Religious Justification | Teaching 12 Years

Religious Justification of Slavery

State Standards

U.S. History I, Topic 4

Describe important religious and social trends that shaped America in the 18th and 19th centuries (e.g., the First and Second Great Awakenings; the increase in the number of Protestant denominations; the concept of “Republican Motherhood;” hostility to Catholic immigration and the rise of the Native American Party, also known as the “Know-Nothing” Party).
Using primary sources, research the reform movements in the United States in the mid-19th century, concentrating on one of the following and considering its connections to other aspects of reform:
- The Abolitionist movement, the reasons individual men and women (e.g. Frederick Douglass, Abbey Kelley Foster, William Lloyd Garrison, Angeline and Sarah Grimké, Charles Lennox Remond, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, David Walker, Theodore Weld) fought for their cause, and the responses of southern and northern white men and women to abolitionism.

Brief History

Many southerners used religion in order to justify the institution of slavery. Slave-handlers relied on two main passages: Genesis 9:18-27 (the “Curse of Ham”) and Ephesians 6:5 (see primary sources below). Used together, these passages enforced the biblical origins of slavery (enslaved Africans descended from Ham) and divinely commanded enslaved peoples how to act in their status.¹ Pro-slavery proponents continued to use the Old Testament to demonstrate the necessary role of slavery in society, considering themselves to be fulfilling God’s instruction by both enslaving and Christianizing Africans.² While abolitionists used other passages from the Bible that spoke for brotherhood and moral action in combating this argument, Southerners maintained that nowhere did Jesus or God condemn slavery.³ Interpretation of the Bible became contentious as Americans used it to defend or and condemn the institution of slavery.

In this topic, we explore the various ways slave-handlers misused Christianity to validate the institution of slavery as well as the ways abolitionists countered this religious argument. The following clips from 12 Years a Slave show the presence of religion in Southern life, both in owner’s beliefs in “Christianizing” enslaved people and in reminding enslaved people of their divinely-established role in society.

1. Nicole Rae, “How Christian Slaveholders used the Bible to Justify Slavery,” Time, February 23, 2018.

2. Matthew Wills, “How Antebellum Christians Justified Slavery,” JSTOR, June 27, 2018.

3. Elizabeth Jemison, “Proslavery Christianity After the Emancipation,” Tennessee Historical Quarterly 72, no. 4 (2013): 255-268.

Framing Questions

How did slave-owners use religion to justify the enslavement of African Americans, and how did their arguments change over time?
What were the religious arguments that supported and opposed the institution of slavery?
In what ways did abolitionists interpret Christianity and the Bible to counter the religious argument of slave-owners?

Film Clips

Questions

Clip 1: 41:53 - 42:20

Master Ford leads an outdoor service for the enslaved people on the plantation. One of the enslaved women, Eliza, is weeping for the loss of her children, who were forcibly separated from her. This scene demonstrates how some enslavers believed it was their Christian duty to “Christianize” enslaved Africans. See chapter VII in Northup's autobiography, Twelve Years a Slave.

Clip 2: 54:33 - 55:42

(*Language Warning: the ‘n-word’)

Solomon’s next enslaver, Epps, reads a passage from the Bible that encourages the beating (by “many stripes”) of enslaved people if they do not follow the will of their master (from the Gospel of Luke). See chapter IX of of Twelve Years a Slave.

Clip 3: 1:21:06 - 1:22:02

This scene depicts the failure of Epps’s cotton crops, to which Epps blames his enslaved people, “godless heathens,” for God’s wrath.

How do Solomon’s enslavers use their religious beliefs to justify slavery?
In what ways do we see religion used to establish the relationship between Solomon (and other enslaved people) and his enslavers?
What are the different approaches Master Ford and Epps take in demonstrating their religious beliefs within the institution of slavery? How do these different methods reflect the various justifications for slavery?