Restriction and the social order

In my previous posts in my blog I have spoken about the ways in which slave owners tried to control their slaves through religion. While rereading The Church and Prejudice by Frederick Douglass I noticed how Frederick Douglass spoke on religion, Through my reading of the text, I came to believe that Frederick Douglass did not hate religion, but instead the way in which it was taught to slaves and African Americans.  I believe it was obvious that Frederick Douglass was religious, but did not agree with the practice in which the ministers in the south would teach their slaves and the slaves of the area that slaves were lucky to be the workers, and not have to deal with the  thoughts white people had to, and that it was a great deal for the slaves to get to do the work they were naturally supposed to. It seemed to say that the social order that was in place in the south was the best thing for the slaves. He also spoke on the prejudice that separated the church. Though the church accepted both black and white people into their services, they often believed that only the white people would be allowed into heaven, and often the white people looked down upon the black people. Frederick Douglass saw how religion was good, but the way it was operated was not correct.

Patriachal relationship with the slaves

Within the book Masters & Slaves in the House of the Lord: Race and Religion in the American South, 1740-1870 edited by John B. Boles, contained some information on a family like relationship or Patriarchal relationship the Slave owners had with their slaves, as on pg. 109 the author writes about how some people slavery as that god needed them to take care of the slaves, the owners were responsible for them in gods eyes. I found this to be a interesting way that slavery may have effected slavery in that god made them justify slavery by saying they were responsible to the slaves. I hope to expand on this in future posts.

work cited:

source: Boles, J. B.(ED.)(1988).Masters & Slaves: In the House of the lord. Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky.

Restrictions within religious teachings of slaves.

Within the novel Masters & Slaves In The House of the Lord: Race and Religion in the American South edited by John B. Boles, 1740-1870, the author documented multiple restrictions. For instance on pg 111 of the book the author wrote about how their were certain days were set aside for slaves to go to church, slaves also sometimes had to present passes to their masters in order to go to religious services off of the plantations, and slaves were also not allowed to go to night time activities for church. Also during this time slaves were often monitored at church by overseers used by slave owners to watch the behavior of slaves at church. 

source: Boles, J. B.(ED.)(1988).Masters & Slaves: In the House of the lord. Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky. 

Info found so far from "The War against Proslavery Religion."

Within the Book The War against Proslavery Religion by John R. McKivigan, I found a interesting point that abolitionists often made against slavery during the 19th Century. During this time Christianity was often taught to students and churches often supported slavery, abolitionists would argue that as the god gave everyone their own free will and therefore slavery was sin, so so they believed that god would require immediate emancipation. This argument was often seen as the evangelical view on slavery.

This Idea makes me wonder and want to continue to research through this book and hopefully other resources, how there were different view on slavery by different sects of the christian religion. Religion was used to support slavery, but could also be used to refute slavery.

I hope to come back and add to this post overtime, as I continue my research

McKivigan,  J. R.(1984). The War against Proslavery Religion: Abolitionism and the Northern Churches 1830-1865. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.