First it was homophobia. Then transphobia. But before any of that, the Settled Science zeroed in on that dreaded mental disorder, drapetomania.
https://leeduigon.com/2013/11/23/runaway-science/
Science to the rescue! In 1851, a leading researcher discovered that it was a mental illness, **drapetomania**, that made slaves try to escape from slavery.
You just wait. Sooner or later, any non-Far Left Crazy thought will be labeled a mental disorder. They’ll have Science on their side.
There was a cottage industry in justifying slavery, back then. Clergymen gave sermons justifying the owning of slaves and demonizing the desire of slaves to be free. It was a good way to make a buck, and sadly enough, there were plenty of people willing to sell out in order to make the slave owners happy.
The Bible does not advocate slavery, but does deal with the subject. A person could sell themselves into indenture, which basically meant they were a slave for a given period of time, in return for economic relief. One could also sell their inherited property, but every seventh year it reverted to the original owners. Some fell into this condition due to circumstance, others due to folly, but it was never a desirable state.
The Bible never suggested that one ethnicity held rights over another. Alien residents, for example, were to be treated well and not abused. The Samaritans came to be disdained, but Jesus set an amazing precedent by conversing with a Samaritan woman as an equal. There were abuses, to be certain, but these were in no way promoted in scripture. The practice of slavery existed long before Israel became a nation and the Law accounted for this, but in no way promoted it.
The slavery of the US was a cruel institution where the powerless were captured against their will and dragged off in chains to be sold in various places. It was a bone of contention from the earliest days of American independence and the struggle to end it actually began in the 18th century. Massachusetts outlawed slavery in 1800 and many other northern states followed suit. The Civil War was triggered because as new states entered the Union, there was a struggle over whether or not these would be slave states. Eventually it came down to war and something on the order of 400,000 Union soldiers gave their life in the effort to end this dreadful practice.
Afterwards, there was a program of Reconstruction which was designed to help freed slaves to join the broader economy, but the Dems fought it tooth and nail, eventually ending it through statecraft. Sound familiar?
Today, because the Bible noted the existence of slavery as part of the ancient world’s culture, atheists accuse Jews and Christians of promoting slavery. Like the Romans needed any help in that department.
Christians, and Christians alone, abolished slavery, with no assistance from any other group. As early as the 12th century, and earlier, the Church tried to end slavery.
But it still goes on today in various non-Christian countries.
Seems to me that slavery still goes on even in this country. It’s called Welfare.
Very true. Many of these people are just as trapped as if they were literal slaves.
And it’s no surprise that the footprints leading the way are the democrats – the very ones promising the impossible. The frustration is that the people still believe them – although that in itself is another case of circular reasoning. It appears recently that some minds have begun to change.
One of the worst misconceptions is that the struggle against slavery began with the Civil War. That was certainly not the case. It was a bone of contention from the earliest days of the United States. Once independence had been established and they were strong enough not to worry about the British reasserting dominion, the struggle began in earnest.
It was a carefully orchestrated effort which took decades to accomplish. Had it happened much earlier, there’s a very real,possibility that the North would have not succeeded and there may well have been two nations and slavery would have been entrenched. It was a terrible struggle, a terrible time and a terrible practice, but some very fine people prevailed and made a major step in the right direction.
There may have been some clergy who tried to justify slavery, but the overwhelming number of abolitionists were Christian. The woman who wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which had a big impact on the discourse, was a Christian.
What the ancient Israelite’s practiced was a form of servitude. It wasn’t always permanent, and some became slaves of their own free will because it was the only way for them to survive. In any case, the kind of slave trade practiced in The Americas was expressly forbidden in the torah: “He who kidnaps a man and sells him, or if he is found in his hand, shall surely be put to death. (Exd 21:16)”
Thank you for pointing that out.
We inherited our slavery from the Europeans who colonized these shores. Some of the Native American nations learned it from us and practiced it themselves.
Northern PR makes the Civil War 100% about slavery, which in truth it wasn’t. By 1861 slavery was already an economic anachronism which the South only defended in defiance of the North. Unfortunately, the Confederacy’s political doctrine was also an anachronism. Even had they been allowed to go their own way, I doubt the Confederate States would have long remained separated from the others. And I’m sure they would have abolished slavery on their own–because the world’s civilized nations would have shunned them if they hadn’t.
I’m certain that you are right with regard to slavery not having persisted, even if the South had not been defeated. Nonetheless, they may have remained a separate nation.
Even as things did turn out, there are still remnants of division to this day. When I was a child, institutionalized segregation was practiced in the South and ending that practice certainly involved struggle. Remember George Wallace? He put up a bit of a fight to resist integration, and that was less than 60 years ago. The scars have mostly healed, but there are still some feelings of resentment expressed from time to time.
I know that the version of the story I heard in grade school was, at best, limited and, at worst, downright misleading. Slavery was part of it, but I think I’m safe in saying that some of the problem came down to growing pains as America grew and more and more areas developed with their own notions of how to do business in their home state.
It came down to a Union of states and the boundaries of state’s rights. The Union was needed for defense, state’s rights allowed states to tailor there governance to the needs of the individual state. The challenges of Mississippi are different than those of Kansas, Massachusetts or Alaska. One size fits all will not work well in the US.
Very much agreed, Watchman. My lint was not to suggest that the churches supported slavery, but that there were preachers who would promote it, but could only do so by twisting God’s word.
Israel was not a nation of slaves, in fact they were a nation which had been released from slavery to the Egyptians. Because of being guided by God, Israel had a much more compassionate and decent culture than the neiboring nations.
BTW Lee, comments are disabled on today’s hymn
Thanks, I’ve fixed that.