Southern Slavery: As It Was

by Douglas Wilson, Steve Wilkins

How is it that a pervasively Christian culture could have supported slavery? While opposing the South's abuses and racism, this essay seeks to correct some of the gross slanders of that culture. It explains Scripture's defense of a form of slavery against evangelicals who are embarrassed by it.

Genres: History, Christian, Religion, Nonfiction, Theology

43 pages, Paperback

Published June 1, 1996

About the author

I write in order to make the little voices in my head go away. Thus far it hasn't worked.

Reviews

[Joseph · Rating 1 out of 5]

I may be a Christian, but that doesn't mean I don't think that this book manages to push race relations back 150 years.

It's not as though it is devoid of good points - it isn't just "those n*ggers are a bunch of animals anyway." The authors insist that they are not racist and that racism is evil (I'll leave that to the reader as to whether or not they buy that). Be that as it may, this is is pro-confederate, pro-slavery garbage that is backed up by some pretty questionable historical data that you'd think was written by an angry klansman than two educated ministers. Don't ya know? The northerners were a bunch of unitarians who hated God while in the south everyone was good and godly Christians. Abolition slavery was a means of destroying the republic of our founding fathers and creating a massive centralized federal government (such as with the passing of those awful 13th and 14th amendments which insisted that blacks not be enslaved and that people be treated equally under law...). A few passages of scripture are used within context, but the meanings are then extrapolated to say that slavery is, if not good, is at the very least something that should be given the benefit of the doubt. It also spends a lot of time talking about how great slavery was for blacks. I honestly do not think that it is hyperbole, given what is written here, that the authors would not be opposed to legalizing slavery again. After all, since God did not outright ban it for first century Christians, as long as they treated their slaved well, surely there were no historical or cultural circumstances that made it better to allow it under strict guidelines in that context than outright prohibit it, but rather it is something that is part of His word for all time...

Lastly, the historical claims are widely panned by those who actually study history and aren't part of neo-confederate groups (such as the League of the South, on which Wilkins used to sit on the board). If you read this book, and you do so in good faith and not just because you are a racist and want a good excuse to enslave those brown people, take the time to read pretty much any academic review of this work (like "Southern Slavery as it Wasn't" by Sean M. Quinlan and William L. Ramsey - it's rather liberal, but effective nonetheless).

[rachel · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was better in the original German.

[trevor · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wish I could give it zero stars. Slavery = Bad. End of discussion.

[Avery Amstutz · Rating 1 out of 5]

Doug Wilson’s beliefs are Antithetical to the Gospel of Christ. What a brash smarmy man.

[Rick Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually read this book back in 2007 and even wrote a review for it, but for some reason I never posted it to Goodreads. Here it is:

---------------

I finally read for the first time, the uber "controversial" booklet by Dougs Wilson and Jones, "Southern Slavery As It Was." I figured since our church has been refused three locations for our Conference on the Family featuring Doug Wilson because of the "controversy" surrounding him, I might as well see what the big deal was all about. I read it. Thought about it. Still don't see the big deal.

Essentially the article was intending to explain to a misinformed modern public just how it was that godly Christian men could live and own slaves in the ante-bellum South. There was nothing racist in the booklet, though there were many, many condemnations of racism. I did, however, learn a lot of things that I didn't know previously. Some of the more interesting points:

-25% of free blacks in the South owned slaves.

-Virginia was the first state to institute injunctions against the slave trade.

-By buying slaves from the traders and giving them a good place to live and work, Christian men were preventing the unsold slaves from being shipped on to Brazil and Haiti where they would be subjected to hellish conditions and certain death.

-When a slave named Robin was captured during Morgan's raid and separated from his master, he was offered his liberty if he would swear an Oath of Loyalty to the Union. His response: "I will never disgrace my family by such an oath."

-Another slave was captured with his master and his master actually took the oath. The slave refused, disgustedly remarking, "Massa has no principles."

-The average slave had more living space than the average factory worker's family in New York City.

-The average life expectancy for slaves in the South was higher than that of free white factory workers in the industrial North, and higher than any industrialized nation in Europe.

-Few masters beat their slaves. Some even offered positive incentives for good work, including clothing, tobacco, whiskey, and cash for extra work.

-Many slaves had days off and could visit friends and family in other towns on other plantations.

None of this is to say that the system of slavery as it existed in the South was biblical. The Old Testament allowed Hebrews to own slaves, but those slaves were indentured servants whose terms would expire after seven years. In the New Testament, Christians who own slaves in the unbiblical Roman system of slavery are told to treat their slaves according to Christian principles. The system of slavery that existed in America prior to the Civil War was clearly unbiblical. However, the predominant picture we get of master/slave relations from that time period is not of Simon Legree but rather of George Shelby. Christians, operating in a system of unbiblical slavery, were applying Christian principles to the way they treated their slaves (like Philemon).

[Jeremy]

Free copy here. Rebuttal here. Watch Wilson discuss "Neo-Confederate" vs. "Paleo-Confederate."

The book evolved into Black and Tan (see here).

[Abrahamus · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's been a small firestorm of controversy around this one in recent years. The main points that should be gleaned from this good if imperfect work are, as follows: 1) racism is always a sinful affront to God 2) slavery is always the result of sin on somebody's (usually everybody's) part 3) chattel slavery as practiced in pre-1865 America was a particularly sin-prone institution, without which we are all better off 4) all that said, the realities of the slave-holding South were far less one dimensional than modern secular historians would have everyone believe, and, although God's judgements as played out in history speak for themselves, the South was nonetheless more justified on both biblical and constitutional grounds for taking the stances that it did take during The Late Unpleasantness than was the North.

Update, 2020:
I lost my copy of this a number of years ago. Based on what I recall, and based on subsequent reading and reflection on the subject matter, I would have to say that, while this work makes some noteworthy and legitimate points, it is nevertheless fraught with some very significant problems.

[Sean McGowan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has been attacked by so many. It is incredible to hear the attacks Wilson has received because of it. Yet when you actually read it, those accusations disappear. This was a good analysis of the subject.

[CEGatling]

Zero stars. The authors of this book do their level best to excuse literally breeding humans to sell for profit, beating them when they do not work, raping the women AND the men, selling the children away from the mothers after forcing her to bear them over and over again by men she does not know or care for and who do not know or care for her...The list of atrocities goes on.

And folks read this and think it is "fair" and "honest".

The inhumanity.

[Benjamin Britton · Rating 1 out of 5]

If only there were a lower rating…

This book is just a repackaging of Southern pro-slavery propaganda in a form that is not even veiled at all.
Total rubbish.
Worse than dog shit.

Also, just as an aside: Doug Wilson is a terrible writer. He makes almost no substantial points. He does not make citations for most of his information. He writes in riddles making it difficult to parse out the horrific things he is actually saying.

This is the lowest of the low.

[Winnie Thornton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yeah, read this and then tell Harriet Beecher Stowe to suck it up.

[Paul]

whatever the facts of the argument, has done much to damage Wilsons name

[Allen Abbott · Rating 1 out of 5]

If I could give this vile pamphlet 0 stars, I would. Just read the following excerpts:

"Our humanistic and democratic culture regards slavery in itself as a monstrous evil, and it acts as though this were self-evidently true. The Bible permits Christians to own slaves, provided they are treated well. You are a Christian. Whom do you believe?"
"Slavery as it existed in the South was not an adversarial relationship with pervasive racial animosity...There has never been a multi-racial society which has existed with such mutual intimacy and harmony in the history of the world."
"...we cannot overlook the benefits of slavery for...blacks...The slavery they were delivered from [i.e. to sin] was far worse than any they suffered in this country."
"It is time for us to stand and declare the truth about slavery and to expose the failures of the abolitionist worldview. Having done this, we must go on to proclaim the only truth which can set all men truly free from slavery—the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ."

The scariest part of all of this is that Wilson is not some backwater Southerner with an axe to grind about the "War Between the States." He is a national evangelical leader with a substantial following, especially in the conservative Reformed community. And when his deeply troubling view of American slavery is situated within the wider context of his political theology--his aspirations to establish an American theonomy--things become scary indeed. He envisions a future America under the Law of his God--a Law which, presumably, leaves the door to slavery and a host of other ancient Israelite practices (like the death penalty for gay people, etc.). This should disturb every freedom-loving American.

But, Wilson's pamphlet does have a few things going for it--it shows with perfect clarity that (1) uncritical acceptance of "biblical values" can lead Christians to whitewash some of the worst crimes in human history and justify the harmful systems of their own day; that (2) racism is alive and well, especially in the more conservative wings of the American church; and that (3) theocrats like Doug Wilson should stay the hell away from our government.

I don't want to write more about this. Suffice it to say that the only place where this kind of insanity still lives is in conservative Christian churches. Sadly, this has always been the case. Bravo for being a case in point, Wilson.

P.S. Here's a brief article about what Doug Wilson's up to nowadays: (https://julieroys.com/with-new-campus...)

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I need to do more historical study on this to make a decision about the historical claims of this pamphlet. Some of the historical arguments which really need a citation to carry weight do not have one, and some of them are such huge assertions that they would probably need a whole book just to back up one particular statement. But after all, this is just a pamphlet, and it cannot do everything. As it is, the work outlines a possible counter-narrative to the dominant one on Southern slavery.

However, the Biblical arguments are quite thought provoking. For instance, the authors ask the question if we were transported back in history and we were leading some church with a member who owned a slave with no plans to free the slave but followed all the Biblical laws regarding slave treatment, would we excommunicate that person (as we certainly would for an active, abortion-performing doctor)? My knee-jerk, emotional reaction would be yes, but as the authors point out, Paul is actually confronted with this exact situation and does not excommunicate the masters. Although he does encourage Philemon to free Onesimus, Paul does not attach any sort of threat of excommunication to that exhortation. So definitely some conversations to be had there. I also appreciate the sections dealing with the horrors and unbiblical nature of the slave trade. Thank the Lord that that abomination is no more, but it also saddens one to realize the sex-slave trade is still alive and well today.

[Phillip Mast · Rating 2 out of 5]

I won't give a lengthy review of this because everyone can read the 42 pages free online if they actually want to know what it says.
This is a book arguing that slavery is not as bad as is generally claimed and that the south better than the north overall. I don't know a whole lot about the facts of slavery but I do know that there is data to challenge some of the claims in this book. Overall I think it's clear that slavery was bad enough that we don't need a book to defend it.
The second problem with this book is the accusations against north and federalism, many which claim to be biblically based. The epitome is this statement. "You have been told many times that the war was over slavery, but in reality it was over the biblical meaning of constitutional government."
The only positive thing about the book is that it attempts to deal with the Bible's treatment of slavery.

[Juan Ruiz · Rating 5 out of 5]

interesante

[Ann Edwards · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had to give it one star in order to write a review.

This is another effort to rewrite or whitewash the history of slavery.

We were not friends. Had we been friends, there would have been no need for whippings, lynchings, torture, the sale of Black children, or the harsher less spoken of sins - rape of men women, and children; and murder for sport.

There were no sleepovers.

There are slave narratives available given by the people who were enslaved at that time. Do a little research.