Slavery and the Constitution

Pp. 22, 23: "Our heavenly Father commands that you, who are servants, should 'be obedient to your masters according to the flesh;' that is, to your earthly master, the master that you serve here while in the body. Here is a very plain command: 'Servants, be obedient;' be obedient to your masters. A bad servant will not try and obey this command. A worldly-minded servant, who is not living in the fear of God, will neglect this command. But you, who call yourselves children of God, will do his will, and be obedient to your earthly master. You can every day give proof that you wish to serve God, by your ready, your cheerful obedience.

"You are here directed to be obedient to your master 'with fear and trembling;' that is, you ought to feel as anxious to discharge your duty faithfully as to feel afraid of giving offence by any conduct that looks like disobedience; for, by disobedience, you not only offend your earthly master, but you sin against God; and of this every Christian servant will be afraid. A bad servant will be afraid only of the punishment which he will receive, if his disobedience should be found out. But a Christian servant must look up always to his heavenly Master. Therefore, if you love God, whose children you were made at your baptism, you will do every day all that you have to do, with fear and trembling; that is, in the fear of God; knowing that he would be angry with you, if you neglected your duty. If you love the Lord Jesus Christ, who shed his blood for you, you will do your daily work with fear and trembling, lest, by any act of disobedience, you bring reproach on him whose name you bear. If you desire that the Holy Spirit should abide in your hearts, you will not willingly be disobedient, being afraid that this Comforter and Sanctifier would forsake you, if you paid so little attention to the plain word of God."

How full of comfort must the Bible be to the slaveholder! How gratifying to him the reconciliation between God and mammon! How interesting to a reverend father must be the reflection, that, just in the proportion as he serves his God, by imparting to his hearers gospel truth, he is serving mammon, and putting money in the purses of his employers, by making his hearers more valuable as slaves!

Page 23: "You are here commanded to be obedient, 'in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ:' that is, do not be double-minded, professing to be one thing, but really being another; but, in your duty to your master, have a single heart; an honest, upright, and true heart, as unto Christ; knowing that he sees your heart, and will not be pleased with double-dealing."

Page 24: "This part of the Bible goes on speaking of the same matter in different words; it gives 'line upon line and precept upon precept;' because it is what all of us ought to keep in mind, that we must engage in our several duties with a desire to please God, and with a fear of sinning against him. It says, 'not with eye-service as men-pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.' Do not attend to your work, only when your earthly master's eye is upon you; but remember that the eye of your heavenly Master is always upon you. Do your work as serving Christ, look upon your daily tasks as the will of God, and do them from the heart, with a hearty desire to please God. A bad servant is an eye-servant, doing the work required of him so long as his master's eye is upon him: he has no regard to Christ our Saviour; and, instead of the will of God, he thinks only of his own will, and the desires of his own evil heart. But you, who profess to be the servants of Jesus Christ, will, if you are indeed his, do all your duty faithfully, whether the eye of man is upon you or not; you will feel that such is the will of God; and you will daily watch and pray, that, by the help of the Holy Spirit, you may 'do the will of God from the heart.'

"The word of God goes on teaching you the same thing. It says, 'with good-will doing service as to the Lord, and not to men.' A bad servant will very often do his service with a very bad will; he will try many ways to deceive his master, and will do as little for him as he can. You, however, who call yourselves the servants of Christ, will, if you indeed belong to him, aim at doing your service 'with good-will;' you will pray that your will may be subject to the will of God, so that you may 'do service' cheerfully, 'as to the Lord, and not to men.'"

We candidly confess, that we have not sufficient faith to believe that the Rev. Rector of All-Saints Parish would, if he were a slave, be a good servant, and do service as unto the Lord. We do verily believe, that both he and Bishop Meade would follow the desires of man's unregenerate and evil heart, and do their utmost to escape from this unwelcome service of Christ. But what a curious subject for reflection, that the saving of negro souls and of negro overseers in All-Saints Parish must keep pace one with another!

The Rector concludes his Sermon with these important suggestions: —

Page 25: "This passage of Scripture ends by telling you to remember that the day of judgment is coming, when every one, in every condition of life, shall receive according to what he has done in the body. It says, 'Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free.' We are here told, that in the day of judgment, the inquiry will be, What have we done in this world? how did we live in this world? It matters not, we see, in what condition we have been here; it matters not whether we be bond-servants or freemen; it matters not whether we be among the high and the rich, or among the low and the poor, we shall in that day receive according as we now live. If we now live as obedient followers of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, we shall, through him who loved us, inherit everlasting life. But if we are not true believers in him, if we are disobedient to his word, we can inherit only everlasting misery. With regard to you, the disobedient servants amongst you, the unfaithful, the deceitful, the ungodly servants, unless they repent and turn from the service of the devil to the service of God, shall surely 'be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.' Whilst the obedient servants amongst you, the faithful, the true, the godly servants, who are living 'as the servants of Christ,' 'doing service as to the Lord, and not to men,' shall, if they continue steadfast unto the end, be blessed for ever."

We read in the Bible, that "God is no respecter of persons;" that "he hath made of one blood all the nations of men;" "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself;" and that "all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." Would not the slaves be led to neglect of duty and insubordination by hearing such sentences? This effect, says Mr. Jones (speaking in reference to these sentences, "Rel. Inst." p. 197), "might result from imperfect and injudicious religious instruction… But who will say that neglect of duty and insubordination are the legitimate effects of the gospel, purely and sincerely imparted to servants?" How judicious is the instruction given by Bishop Hedding! How purely and sincerely does Bishop Meade thus continue imparting the gospel! p. 116 (Brooke's "Slavery," &c. pp. 32, 33): —

"'All things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them;' that is, do by all mankind just as you would desire they should do by you, if you were in their place and they in yours.

"Now, to suit this rule to your particular circumstances, suppose you were masters and mistresses, and had servants under you, would you not desire that your servants should do their business faithfully and honestly, as well when your back was turned as while you were looking over them? Would you not expect, that they should take notice of what you said to them? that they should behave themselves with respect towards you and yours, and be as careful of every thing belonging to you as you would be yourselves? You are servants: do, therefore, as you would wish to be done by, and you will be both good servants to your masters and good servants to God, who requires this of you, and will reward you well for it, if you do it for the sake of conscience, in obedience to his commands."

From the same command of Christ, Mr. Jones instructs the slaves that they must not steal any of their own earnings, and must inform their masters when any of their fellow-slaves intend to steal! ("Catechism," pp. 114-116.) He never for an instant imagines (to use the words of the Rev. Dr. Jonathan Edwards in 1791), that "to hold any man in slavery is to be every day guilty of robbing him of his liberty, or of man-stealing" ("The Church as it is," p. 8). How solemnly would Bishop Freeman declare to the slaves, that thieves can never enter the kingdom of God, without thinking of the law of North Carolina, which provides that no slave shall be "permitted, on any pretence whatever, to raise any horses, cattle, hogs, or sheep" ("Rev. Stat." chap. 111, § 25), without the same being liable to be seized and sold, and the proceeds distributed, one half towards the support of the poor of the county, and the other half to the informer! (Ib. chap. 89, § 24.)

A friend once said that she was always grieved at receiving any expression of gratitude. She was grieved to think that the mere performance of duty was so uncommon as to call forth gratitude. In a somewhat similar manner, we feel more distinctly than ever how great is the degradation of the slaves, when such arguments as these can be addressed to them by intelligent men, with the expectation of producing conviction! How degraded must that slave be who does not feel or who cannot expose these wicked perversions of a beautiful command, and who cannot ask, in indignant tones, of these truly reverend fathers in God, "If you were the slave, would you consider yourself bound to work for your master faithfully?" Verily, "We owners and ministers" are "the almoners of Divine mercy" to the suffering slave!

Mr. Glennie declares, that God requires them patiently to submit to all the wrongs of slavery, as being afflictions sent by him for the good of their souls! —

Page 145: "Is it strange that any person who is loved by our Lord should endure sickness or pain or sorrow of any kind? No: this is what the whole Bible teaches. We read in one place, 'Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.' And in another place, 'As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.' The Bible also tells us the reason of this, which is, that the children of God may be taught to repent more of their sins, and to be more submissive and obedient to God; … that they may think less about this world, and may be more diligent in getting ready for heaven. For these good reasons, God chastises his people; and whenever you become sick, or are visited with sorrows, you should try and look up to God as chastising you for your sins, and should pray much to him for his Spirit, that you may be patient like our Saviour, when he suffered for our sins, that you may improve by his chastening, and grow more like him in holiness." – Pp. 128, 129: "Whenever, therefore, the sorrows of this life are pressing you sore, think of this saying of our Saviour, 'Every branch which beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.' If you are indeed followers of Jesus, it will at such times comfort you to think that a Father's hand is upon you, chastising you, – in love chastising you to make you partakers of his holiness."

Mr. Glennie also frequently represents Christ as having appeared on earth as a servant, in order still more to reconcile his hearers to their lot (pp. 2, 3, 89). Nay, so anxious does he seem to be to induce his hearers to believe that Christ really endured the wrongs of a slave, that he sometimes goes beyond the Bible record. Thus, in describing Christ's sufferings before Pilate, he says (p. 9), "They spit in his face, and beat him with their hands; they scourged him, making long furrows in his back with the whip… How grievous were the sufferings of our dear Lord!"

But he is not content with telling them they must patiently endure their wrongs: he also declares to them, that, unless they love those who wrong them, they are "going along the broad road that leads to hell"! He says (pp. 115, 116): —

"That we may all understand how the case stands with us, whether we are in the broad road leading to destruction, or in the narrow road leading to heaven, let us see what our Lord says about his sheep, and the mark by which they are known." – Page 117: "Our Lord says, 'By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.' Do ye hear his voice in this? Are you trying to love your neighbor as yourselves? Are you trying to do to others as you would have them do to you? Do you, for Jesus Christ's sake, love your enemies? Do you bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you? In this way, again, you may try yourselves, and see whether you are the sheep of Jesus Christ." – Page 93: "If, in the great day, you would be placed on the right hand, you must, from love to Jesus, be kind to one another, and be ready to help any one as much as you can… In your daily work, you should try and keep the Lord before you, and do it as to him, and not to man… When any one offends you, you should, from love to Jesus, forgive him and pray for him."

Bishop Meade is equally explicit, pp. 131, 132 (Brooke's "Slavery," &c. pp. 33, 34). Senator Dickinson regrets that he was not born in a Slave State, so congenial is slavery to his soul! But the bishop, if he believes in his own argument, must be sorrowful that he is not himself a slave, so easy does he say is the slave's road to heaven! —

"Take care that you do not fret or murmur, grumble or repine at your condition; for this will not only make your life uneasy, but will greatly offend Almighty God. Consider that it is not yourselves, it is not the people that you belong to, it is not the men that have brought you to it, but it is the will of God, who hath, by his providence made you servants, because, no doubt, he knew that condition would be best for you in this world, and help you the better towards heaven, if you would but do your duty in it. So that any discontent at your not being free or rich or great, as you see some others, is quarrelling with your heavenly Master, and finding fault with God himself, who hath made you what you are, and hath promised you as large a share in the kingdom of heaven as the greatest man alive, if you will but behave yourself aright, and do the business he hath set you about in this world honestly and cheerfully. Riches and power have proved the ruin of many an unhappy soul, by drawing away the heart and affections from God, and fixing them on mean and sinful enjoyments; so that, when God, who knows our hearts better than we know them ourselves, sees that they would be hurtful to us, and therefore keeps them from us, it is the greatest mercy and kindness he could show us.

"You may perhaps fancy, that, if you had riches and freedom, you could do your duty to God and man with greater pleasure than you can now. But, pray, consider that, if you can but save your souls through the mercy of God, you will have spent your time to the best of purposes in this world; and he that at last can get to heaven has performed a noble journey, let the road be ever so rugged and difficult. Besides, you really have a great advantage over most white people, who have not only the care of their daily labor upon their hands, but the care of looking forward and providing necessaries for to-morrow and next day, and of clothing and bringing up their children, and of getting food and raiment for as many of you as belong to their families, which often puts them to great difficulties, and distracts their minds so as to break their rest, and take off their thoughts from the affairs of another world. Whereas you are quite eased from all these cares, and have nothing but your daily labor to look after, and, when that is done, take your needful rest. Neither is it necessary for you to think of laying up any thing against old age, as white people are obliged to do; for the laws of the country have provided, that you shall not be turned off when you are past labor, but shall be maintained, while you live, by those you belong to, whether you are able to work or not.[J] And these are great and real advantages, for which, if you consider things rightly, you cannot but thank Almighty God, who hath so wisely provided for your well-being here and your eternal happiness hereafter."

God has made some men slaves, in order the better to help them towards heaven! How admirably has the plan of the All-wise succeeded! The slaves are a nation of heathen in our very midst, daily and hourly (if we may believe their religious teachers) descending to everlasting perdition. From our very souls we are sick of the expression, "the providence of God," as thus cantingly used! Wherever a great wrong is committed by man, there the wrong is made part of God's mysterious providence! Are the poor oppressed, – it is a part of God's providence! Are bloody wars carried on for man's selfish ends, – they are part of God's providence! Nothing is too wicked, nothing too infamously mean, for that Being to do whose essence is love, whose law is just. We denounce the African slave-trader as a fiend, and, with appropriate religious ceremonies, hang him by the neck until he is dead, so deep is our detestation of a pirate; and yet, at the same time, we thank God, that, in his infinite wisdom, he has devised and executed the plan of negro-slavery, as the true way of Christianizing and elevating Africa! The slave-owner is said to have it in his power to shut up the kingdom of heaven against his slaves, and the power is said to have been exercised; and Mr. Jones seems to think that the race, taken as a whole, are thus shut out. And yet the slaves are called upon by right reverend bishops to fall on their knees, and devoutly thank God that he has made them slaves, in order the better to help them towards heaven! Truly wonderful is it, that ("Rel. Inst." p. 153) "they are living in manifold and gross sins; their iniquities are aggravated and great before the Lord, and not the least of them is their neglect and contempt of the spiritual mercies and privileges within their reach"!

We conclude our extracts from Bishop Meade's book with the following (Brooke's "Slavery," pp. 34, 35): —

"There is only one circumstance which may appear grievous, that I shall now take notice of, and that is correction.

"Now, when correction is given you, you either deserve it, or you do not deserve it. But whether you really deserve it or not, it is your duty, and Almighty God requires that you bear it patiently. You may perhaps think that this is hard doctrine; but, if you consider it right, you must needs think otherwise of it. Suppose, then, that you deserve correction, you cannot but say that it is just and right you should meet with it. Suppose you do not, or at least you do not deserve so much, or so severe a correction, for the fault you have committed, you perhaps have escaped a great many more, and are at last paid for all. Or suppose you are quite innocent of what is laid to your charge, and suffer wrongfully in that particular thing, is it not possible you may have done some other bad thing which was never discovered, and that Almighty God who saw you doing it would not let you escape without punishment one time or another? And ought you not, in such a case, to give glory to him, and be thankful that he would rather punish you in this life for your wickedness than destroy your souls for it in the next life? But, suppose even this was not the case (a case hardly to be imagined), and that you have by no means, known or unknown, deserved the correction you suffered, there is this great comfort in it, that, if you bear it patiently, and leave your cause in the hands of God, he will reward you for it in heaven, and the punishment you suffer unjustly here shall turn to your exceeding great glory hereafter."

Douglass's aunt Hester disobeyed God's commands, when she paid no heed to the orders of Capt. Anthony, – God's overseer. Accordingly, says Douglass ("Narrative," p. 7), who was an eye-witness of the transaction, the latter "took her into the kitchen, and stripped her from neck to waist, leaving her neck, shoulders, and back entirely naked. After crossing her hands, he tied them with a strong rope, and led her to a stool under a large hook in the joist, put in for the purpose. He made her get upon the stool, and tied her hands to the hook. She now stood fair for his infernal purpose. Her arms were stretched up at their full length, so that she stood upon the ends of her toes. He then said to her, – 'Now, you d – d b – h! I'll learn you how to disobey my orders!' And, after rolling up his sleeves, he commenced to lay on the heavy cowskin; and soon the warm, red blood (amid heart-ending shrieks from her, and horrid oaths from him) came dripping to the floor."[K] Poor, ignorant, degraded aunt Hester! She little thought that God had ordered her not to visit her companion; and that, instead of shrieking, she ought rather to be giving glory to Him who was punishing her in this world, in order to save her soul in the next!

Bishop Ives thus instructs the slave-children under his charge[L] ("Catechism"): —

Page 27: "Q. You said that at your baptism you were made inheritors of the kingdom of heaven; but will you get eternal life in heaven, if you do not strive to go there? – A. No; but I shall be sent down to hell.

Q. How are you to strive or try to go to heaven? – A. I must have nothing to do with the devil and his works; which I gave up at my baptism.

Q. In what way are you to shun the devil and his works? – A. By keeping within me no bad thoughts; by speaking no bad words; and by doing no bad things.

Q. What do you mean by keeping within you no bad thoughts? – A. I mean that I must not hate anybody, nor wish to hurt anybody, nor wish to do any wrong.

Page 30: Q. What do you mean by doing no bad things, such things as the devil tempts you to do? – A. I mean that I must not hurt anybody; must not disobey my parents, nor disobey my master, nor disobey God.

Q. But can you not disobey your parents and your master without their knowing it? – A. Yes; but God knows it; for God always sees me.

Q. What else must you do to get to heaven? – A. I must believe all that God has told me about the way to get there.

Pp. 35, 36: Q. How are you to show that you love your neighbor as yourself? – A. I am to show it by always doing my duty to my neighbor, as God has commanded me.

Q. Who is your neighbor? – A. Everybody who lives with me and around me, and has the control over me.

Q. Can you name some persons? – A. My playfellows, my master and mistress, and my parents…

Q. How are you to show your love to your master and mistress and your parents? – A. I am never to lie to them, to steal from them, nor speak bad words about them, but always to do as they bid me.

Page 47: Q. How do others sin against you? – A. By cursing me, telling lies about me, or striking me.

Q. What must you do to those who thus sin against you? – A. I must forgive them.

Q. What if you do not forgive them? – A. Then God will not forgive me.

Q. Why? – A. Because I pray to him to forgive me, just as I forgive others.

Page 48: Q. How are you to forgive others, when they trespass against you? – A. I am not to hurt them, because they hurt me; but I must pray for them, and try to do them good.

Q. What if you do to them just as they do to you? – A. Then God will not forgive my sins, but will punish me.

Page 43: Q. What do you pray for, when you say in the Lord's prayer, 'Thy will be done'? – A. I pray that my will and everybody's will may submit to God's will.

Q. Where does God make his will known to us? – A. In his word and in his acts.

Page 44: Q. What are God's acts by which he makes his will known to us? – A. Every thing that happens to us is God's act.

Q. How are you to submit to God's will as made known in his acts? – A. When God sends trouble or sickness or death, I am to feel that God does right."