1. What is the main point of this lesson? Write a thesis statement based on it. The underground railroad started, leading to the freedom of slaves but also stirng up problems between state laws and constitutional laws while moving forward with the abolishment movement. 2. Define “Underground Railroad.” The Underground railroad was a system created to help slaves escape to the north, or Canada, to be free. 3. Who called himself the “president” of the Underground Railroad? Levi Coffin was the self-proclaimed “president” of the underground railroad. 4. What term means to capture and return runaway slaves to their owner? Redention means to capture and return runaway slaves. 5. Who was the most famous of the eastern Underground Railroad “conductors”? …show more content…
6. Who is the most famous of all runaway slaves in U. S. history? Frederick Douglass was the most famous runaway slave in the U.S. history. 7. What was the Prigg v. Pennsylvania case all about? (Students: don’t get bogged down in the details; show me that you understand the big picture.) The Prigg v. Pennsylvania case was a matter of state laws v. constitutional laws. 8. What was the purpose of James G. Birney’s book The American Churches: The Bulwarks of Slavery? The Purpose of James G. Birney’s book The American Churches: The Bulwarks of Slavery was to “excoriate the southern clergy for their defense of slavery” (Upchurch 5). 9. What two major American church groups split into northern and southern factions over the slavery issue, and when did each split? The Methodist church split in 1844 over the slavery issue and the Baptist church split in 1845 over the same issue. 10. What new facts or ideas did you learn from reading this lesson? I learned that there was a huge split between the Methodist and Baptist church due to their views on slavery. ARGUING OVER SLAVERY 1. What is the main point of this lesson? Write a thesis statement based on …show more content…
Another bible verse that’s used to argue against slavery is Mathew 12:31 the “golden rule.” 3. What were the main non-religious arguments against slavery? Explain them. The main non-religious arguments against slavery were the Declaration of Dependence, the fact that slavery was cruel and inhumane and that it was outdated. 4. What were the main pro-slavery arguments that used the Bible (which passages)? The main pro-slavery arguments that used the bible were the fact that men of the such as Abraham and Moses had slaves of their own. Passages like Colossians 3:22 and Ephesians 6:5 are also biblical reason that pro-slavery used as arguments. 5. What were the main non-religious arguments on the pro-slavery side? The main proslavery non-religious arguments were the fact that the writer of the Declaration of Independence was a slave holder. Slaveocracy also stated that most slave owners treated their slaves better that factor owners in the North, adding that slavery was also an act of social control. 6. What new facts or ideas did you learn from reading this
It always maintained that taking someone’s God given right of freedom was against the church preaching’s and beliefs. In addition, some of the first emigrants to the newly discovered land (North America) were slaves themselves and they were white. One of the main reasons they immigrated to North America was to escape religious persecution. The political situation did not help either; too much support to antislavery and the church could lose the much needed support of wealthy churchgoers. The institution stopped short of actively going against the problem of slavery, instead they focused their efforts in making slavery more “tolerable” for slaves. After all, most of the church goers in the south were white slave owners and/or in some way or another supported slavery and the economic factors in benefitted. In the North, the Presbyterian Church had deplored the issue of black and religion; they were never unable or unwilling to tackle the problem from its source. In the North the free blacks had more religious freedom and were allowed to participate in churches or form their own congregations. There was another phenomenon that affected the lives of slaves in the plantations. Most owners controlled all aspects of their slaves to include religion. The owners used the Gospel as a social control method to tell the slaves why they had to obey their masters (according to God) and inculcate and foster the belief of having to serve and be faithful to their
Sectionalism and the Breakup of the U.S. Throughout the early 1800's the country was split in many areas over many issues. Some of the more severe clashes between differing groups resulting from such issues as slavery, expansion, and internal improvement. With all of these controversial topics to worry about along with the vast diversity in the nation, causing separation and tensions throughout the country. The most prominent of the previous topics was slavery.
Plans are revealed to, “hold a separate service on Sundays for [the slaves’] benefit,” in which pointed sermons were to be delivered to the slaves (Jacobs 57-58). One such sermon is inherently accusatory and meant to instill fear in its slave audience. Statements such as “God is angry with you,” “You tell lies”. God hears you,” and “God sees you and will punish you” serve to foster a sense of guilt and fear within the slaves, casting disobedience in any form as an affront against God, one that merits divine punishment (Jacobs 58). The sermon creates an emotional tie to profitable slave behavior – obedience stemming from fear – which it goes on to enforce as the will of God: “If you disobey your earthly Master,” the preacher claims, “you offend your heavenly Master” (Jacobs 58).
The Underground Railroad was an escape network of small, independent groups of individuals bound together by the common belief that enslaving a human being was immoral. A loosely structured, informal system of people who, without regard for their own personal safety. Conducting fugitives from slavery to free states, and eventually to Canada where they could not be returned to slavery was a dangerous undertaking.
Montgomery, William. Under Their Own Vine and Fig Tree: The African-American Church in the South. Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, 1993. Print.
As the abolition movement picked up, southerners became organized in their support of slavery in what became known as the proslavery movement. Some southerners involved in the movement maintained the position that slavery was like "the law of nature" which allowed the strong to rule the weak. Thus is was appropriate for whites to own blacks as slaves because they believed whites were the dominant race. Some supporters of slavery believed that the Bible clearly condoned the practice of slavery. Still others argue that southern slaves were provided with lifelong homes and better living conditions than they would have experienced living in Africa. By 1860, almost all southerners thought slavery should continue.
The Underground Railroad was large group of people who secretly worked together to help slaves escape slavery in the south. Despite the name, the Underground Railroad had nothing to do with actual railroads and was not located underground (www.freedomcenter.org). The Underground Railroad helped move hundreds of slaves to the north each year. It’s estimated that the south lost 100,000 slaves during 1810-1850 (www.pbs.org).
Slavery was a dominant part of the political and social arenas of 1800’s America. However, it was not homogenous as it divided America into two distinct groups: those who supported it and those who did not. Traditionally, the states in the north had been anti-slavery while the states in the south had been pro-slavery. Southern life and economy depended on slavery and therefore staunchly supported the continued legal status of slavery. The northern states on the other hand recognized the inhumane nature of slavery and campaigned to establish equality for all citizens. In order to establish solid reasoning for their stance, both pro-slave and anti-slave groups turned to theological inspiration for their actions. The Bible inspired both pro-slavery advocates and anti-slavery abolitionists alike. Religion was used in order to justify slavery and also to condemn it.
Because it offers them the possibility of community and identity, many slaves find themselves strongly attached to religion. They cannot build a family structure and they cannot be identified by family name, but through the church, they can build a community and identify themselves as Christians. This comfort becomes virtually non-existent for it too is controlled by the slaveowners who “came to the conclusion that it would be well to give the slaves enough of religious instruction to keep them from murdering their masters” (57). The fact that one person could have the ability to control the amount of religion another person has and his purpose for having it diminishes any sense of community or identity that it may have initially provided.
The black slaves in general held to a different form Christianity that was unbeknownst to traditional orthodox Christianity. As discussed in lecture on February 4, 2014, black slaves held to an interpretation of Christianity that placed emphasis on the Old Testament, and all of its hero’s and accomplishments. The slaves also reinterpreted Jesus Christ, figuring Him into the Old Testament context of an Old Testament King like King David, who achieved many victories upon this earth (Lecture 2/4/14). Due to the perversion of Christian teachings from slave master and their erroneous catechisms, the slaves reacted strongly against the New Testament and its teachings. In turn, the slaves would cling to the Old Testament, particularly due to the role that the Jews suffered in the midst of their captivity to the Egyptians in ancient times. (Covered in the Bible under the Old Testament books of Genesis and Exodus) The reality of God coming to the aid of His chosen people the Jews was a theme that encouraged and comforted the slaves, and they gladly adopted this similar idea of being God’s “chosen people.” Also, the slaves held to Old ...
...e to the audience that the Bible adheres to the deserved emancipation and support of African-Americans, rather than enslavement and oppression. For example, Douglass preaches, “ A worship that can be conducted by persons who refuse to give shelter to the houseless, to give bread to the hungry, clothing to the naked, and who enjoin obedience to a law forbidding these acts of mercy, is a curse, not a blessing to mankind. The Bible addresses all such persons as ‘scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, who pay tithe of mint, anise, and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith.” By using Matthew 23:23 to assert American Christians as righteously indignant, Douglass infers that if the White American people are truly Christian, they will obey the doctrines of The Bible and negate their duplicity by showing love and mercy to black people.
The Second Great Awakening resulted in a widening between classes and regions. The more prosperous and conservative denominations in the east changed little with the spread of revivalism. Due to change in slavery laws after the War of 1812, different, new churches had different beliefs on the ideas of slavery. This varied from church to church, but Northern Methodist and Baptist churches eventually separated from their sister churches in the South due to different ideals of slave owning. The succession of these southern churches made way for the succession of the Confederate States from the Union States, ultimately leading up to the Civil War.
Douglass continues to describe the severity of the manipulation of Christianity. Slave owners use generations of slavery and mental control to convert slaves to the belief God sanctions and supports slavery. They teach that, “ man may properly be a slave; that the relation of master and slave is ordained by God” (Douglass 13). In order to justify their own wrongdoings, slaveowners convert the slaves themselves to Christianity, either by force or gentle coercion over generations. The slaves are therefore under the impression that slavery is a necessary evil. With no other source of information other than their slave owners, and no other supernatural explanation for the horrors they face other than the ones provided by Christianity, generations of slaves cannot escape from under the canopy of Christianity. Christianity molded so deeply to the ideals of slavery that it becomes a postmark of America and a shield of steel for American slave owners. Douglass exposes the blatant misuse of the religion. By using Christianity as a vessel of exploitation, they forever modify the connotations of Christianity to that of tyrannical rule and
One of the larger abolitionist groups, The American Anti-Slavery Society, opposed the Acts of 1793, claiming them to be unconstitutional. They, like many, believed that each state had the right to legislate in regards to its policies on abolition and aimed to convince the South that slaveholding was a heinous crime in the sight of God. The Society...
Slave-owners forced a perverse form of Christianity, one that condoned slavery, upon slaves. According to this false Christianity the enslavement of “black Africans is justified because they are the descendants of Ham, one of Noah's sons; in one Biblical story, Noah cursed Ham's descendants to be slaves” (Tolson 272). Slavery was further validated by the numerous examples of it within the bible. It was reasoned that these examples were confirmation that God condoned slavery. Douglass’s master...