Domestic Slavery in the United States: Using the Christian Religion as Passive Ideology

Domestic Slavery in the United States: Using the Christian Religion as Passive Ideology

Prior to the 19th century and the prohibition of trans-Atlantic slave imports, designed more toward economically inflicting damage on Britain than for moral reasons, organized slave revolts such as the 1739 Stono Rebellion in Stono, South Carolina, were beginning to grow in numbers which caused increased apprehension and paranoia among American slave owners. While excessive demonstrative ‘legal’ punishments, ranging from extreme torture to brutal execution, were often utilized against leaders of these slave rebellions, a great unease continued to grow among Christian slave owners in the United States. Growing concerns about violent slave rebellions resulted in movements throughout the South designed to ‘civilize’ slave populations through the teachings of Christianity. It is no secret, even to the non-scholar of religious study, that the basic principles of Christianity are imbued with the qualities of forgiveness, the promise of life everlasting after physical death, extreme individualism and an unquestioning belief in the human form of God who suffered and died upon a Roman instrument of death for the sins of all mankind which re-enforced forgiveness. Christianity was indeed a perfect ideology for indoctrinating a growing slave population with a passive and forgiving mentality toward their oppressive slave owners and their physical human bondage, especially after the prohibition of trans-Atlantic slave trading in an era where slaves were reproduced domestically Based off of the moral dilemma, and fear of an afterlife Christian punishment, of Christians enslaving other Christians, even slaves who had embraced Christianity, it would be the spread of Christianity to the slaves of America that would eventually transform the original religion-based slavery of the trans-Atlantic slave trade into race based slavery within the Americas and the United States. The ideology of Christianity, indoctrinated in American slaves early on, can be clearly identified as being taught to slaves and can be seen working effectively in the subconscious mind of the slaves by analyzing two most important slave narratives from the 19th century, “Incidents in the life of a Slave Girl” by Harriet Jacobs and “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” by Frederick Douglass. I have chosen not to use examples from “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” by Harriet Beecher Stowe due to the author being a white, Christian woman who obviously imbued her own strong Christian ideologies into the main character as she thought slaves should behave, and more importantly because the account is fictional with no historical merit.

Analyzing subconscious statements and thoughts in “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” clearly shows that all hints of African religion within the majority of American slaves had been destroyed by the beginning of the 19th century through the indoctrination of Christianity. Referring to the benefactress that hid her in the beginning phases of her tribulations while on the run from slave owner Dr. Flint, Brenda Jacobs instinctively states “For that deed of Christian womanhood, may God forever bless her!” (Perkins 1742). Upon the next morning in the same location, Brenda Jacobs “thanked the heavenly father for this safe retreat.” (Perkins 1743). While the term ‘heavenly father’ is a vague statement, it is a verbal concept greatly used in Christianity. A third example of subconscious Christian indoctrination and influence can be seen in Brenda Jacobs’ statement about Dr. Flint, “Truly, Satan had no difficulty in distinguishing the color of his soul!” (Perkins 1738). The terminology and concept of Satan emerged out of the New Testament and clearly originates from Pauline Christianity. Even though Brenda Jacobs rebelled against the vast injustices surrounding her, the evidence of Christian indoctrination into American slaves, born and raised on American soil, is abundant enough to poise the question of how many unknown slaves plunged silently into their indoctrinated Christian religious beliefs which encouraged the docile acceptance of their physical bondage on the future promises of a lofty Christian afterlife.

In the writings of Frederick Douglass we can see the indoctrination process from the slave owner to the slaves in the statement “there was a white young man, a Mr. Wilson, who proposed to keep a Sabbath school for the instruction of such slaves as might be disposed to learn to read the New Testament.” (Perkins 1771). While we only get a glance of these types of indoctrination processes in Douglass’ narrative, the practice was widely spread even before Nat Turner’s rebellion in 1831. What is shocking is the 19th century appearance of freed slaves spreading Christianity. After leaving Mr. Covey’s, Douglass mentions another example of the Christian indoctrination process, this time established by a “free colored man” teaching “all ages, though mostly men and woman.” (Perkins 1783). Historians can only develop theories on how many generations had passed before the majority of African cultural and religious customs had been completely transformed into the passive ‘turn the other cheek’ religion of the slave owners, which in reality created a completely hybrid religious culture among the slaves and their future descendents which can still be identified today.

While the establishment of subconscious Christian thought in American slaves and the trickle down teaching of this passive and ultra-individualistic religious ideology, the religion of the slave owner, can be seen, at some level, in almost every American slave narrative in existence, it is clearly illustrated in the slave narratives which we have reviewed in this short paper.

In closing, the phenomenon of the religious indoctrination of Christian passiveness and individualism on American slaves only begins with the end of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the abolition of American slavery. Before ever reaching physical freedom and facing over a century long struggle for equality, an entire geographic ethnic bloodline was stripped of their cultural and religious identity and assimilated into their oppressor’s cultural and religious identity, the passive and ultra-individualism of Christianity.

Works Cited

Perkins, Barbara & George. The American Tradition in Literature. 12th ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2009. Print.