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Hist 701 WK 5 Blog, the 1847, domestic slavery debates

Sep 18, 2019 | 0 comments

Greetings to all,

For this week’s HIST 701 blog assignment using the database “Sabin American”, I chose to research on another fascination of mine, the 1847, domestic slavery debates between pro-slavery Southern Baptist minister, Richard Fuller (1804-1876), against, anti-slavery Northern Baptist minister, Francis Wayland (1796-1865). This debate demonstrates the impact Christianity had on pre-Civil War thought and how God’s Word was manipulated to justify the continuation of slavery.

Wayland, born in New York, in 1821, became the pastor of the First Baptist Church in America in Providence, Rhode Island.[1] Fuller was from Beaufort South Carolina, in 1832, was ordained and became the pastor of the Beaufort Baptist Church.[2] Both men had attended and understood the turbulence which occurred in the annual Baptist Triennial Conventions over slavery. Thus in 1845 the pro-Southern Baptist split from the Baptist and formed the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), with Fuller as one of the founders of the SBC. This religious split started years of correspondence, published in newspapers, between proslavery and antislavery advocates, including the two powerhouses of their day, Wayland and Fuller.
This brings me to my discussion, the debate between Wayland and Fuller printed in the Christian Reflector. I will look at excerpts of their debates which centers on the pros and cons of slavery with the Word of God as evidence to their positions.

At the request from the editor of the Reflector, Dr. Fuller penned a letter expressing his reasons that “Domestic Slavery is endorsed by the Scriptures, and therefore not always a sin.”[3]

Letter from the Rev. Richard Fuller to the Editor of the Christian Reflector

Fuller starts with his views on justification of slavery by quoting Leviticus, 25:44-46, “The Old Testament did sanction slavery. God said, ‘Both thy bondmen and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids … And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be your bondmen for over.’”[4] He continued “I find my Bible condemning the abuses of slavery, but permitting the system itself.”[5] He then addresses previous statements made by Wayland, “he [Wayland] admits that neither the Saviour nor his apostles commanded masters to emancipate their slaves…be it remembered, there is not an intimation of manumission, but the whole code contemplates the continuance of the relation.”[6] The matter stands thus: the Bible did authorize some sort of slavery…”[7]

DR. WAYLAND’S LETTERS.
TO THE REV. RICHARD FULLER, D. D.
Wayland in his 3rd letter discussing meaning – intent of God – within the Bible, states,
“I suppose that “God, of one blood, made all men that dwell upon the earth,”—that we are all partakers of the same nature, as we are all the children of one common parent. I suppose that this common nature is not affected, in any respect, by the color of the skin, the difference of the hair, or by any other variety of physical formation.”[8]

Wayland goes on to make his point,
“Suppose that I should set fire to your house, shoot you as you came out of it, and seizing upon your wife and children, ‘oblige them to labor for my benefit, without their contract or consent … I should forbid them to read, and thus consign them to intellectual and moral imbecility… suppose I should exercise this dominion over them and their children as long as I lived, and then do all in my power to render it certain that my children should exercise it after me.”[9]

“I think that every intelligent creature must affirm that to do this is wrong … that it is a great moral evil.”[10]

“The question before us … would I, in so doing, act at variance with the relations existing between us as creatures of God? Would I, in other words, violate the supreme law of my Creator, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, or that other, Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them?”[11]

I have found by reading these debates in their entirety, I have developed a better understanding of how complex and intertwined slavery and religion was. The downside of having this understanding, is knowing how some pro slavery, God-fearing men, leaders in their church, used their positions of influence, twisting God’s Words, to justify and sway their congregation to believe slavery was justified. I recommend, if you want to know more about the role of religion in the Civil War, that you start with these letters.

President Lincoln on March 4, 1865, in his inaugural address, discussing the North and the South, stated,
“BOTH READ THE SAME Bible AND PRAY TO THE same God; and each invokes his aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the SWEAT OF OTHER MEN’S FACES; BUT LET US JUDGE NOT, THAT WE BE NOT JUDGED.”[12]

I hope you found this post informative.

Kev

Cover Photo, from https://pixabay.com/photos/child-reading-bible-bed-african-945422/  Royalty free

Bibliography

Brown University. Francis Wayland: 1827-1855. 2019. https://www.brown.edu/about/administration/president/people/past-presidents/francis-wayland-1827-1855 (accessed 09 18, 2019).

Fuller, Richard (1804-1876). Domestic slavery considered as a scriptural institution : in a correspondence between the Rev. Richard Fuller of Beaufort, S.C. and the Rev. Francis Wayland of Providence, R.I. 5th ed. / rev. and corr. by the authors. . New York: L. Colby. 1847. Sabin Americana. Gale, Cengage Learning. Liberty University. 18 September 2019 <http://galenet.galegroup.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu/servlet/Sabin?af=RN&ae=CY401918377&srchtp=a&ste=14>, 1847.

Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865, and M. L. (Martin Luther), 1871-1951 Houser. Second inaugural address of Abraham Lincoln : March 4, 1865. Peoria, Ill. , 1934.

Piper, Ferdinand, 1811-1889, Henry Mitchell, 1840-1918 MacCracken, and Gotthard Victor, 1811-1888 Lechler. Lives of the leaders of our church universal : from the days of the successors of the Apostles to the present time. Boston: Congregational Publishing Society. 1879. 698. https://archive.org/details/livesofleadersof03pipe/page/698,

  1. Brown University. Francis Wayland: 1827-1855. 2019. (https://www.brown.edu/about/administration/president/people/past-presidents/francis-wayland-1827-1855). ↑
  2. Ferdinand Piper, Henry Mitchell, MacCracken, and Leacher, Gotthard Victor, Lives of the leaders of our church universal: from the days of the successors of the Apostles to the present time. (Boston: Congregational Publishing Society. 1879) ↑
  3. Richard Fuller, Domestic slavery considered as a scriptural institution : in a correspondence between the Rev. Richard Fuller of Beaufort, S.C. and the Rev. Francis Wayland of Providence, R.I. 5th ed. / rev. and corr. by the authors. . (New York: L. Colby, 1847),22. ↑
  4. Richard Fuller, Domestic slavery considered as a scriptural institution : in a correspondence between the Rev. Richard Fuller of Beaufort, S.C. and the Rev. Francis Wayland of Providence, R.I. 5th ed. / rev. and corr. by the authors. . (New York: L. Colby, 1847),3. ↑
  5. Richard Fuller, Domestic slavery considered as a scriptural institution : in a correspondence between the Rev. Richard Fuller of Beaufort, S.C. and the Rev. Francis Wayland of Providence, R.I. 5th ed. / rev. and corr. by the authors. . (New York: L. Colby, 1847),4. ↑
  6. Richard Fuller, Domestic slavery considered as a scriptural institution : in a correspondence between the Rev. Richard Fuller of Beaufort, S.C. and the Rev. Francis Wayland of Providence, R.I. 5th ed. / rev. and corr. by the authors. . (New York: L. Colby, 1847),5. ↑
  7. Richard Fuller, Domestic slavery considered as a scriptural institution : in a correspondence between the Rev. Richard Fuller of Beaufort, S.C. and the Rev. Francis Wayland of Providence, R.I. 5th ed. / rev. and corr. by the authors. . (New York: L. Colby, 1847),10. ↑
  8. Richard Fuller, Domestic slavery considered as a scriptural institution : in a correspondence between the Rev. Richard Fuller of Beaufort, S.C. and the Rev. Francis Wayland of Providence, R.I. 5th ed. / rev. and corr. by the authors. . (New York: L. Colby, 1847),26. ↑
  9. Richard Fuller, Domestic slavery considered as a scriptural institution : in a correspondence between the Rev. Richard Fuller of Beaufort, S.C. and the Rev. Francis Wayland of Providence, R.I. 5th ed. / rev. and corr. by the authors. . (New York: L. Colby, 1847),29. ↑
  10. Richard Fuller, Domestic slavery considered as a scriptural institution : in a correspondence between the Rev. Richard Fuller of Beaufort, S.C. and the Rev. Francis Wayland of Providence, R.I. 5th ed. / rev. and corr. by the authors. . (New York: L. Colby, 1847),30. ↑
  11. Richard Fuller, Domestic slavery considered as a scriptural institution : in a correspondence between the Rev. Richard Fuller of Beaufort, S.C. and the Rev. Francis Wayland of Providence, R.I. 5th ed. / rev. and corr. by the authors. . (New York: L. Colby, 1847), 29 ↑
  12. Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865, and M. L. (Martin Luther), 1871-1951 Houser. Second inaugural address of Abraham Lincoln : March 4, 1865. Peoria, Ill. , 1934 ↑

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