Slavery and Christianity in Early America

A diagram of the Brookes, a British slave ship c. 1781. www.worldhistory.org

European settlers left their homeland in search of religious and political freedom and to establish community in the New World. While the land was not “new” in the sense of undiscovered or uncharted, it was home to many Native American tribes who lived on the land for thousands of years before the arrival of early settlers. Dedicated to a new life in a new land, they brought their faith and conviction in Christianity, they also brought kidnapped Africans to help till and cultivate the land in addition to serving as domestic, free laborers. As followers of Christianity, loving fellow men and women in the service of God would mean to treat others well and have great expectations in how one was to be treated, however chattel slavery, service into perpetuity, did not follow such Christian morals and beliefs. Africans kidnapped from their pillaged and plundered homeland were forced into servitude against their free will and some enslavers understood that this was an abomination against God’s word. While Christian beliefs were held strongly by the settlers, building a new society and establishing wealth seemed to be a primary focus, making Christianity a secondary factor. Colonial America was a relatively prosperous society. The Southern colonies were the wealthiest, as white planters reaped high returns on staple crops like rice and tobacco.[1] Political and religious freedom quickly turned into exploitation, cruelty, and anti-Christian attitudes and livelihoods.

The clergy’s involvement in the slave trade pushed for abolishment because the institution of chattel slavery did not align with biblical Christian values, morals and beliefs. The writer of the gospel hymn Amazing Grace, Reverend John Newton, was a staunch abolitionist after witnessing the atrocities aboard several slave ships. He served as captain on a few vessels and was also a financial investor in the slave trade. In 1788, he published a pamphlet in London, England reading, “When the women and girls are taken on board a (slave) ship, naked, trembling, terrified, and perhaps almost exhausted with cold, fatigue, and hunger, they are often exposed to the wanton rudeness of white savages.”[2] As men of God, the treatment of fellow human beings as animals and beasts was counter to the teachings of the Bible, unfortunately, their lust for freedom outweighed their sense of goodness and morality. The Word of God sanctions it-service of worshipping hearts to their Maker; of soldiers in war; of civilians in society; of servants in the house and in the field. It is liable to abuse, yet abuse has here unnumbered checks. Servitude, on the other hand, is essentially abuse with no checks beyond the holder’s conscience or caprice. This word the Bible and humanity abhor; they cast it out as base, mean, tyrannic. They refuse, and scorn, and reprobate it, as destructive alike to the value and the dignity which they ever attribute to the image of the Creator.[3] Many understood the destructive and inhumane nature of chattel slavery while others saw Africans as creatures destined to inferiority and a life of servitude.  

In addition to exploiting Africans, early settlers also annulated Native American tribes who fought hard to keep and protect their land. Under the guise of Christianity, Europeans thought the Natives would make good slaves, especially because of their knowledge of the land and its soil. But it made a prominent argument that the Indians could more easily be converted to Christianity in slavery than in freedom.[4] In both the African and the Native, Christianity was used more as a tool of power and control and less as a tool of brotherly love and compassion.

Early American Christianity coupled with establishing life in the New World brought morals, values, and a belief system that stepped out of the frame of compassion and brotherhood and into the complexities of authoritarianism, governance, and exploitation. The colonies envisioned life without the rule of the British crown and a monarchy, but somehow became a society where race, class, and culture divided brethren. Freedom for some did not mean freedom for all.

Bibliography

Primary Source

Thompson, Lafayette. The ethics of American slavery, being a vindication of the word of God and a pure Christianity in all ages, from complicity with involuntary servitude : and a demonstration that American slavery is a crime in substance and concomitants. Ross & Tousey, 1861. Sabin Americana: History of the Americas, 1500-1926, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CY0100186108/SABN?u=vic_liberty&sid=bookmark-SABN&xid=6f51cb41&pg=22. Accessed 9 Nov. 2025.

Secondary Sources

Hannah-Jones, Nikole. A New Origin Story: The 1619 Project. New York: One World Random

              House, 2021.

Rediker, Marcus. The Slave Ship: A Human History. New York: Penguin Books, 2007.

Thomas, Hugh. The Slave Trade. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997.

[1] Hannah-Jones, Nikole. A New Origin Story: The 1619 Project. (New York: One World Random House, 2021), 167-68.

[2] Rediker, Marcus. The Slave Ship: A Human History. (New York: Penguin Books, 2007), 241.

[3] Thompson, Lafayette. The ethics of American slavery, being a vindication of the word of God and a pure Christianity in all ages, from complicity with involuntary servitude : and a demonstration that American slavery is a crime in substance and concomitants. Ross & Tousey, 1861. Sabin Americana: History of the Americas, 1500-1926, (link.gale.com/apps/doc/CY0100186108/SABN?u=vic_liberty&sid=bookmark-SABN&xid=6f51cb41&pg=22. Accessed 9 Nov. 2025), 8-9.

[4] Ibid, 22.