Who Killed Slavery?

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Posted Jan 10th 2008 9:00PM by Dinesh D'Souza
Filed under: Christianity, History, Controversy, Atheism

Isn't it remarkable that atheists, who did virtually nothing to oppose slavery, condemn Christians, who are the ones who abolished it?

Consider atheist Sam Harris, who blames Christianity for supporting slavery. Harris is right that slavery existed among the Old Testament Jews, and Paul even instructs slaves to obey their masters. During the civil war both sides quoted the Bible. We know all this. (Yawn, yawn.)

But slavery pre-dated Christianity by centuries and even millennia. As we read from sociologist Orlando Patterson's work, all known cultures had slavery. For centuries, slavery needed no defenders because it had no critics. Atheists who champion ancient Greece and pre-Christian Rome somehow seem to forget that those empires were based on large-scale enslavement.

Atheist Michael Shermer says Christians are "late comers" to the movement against slavery. But if this is true, who were the early comers? There weren't any. Shermer probably thinks the Christians only got around to opposing slavery in the modern era.

Wrong. Slavery was mostly eradicated from Western civilization--then called Christendom--between the fourth and the tenth century. The Greco-Roman institution of slavery gave way to serfdom. Now serfdom has its problems but at least the serf is not a "human tool" and cannot be bought and sold like property. So slavery was ended twice in Western civilization, first in the medieval era and then again in the modern era.

In the American South, Christianity proved to be the solace of the oppressed. As historian Eugene Genovese documents in Roll, Jordan, Roll, when black slaves sought to find dignity during the dark night of slavery, they didn't turn to Marcus Aurelius or David Hume; they turned to the Bible. When they sought hope and inspiration for liberation, they found it not in Voltaire or D'Holbach but in the Book of Exodus.

The anti-slavery movements led by Wilberforce in England and abolitionists in America were dominated by Christians. These believers reasoned that since we are all created equal in the eyes of God, no one has the right to rule another without consent. This is the moral basis not only of anti-slavery but also of democracy.

Jefferson was in some ways the least orthodox and the most skeptical of the founders. Yet when he condemned slavery he found himself using biblical language. In Notes on the State of Virginia Jefferson warned that those who would enslave people should reflect that "the Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in such a contest." Jefferson famously added, "And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that His justice cannot sleep for ever."

But wasn't Jefferson also a man of science? Yes he was, and it was on the basis of the latest science of his day that Jefferson expressed his convictions about black inferiority. Citing the discoveries of modern science, Jefferson noted that "there are varieties in the race of man, distinguished by their powers both of body and of mind...as I see to be the case with races of other animals." Blacks, Jefferson continued, lack the powers of reason that are evident in whites and even in native Indians. While atheists today like to portray themselves as paragons of equal dignity, Jefferson's scientific and skeptical outlook contributed not to his anti-slavery sentiments but to his racism. Somehow Harris and Shermer neglect to point this out.

In the end the fact remains that the only movements that opposed slavery in principle were mobilized in the West, and they were overwhelmingly led and populated by Christians. Sadly the West had to use force to stop slavery in other cultures, such as the Muslim slave trade off the coast of Africa. In some quarters the campaign to eradicate slavery still goes on.

So who killed slavery? The Christians did, while everyone else generally stood by and watched.

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Reader Comments ( Page 41 of 41)

Previous 15 Comments

601. 597.

"anyone that has absolute power and is a fanatic, is dangerous to all. Whether they are atheists (Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Robespierre), pseudoreligionists (Hitler), religionists, all are dangerous."

I don't deny this. Belief OR dis-belief can influence an individual's actions both positively and/or negatively.

The difference is that religious adherents are required by Atheists to acknowledge the negative aspects of their beliefs, but atheists, generally, defensively deny any connection between an individual's dis-belief and any negative outcomes that may result from it.

Stig at 5:23AM on Jan 15th 2008

602.
597

.....Especially when it's implicated in 20th Century genocides.

Stig at 5:28AM on Jan 15th 2008

603. @600 I admit this because my relatives were caught in both waves of annihilations in Germany, and the Soviet Union. I can also see the Fundamentalists getting control in this society and being no better.

JefFlyingV at 7:19AM on Jan 15th 2008

604. Just because you type it doesn't make it true. (I know, this shatters your entire world)

amare at 6:39PM on Jan 15th 2008

605. 601

"I admit this because my relatives were caught in both waves of annihilations in Germany, and the Soviet Union. "

Some of your skeptical Atheist friends would call this hearsay and dismiss your admission as irrelevant since you weren't a first hand witness.
I'd like to believe that you are speaking from integrity.

"I can also see the Fundamentalists getting control in this society and being no better."

Religious and Atheist intolerance both have the potential of following this road of abuse. Dennett and Dawkin's desire to bombastically brainwash our children into following their sarcastic skepticism reeks of totalitarian intrusion.

Whereas religion offers a code of morality against which an individual's actions can be measured, Atheism offers the discipline of "reason" and "rationality" that is typically subjective and in many cases, intolerant.

How do skeptical Atheists know when they have ceased to be objective?

They don't.

Stig at 2:15AM on Jan 16th 2008

606. On page 20 of this thread I shared my thoughts on several things related to this topic. Someone named Linda responded to me and told me, on page 21, that my comments weren't verifiable and there is no evidence for this. Linda, this is not true. DNA testing is available for anyone who wants it. In fact, I was listening to the Russ Parr (http://www.therussparrmorningshow.com/home.asp) radio show one morning about 6 months ago and they were talking about this. The founder of www.africanancestry.com was on the show with them. Two of the hosts on the show recieved the test results of their ethnic background and they both had DNA that was extremely similar to the DNA of people from ethnic groups in western Africa that have Hebrew names. Ashanti was one of the ethnic groups mentioned, and they both had connections to this group. This is a solid fact. MOST "black people" in the Americas are decended from the Israelites. You can use science to compare DNA of people over here in the USA to the DNA of those in the suspected countries if you want to, and you will see the truth. Or you can simply rely on historical written facts from ancient texts, and not so ancient texts such as the documented plans that slave traders were following when they were retrieving these innocent people and using them like animals and the specific locations that they were getting these people from. Either way the truth is clear, but some people are bigoted and they will not want to accept this truth. Go to http://www.hebrewisraelites.org/ . The site has PLENTY of historical facts from texts. All you need is an open mind.

Micah at 12:24PM on Jan 16th 2008

607. Micah

Read d website.
I am an african.A Nigerian in fact.
Africans have been mistreated.
So also have other peoples,including Europeans(during the Roman times,slaves were taken from Anglo-saxon nations)

I am a child of God,bcse i chose to follow him.

Jesus is not black.Neither is he white.
The israelites are not white.Neither are they black.

We humans are under God's curse irrespective of what race we are.

Christ died to redeem us from that curse.

It was not christians who enslaved Africans.Rather,men allowed evil to take over and worse resulted.

Jesus can deal with any effect of evil u feel.

aniekan thomas at 3:55PM on Jan 16th 2008

608. Religion had nothing to do with the founding or eradication of slavery in the Western World. The Industrial Revolution killed slavery. Slavery was an economic issue. Civilization requires power. In the classical age and in the antebellum South, raw power was provided by animals, but power that needed skill or perception could be provided only by humans. As long as it was cheaper to keep humans in bondage to make goods, cultivate plants or even fight wars, then slavery made sense. When machines came along that could do all those things at a lower cost, slavery died out. Slavery may have continued longer just because humans were acculturated to it, or for the simple power of owning other humans, but moral considerations finally stamped that out for good. If you want to call it Christianity or Christian humanism, please do. But if our civilization should again fall to the level of the classical age, slavery will arise again as an economic necessity.

Chris Schultz

Chris Schultz at 5:31PM on Jan 16th 2008

609. what the christians who opposed slavery did was merely use some passages of the bible to prove that other passages of the so-called infallible Book are wrong. or they simply acted like the slavery passages of the bible did not even exist (turn the other eye). they can't stand reading the entire Book you know.

Lindsay at 12:10PM on Jan 18th 2008

610. Dinesh,
I liked your story.... It's to bad most people don't take the time to research history. But to date the most disturbing slavery IMO is the building of Dabia and how USA business leaders of all colors line-up for the taking...

Ann at 6:10PM on Jan 18th 2008

611. Lindsay,

aniekan thomas at 10:01AM on Jan 22nd 2008

612. Lindsay,
http://www.christian-thinktank.com/qnoslave.html

Check it out,and you will see that slavery is not condoned in the bible.

If not convinced,just remember a christian's prime directive is to preach the gospel.

Those slavers of Christian origin were violating God's orders.

aniekan thomas at 10:04AM on Jan 22nd 2008

613. Dear Mr D'Souza stop breaking 8th commandment will you ?
I am always amazed by human nature to forgot facts which doesn't fit in his/her point of view.
As well Christians are not immune for that common amnesia. You usually forgot facts like Inquisition rampage,supporting Conquistadors and Church position in matters like: slavery through ages. As you can see below position of Church is not so clear like you would like to think:
-Circa 400 CE: St. Augustine [354 - 430 CE] speaks of the granting of freedom to slaves as a great religious virtue, and declares the Christian law against regarding God's rational creation as property.
- 595 CE: Pope Gregory dispatched a priest to Britain to purchase Pagan boys to work as slaves on church estates.
Circa 610: Isidore of Seville wrote: "I can hardly credit that a friend of Christ, who has experienced that grace, which bestowed freedom on all, would still own slaves." In his writing "Regula monachorum" which describes the monastic life, he wrote that "God has made no difference between the soul of the slave and that of the freedman."
BUT....
- Circa 600 CE: Pope Gregory I wrote, in Pastoral Rule: "Slaves should be told...not [to] despise their masters and recognize that they are only slaves."
- 655 CE: In an attempt to persuade priests to remain celibate, the 9th Council of Toledo ruled that all children of clerics were to be automatically enslaved. This ruling was later incorporated into the canon law of the church.
-13th century CE: Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) accepted the teachings of the ancient Greek Pagan philosopher, Aristotle, that slavery is "natural."
-1404 CE: After Spain discovered the Canary Islands the Spanish colonized the islands In 1435 Pope Eugene IV wrote a bull to Bishop Ferdinand of Lanzarote titled "Sicut Dudum." In it, he noted that the black inhabitants of the Islands had been converted to Christianity and either baptized or promised baptism. Subsequently, many of the inhabitants were taken from their homes and enslaved. He commanded that all enslaved Christians who were inhabitants of the Canary Islands be freed from slavery. The Pope's concern appears to have been over the enslavement of Christians by Christians, not the institution of human slavery itself.
- 1452/4 CE: Pope Nicholas V wrote Dum Diversas which granted to the kings of Spain and Portugal the right to reduce any "Saracens [Muslims] and pagans and any other unbelievers" to perpetual slavery.
-1519: Bartholomew De Las Casas, a Dominican, argued against slavery. "No one may be deprived of his liberty nor may any person be enslaved" He was ridiculed, silenced and ignored. 3
- 1537 CE: Pope Paul III wrote in Sublimis Deus about the enslavement of persons in the West and South Indies. He wrote that Satan:

"... the enemy of the human race...has thought up a way, unheard of before now, by which he might impede the saving Word of God. ... Satan has stirred up some of his allies ... who are presuming to assert far and wide that the Indians be reduced to our service like brute animals. And they reduce them to slavery, treating them with afflictions we would scarcely use with brute animals. ... Rather, we decree that these same Indians should not be deprived of their liberty and are not to be reduced to slavery." only hostile non-Christians, captured in just wars, could become slaves.

- 1548 CE: Pope Paul III confirmed that any individual may freely buy, sell and own slaves. Runaway slaves were to be returned to their owners for punishment.
-1660: Charles II of Britain urged the Council for Foreign Plantations to teach Christianity to slaves.
-1629 to 1661 CE: Pope Urban VIII in 1629, Pope Innocent X in 1645 and Pope Alexander VII in 1661 were all personally involved in the purchase of Muslim slaves.

Blind Chance at 4:47PM on Jan 22nd 2008

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Mo Rocca appears on a bunch of shows, including CBS News Sunday Morning (with the indescribably wonderful Charles Osgood), The Tonight Show on NBC, and NPR's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! He's a sometime judge on Iron Chef and was featured on Telemundo's Amore Descarado. Last year he starred on Broadway in the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. His expose "All the President's Pets" was published by Crown in 2004.