RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Slavery
upon the teaching of Rousseau, the French Convention (Feb. 4, 1794) decreed that negro slavery should be abolished in all the French colonies, and that all men therein should have the rights of French citizens. This was the first act by which any nation in Europe decreed the abolition of slavery.
By the side of these attacks of the French philosophers on slavery as a violation of natural rights, a movement arose about the same time, chiefly in England and in the United States, having the same object in view, but founded upon convictions of Christian duty. Conscience was the impulse to action, and the result was earnest, persistent, and personal work. The African slavetrade was at first the main point of attack by the abolitionists. In 1772 Granville Sharp 8. The urged its suppression on religious Christian grounds. Just before the Revolution, Attack; Virginia petitioned that no more Afri- Abolition can slaves be sent into the colony; a of Slave- few years later, Thomas Clarkson (q.v.) Trade. devoted his life to convincing his countrymen that they should prohibit the slave-trade by law, as violating every principle of Christian humanity. Among the religious denominations which as a body took an active part in this work were the Quakers, who presented to the house of commons a petition for the abolition of the slavetrade in 1784; the Methodists and Presbyterians (see below); [and the Baptists. In 1789 the General Association of the Baptists of Virginia resolved : " That slavery is a violent deprivation of the rights of nature, and inconsistent with a republican government, and (we) therefore recommend to our brethren to make use of every legal measure to extirpate this horrid evil from the land." a. h. n.] By incessant work, and constant agitation of the subject in the press and at public meetings, the little band of abolitionists gained the support of many prominent public men in England, Wilberforce, Pitt, Fox, and Burke among the rest. Such was the feeling roused by the discussion of the subject, and especially the general conviction of the violation of Christian duty in maintaining the traffic, that, forced at last by the outcry of the public conscience, Parliament abolished the slave-trade in 1807. In the United States the foreign slave-trade was prohibited in 1808. Shortly afterward, all the maritime nations of Europe followed the example of England and of this country; and the work was crowned by the declaration of the European Congress of Vienna in 1815, engaging alj'the powers to discourage the traffic, as one " reproved by the law of religion and of nature "; thus recognizing the two forces, religion and philosophy, which had combined to bring about the result.
In this country the testimony of the Quakers, as a religious body, against slavery had been uniform from the beginning. In 1688 the German Friends residing in Germantown, Pa., petitioned the yearly meeting to take measures against slaveholding. From 1696 to 1776, the society nearly every year declared " the importing, purchase, or sale of slaves " by its members to be a " disownable offense." John Woolman and Anthony Benezet, illustrious as
Quaker philanthropists, were the pioneer abolitionists of modern times. In 1776 the holding of slaves
was prohibited by the discipline of the
9. Attitude Society of Friends, and since that time
of Religious its members have been conspicuous in
Bodies. supporting anti slavery opinions and
legislation. The highest judicatory of the Presbyterian Church in this country made formal declaration in favor of the abolition of slavery no less than six times between 1787 and 1836. In 1845 and in 1849 the General Assembly (Old School) in its action, without avowing any change of opinion as to the sinfulness of slavery, dwelt more particularly upon the formidable obstacles to the practical work of emancipation. In 1864, during the Civil War, that body proclaimed openly " the evil and guilt of slavery," and its earnest desire for its extirpation. The Methodist-Episcopal Church has been opposed to slavery from the beginning. At the organization of the general conference in 1784, a general rule of its discipline was adopted, declaring slavery contrary " to the golden law of God and the inalienable rights of mankind," and directing that preachers holding slaves should be expelled. Nevertheless, after 1808 slaveholding among the private members of the society was not made a subject of discipline, though the old rule affirming slavery to be a great evil, and that slaveholding should be a bar to office in the Church, was still unrepealed. The aggressive antislavery sentiment at the North was always very powerful among the Methodists; and in the general conference of 1844 it was strong enough to effect the passage of a resolution by which Bishop Andrew, who had come into the possession of certain slaves in right of his wife, was requested to suspend the exercise of all episcopal functions until the slaves were freed. This led to the disruption of the conference, and the formation of two Methodist-Episcopal churches in this country, —one at the North, and the other at the South. See Methodists, IV., 1, § 5.
Before the war there were, in the northern states, multitudes of Christians of thoroughly antislavery sentiments who took no active part in the abolition movement, because they were restrained by conscientious convictions as to their duties as citizens; but when slavery was made the pretext of rebellion and war against the government, and an attempt was made to found an empire the corner-stone of which was slavery, and especially when the national government had decreed the emancipation of the slaves, every motive for its further toleration was removed. By the victory of the North in the Civil War, the abolition of slavery in the United States was made complete. See Negro Education and Evangelization. C. J. STiLLEf
Bibliography: On slavery in the Bible consult: XL. Saalsc.hutz, Archaologie der Hebraer, ii. 236 sqq., Berlin, 1856; A. Barnes, An Inquiry into the Scriptural Views of Slavery, Philadelphia, 1857; M. Mielziner, Die Verhaltnisse der Sklaven bei den alten Hebraer, Leipsic, 1859, Eng. transl., in Evangelical Review, 1862, pp. 311-355; P. Sohaff, Slavery and the Bible, Mercersburg, 1860; M. J. Raphall, Bible View of Slavery, New York, 1861; M. Z. Zahn, L'Esclavage selon la Bible et le Talmud, Paris, 1867; P. Kleinert, Das Deuteronomium und der Deuteronomiker, pp. 55 sqq., Bielefeld, 1872; A. Grunfeld, Die Stellung der Sklaven be% den Juden, Jena, 1886; M. Mandl, Das Sklavenrecht des
Slavery Sleidanus