150 Years Ago Today

On December 20, 1860, South Carolina voted to succeed from the United States.  Some view this action as the real start of the Civil War. 

The War Between The States claimed the lives of 623,000 Americans.  Additionally it left 471,000 wounded.  (That’s an amazing number, considering there were probably only 30 million people living in the U.S. at the time.)

While some may argue that the real issue was states’ rights, I think we all know that slavery was at the heart of the conflict.

The slave trade was so prosperous for the South that eliminating it would have been a massive economic blow.  They had to defend their right to keep slaves.  (By 1800, it is estimated that 10-15 million Blacks had been transported to America as slaves.  That number would have been much higher, except for the fact that 1 out of 3 died en route due to the harshness and inhumane conditions aboard the ships.)

The South felt justified in keeping slaves.  As recently as 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that Dred Scott could not sue for his freedom because he was not a person.  He was a slave and therefore, merely property.

On an even-higher moral authority than the Supreme Court, Southerners could quote the Bible to support slavery.  In the Bible, slaves were also considered property.

Leviticus 25:44-46 permits slavery, prescribes some methods for enslaving and even mentions that slaves may be inherited by the owner’s children.

A man was even allowed to sell his daughter into slavery.  Exodus 21:7-11.

Beyond this, nowhere in the New Testament does Jesus object to or condemn slavery.  A simple statement by him…something like, “Thou shalt not own, buy, sell or trade slaves,” could have prevented a great deal of human suffering and death.  Wasn’t Jesus the champion of the down-trodden?  Didn’t he stand up for the poor, sick and oppressed? 

Rather than preaching against this horrific practice, Paul tells slaves, in Ephesians 6:5, "Slaves, obey your earthly masters."

More ammunition for antebellum plantation owners.  They could quote this verse to their God-fearing slaves and tell them that even the almighty god expects them obey their masters.

As Sam Harris writes, “Nothing in Christian theology remedies the appalling deficiencies in the Bible on what is perhaps the greatest and the easiest moral question our society has ever had to face.”

150 years ago today, it all began.  Officially the war ended when the South surrendered to the North at Appomattox Court House, VA on April 9, 1865,

The Catholic Church then condemned slavery 23 years later in 1888.  (After every other Christian nation had abolished it.)