Negro Slavery Unjustifiable: A Discourse

by Alexander McLeod

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.

This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.

Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Genres: American History, History, Theology

42 pages, Unknown Binding

Published January 1, 1802

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Alexander McLeod (1774-1833)

Reviews

[Bracey]

Many ‘progressive’ Christians are wrong to think that the slavery spoken of in the Bible was the same as what was practiced in the US. You often hear people incorrectly say that the Bible doesn’t condemn chattel slavery in Exodus, Deuteronomy and Leviticus. They say that the New Testament endorses it because it tells slaves to be submissive to their masters. Rev. McLeod shreds this view to pieces and articulates a biblical view which bans and condemns chattel slavery as man stealing. Appealing to the Holy Scriptures in both Old and New Testaments (Exodus 21:16 & 1 Tim 1:8-11) he applies the most severe of consequences to do those who do practice such evil. But why the confusion? Ancient slavery referred to in the bible is not chattel slavery, as was practiced in the US. Chattel slavery is where human beings were viewed, defined and treated as property with no human soul. Men, women and children had no hope of freedom. How could they? They were not recognized as human beings, but like cattle or a piece of furniture, they were viewed and treated as sub-human.

Indentured slavery, as was practiced in the Bible, is completely different in that humans were recognized as people and had the right, as image bearers of God, granted to them to live, to be recognized as such and to look forward to freedom. This is why in part you had the seven-year law that cancelled debts and the year of Jubilee which released all those under slavery. None of that went on here in the United States. Thus, for a ‘progressive’ Christian to admonish the flock that the Bible is wrong on slavery is a complete mockery of the Scriptures. The next time you hear a Christian incorrectly say that the Scriptures endorse the slavery practiced here in the US recall McLeod. He has provided an excellent biblical response on why this evil had to go way back when it was being practiced.

[Will Whitworth]

A wonderfully put condemnation of chattel/Negro slavery for its time, that uses moral and especially religious values and arguments to make the point that chattel slavery can not be justified in any way, and especially not by the Way of the Lord.

[Miles Smith]

A prominent Reformed Presbyterian--Covenanter--polemic against holding slaves. The Coventanter tradition never countenanced slavery and represented a unique strand of Reformed thought on human bondage well in to the 19th Cent.

[Christopher Keller]

Unfathomably based upon scripture.

When one is reading through the disputes of contemporary American Presbyterians of the same era, whether it be Hodge or Dabney; they should read this both before and after any of those.