the Abolitionists and others, on January 1, 1863
issued his famous Emancipation Proclamation, which declared free all slaves held in the States, or parts of the States, still in rebellion against
the national government. Then with subsequent legislation, all the slaves became free and can never again be enslaved. By a change in the
Constitution, they were enfranchised. These two acts, emancipation and enfranchisement, together mark a great epoch in the history of the blacks
in America; heretofore, they had been slaves that could be bought and sold just as cattle are bought and sold, without any rights which the white
man was bound to respect; hereafter they were to be free, entitled to all rights and privileges of an American citizen. It left many people thinking
that they would die, become absolutely poor, wouldn't be able to care for themselves or would simply become desperadoes, but "with thanks be to
God," none of the above came to be. Hallelujah! Thank you Jesus!
The blacks did not fully understand just what the Civil War meant
at that time. They could not read and their masters purposely kept them in ignorance as to the real state of things. There was a general
impression among them that the "Yankees" were their friends, and many of them believed that the Union army was coming South to set them free,
but, they could not express openly their hopes for the coming of "Massa Linkum's soldiers." A very large proportion of the able-bodied white men
were in the Southern Army, while the great body of slaves remained quietly at home following their ordinary pursuits. The food for the families
and the supplies for the Southern army were raised chiefly by the labor of the slaves. In many cases, Southern white officers took their body
servants with them into the army, where they remained mostly loyal and faithful, as they seemed to feel that they were entrusted with the care of
the white folks and even took pride in being faithful to that trust.
A very considerable number left their homes and passed the lines
of the Union army thinking they might immediately gain freedom, having very extravagant and crude notions of what freedom meant. Quite a
number found employment in those Union armies as cooks and waiters, but most had a hard time of it. General Benjamin F. Butler considering the slaves to be contraband of war (and so became named
"Contrabands") they were herded together, fed and cared for in what became known as "Contraband camps." These camps were soon broken up.
After much discussion, President Lincoln decided to enlist black troops for the Union army. There were those who did not believe they
would make good soldiers and there were those who thought otherwise. Although not so independent and self-reliant as most white soldiers of the
Union army, they made good for themselves and black troops have formed a part of the regular army ever since the close of the war.
When the blacks had been emancipated and enfranchised, the appalling fact presented itself of some four million or so American
citizens, without education and without political experience. Here they were emerging from bondage, blinded by the glittering light of freedom,
without experience, without leadership. There were number of churches with pastors who could not read a word of the Bible they were trying to
explain. Because they were free, and having no masters any longer providing for their care, they were liken to sheep without a shepherd,
something had to be done and was. The government then organized something called the "Freemen's Bureau" headed by a Christian
gentleman named General O. O. Howard. For several years this bureau
labored to improve the welfare of the Blacks. While the government did not undertake to establish schools directly, it did encourage all educational movements among the schools.
Even before the close of the war, people of the North sent missionaries and teachers to many of the key cities of the South
establishing Christian schools (having at first special reference to giving a rudiment education to those who intended to preach). It was felt that
preachers ought to at least be able to read the Bible, as well as to know something of what the Bible taught. The work of these schools had very
humble beginnings. A good many old men, who, with their spectacles on, pored over their spelling lessons like little children, at first attended them.
Even with such a beginning they accomplished from the outset a very important work. These schools were at first held in some instances in
Black's cabins, in other cases in the dark and damp of basements of Black churches.
Since which time these institutions were started the change that
has taken place in them is a blessing indeed.
In addition to work done by various religious denominations, the
most important help furnished to Black education by persons not living in the South has been the giving through the Peabody Fund and Slater
Fund. The first secretary of this great beneficent educational fund was a Northern man named Rev. Dr. Barnas Sears (once president of Brown University). The next two, both from the South, were the late Dr. Haygood
(Georgia) and Hon. J. L. M. Curry (Virginia). The Slater Fund was exclusively for toward the benefit of the Blacks, while the Peabody Fund was for everyone.
In Africa there were an immense number of Blacks (not less than one hundred and fifty or so million), while some having no religion at all;
many were idolaters (worshipping idols) and very few were Christians. While of the mere eight million in this country (USA) a very large
proportion belonged to Christian churches; over one million were reported to be members of Baptist and over a million enrolled in Methodist
churches, besides these there were Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Episcopalians, and others. A far larger proportion of Blacks were enrolled
as church-members than of any other class of people, making the contrast between the Africans in this country (USA) and those in Africa very striking.
In the days of slavery they usually attended the same churches as their masters, being allowed to sit in the back or high up in the
galleries. Many became converted and received as members of white churches. With services frequently being held especially for them, many
eminent Southern preachers took satisfaction preaching of the gospel to them.
After the Civil War, it was then that the Black Christians began
separating from their white brethren forming churches of their own; preferring to have Black pastors, to carry on their own religious work, and to conduct services in their own fashion.
At first, these Black pastors were ignorant and their preaching reflected it. In time however, becoming more intelligent and educated their
preaching improved and became more effective. They usually used this gained knowledge in biblical matters combined with their preaching style
to assume a larger degree of authority over their churches and rule over their congregations much more absolutely than pastors of intelligent white
churches did. Even today, this evil only corrects itself as the members of churches grow in the knowledge and dependence upon God for
themselves. If I may say at this time, as stated in another area on this web site and from my own personal experiences, that in spiritual things
no man can make up for another in his or her deficiency. No man can believe for another. No man can receive the Spirit for another. No man can
impart to another the character which is the fruit of the Spirit's working.
Eze. 14:20 - Though Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it [the land]
as I live, sayeth the Lord God, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness).
Starting out Blacks had very poor and few places of worship.
It is sometimes said of religious people that they don't always practice what they preach; that their talking doesn't equal their walking
like a Christian, which probably has a certain amount of truth to it of Christians in general since truth neither takes sides with doing right nor
with doing wrong. It can have many sides to it. We should remember that under the system of slavery were imbibed very erroneous notions of
morality. Slaves did not think it wrong to steal from their masters, because they were only helping themselves to what they had toiled to
produce; they could not see why it was right for white men to take possession of them, buy and sell them like cattle, and appropriate to their
own use, without their consent, all they earned by their labor. Life among free, intelligent people, family and home are sacred. While the life among
slaves, family relationship was disregarded and trampled to the point that the standard of morality and the rules of conduct common in Christian
families would be unknown among them. The newfound freedom introduced a new order of things, among which was need for many pious,
able men, educated with leading churches. In the North, at that time, where there were roughly a million white Baptist and five theological
seminaries while the South had only one to serve over a million Black Baptists.
The development of the moral and religious life of any people is very difficult and slow process; many generations must pass away before it can be accomplished. It is now nearly two
thousand years since the establishment of Christianity upon the earth, and even the most favored white people who have enjoyed the best opportunities have not yet embodied in their lives,
personally and collectively, the teachings and spirit of Jesus Christ. It was not to be expected that the blacks would make much greater progress in their moral and religious growth than has been
made by white people under even more favorable circumstances.
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