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.

Knowledge roundtable article