author – Veronica Patton
Intro: Presbyterian Resistance to Slavery
Presbyterians are Anglo-Saxon American settlers who lived by the religious creed:
“You shall not hand over to his master a slave who has escaped from his master to you,” (Deuteronomy 23:15)
Slavery continued within the U.S. after the transatlantic african slave trade stopped in 1807. Under U.S. slave legislation children born of slaves were automatically slaves; even if they were born in free territory or their father was a white slave master.
18th Century Presbyterians were members of the Church of England in the newly settled American colonies. Once the colonies gained independence from England, Presbyterians declared that only Christ could be the head of the reformed church. Thus, Presbyterians ex-communicated the English monarch from religious authority in America.
After years of pressure from Quaker and Presbyterian abolitionists, in 1807 the U.S. Congress outlawed importation of African slaves. Even though the African slave trade ended in 1807, the U.S continued its internal slave trade.
While slavery drove America into unrivalled prosperity, the Presbyterian Church followed through with its moral imperative of resistance. Presbyterian church leaders forbade its members to own slaves. Moreover,Presbyterian ministers such as John Rankin assisted slaves to freedom via the underground railroad.
Conclusion
Finally in 1863 after the North won the Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation ended slavery within the United States. From its inception, the Presbyterian Church has been an instrumental agent of change against the evil of human bondage in America.
This does not tell the whole story and misrepresents Presbyerianism and slavery. Check out Princeton Seminary pages on slavery
I am glad to be one of the visitors on this great website (:, thankyou for posting .
As to Princeton, it’s history as a slave owner cannot be equated with rigorous enforcement of the 1807 ban within Presbyterian congregations. There are many instances of church pastors refusing to perform marriage ceremonies for families who owned slaves. Slave owners were not allowed to be interred in church cemeteries. Slave owners had to submit proof that they had freed their slaves and not merely transferred ownership before they were allowed to participate in church services. Presbyterian members and congregations helped transport, feed, and shelter slaves while en route to “free states”. Dozens if young men from local churches volunteered in 1861 to join the Union Army to end slavery in the South. My point is that over-generalizations from minimal proof – like “Princeton was a Presbyterian slave owner” thus Presbyterian churches and their members must be guilty by association – is inaccurate and misleading. It’s like saying that you know of a corrupt public official. therefore, all public officials are corrupt – even though the reason you know of the corruption is that it was publicized in detail when the former official was sentenced to prison.