Southern Slavery Essay

In the fifth chapter, this thesis will assess the abolitionist effort to denounce the legitimacy of using the Bible to sanction southern slavery by arguing that biblical slavery was not based upon the inferiority of one race whereas southern slavery was based upon the inferiority of one race. In short, these abolitionists sought to highlight that southerners were using a book which sanctioned a system of slavery that was not based upon the inferiority of one race to sanction a system of slavery that was based upon the inferiority of one race. The Bible was being wrested from its original context to support something that it did not support. A very small number of Abolitionists such as Elijah Porter Barrows would make this argument. Barrows argued that in the Old Testament, the basis for slavery rested not on the idea that one race was inferior and thereby especially suited for slavery, but rather, anyone who was a foreigner to the Israelites, irrespective of race, was suitable for enslavement. Barrows would point out that if southerners, who likened themselves to the Israelites, were truly following the Biblical model of slavery, then they would have to permit the enslavement of many different
In short, southerners were violating the biblical model of slavery in four major ways. These violations include not legally permitting southern slave masters to manumit their African slaves, legally enabling southern slave masters to murder their African slaves and face no punishment, legally enabling southern slave masters to punish and murder their fugitive slaves, and finally by basing their system of slavery upon the inferiority of the African race. After doing all of the above, this chapter will finally address and explain the implications of the conclusion of this thesis upon future studies of the antebellum, biblical slavery