The Problem of Slavery in Christian America: An Ethical-Judicial History of American Slavery and Racism

by Joel McDurmon

Bishop Thomas Secker preached before the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG) in 1740, chiding slaveowners for preventing slave conversions, “because, after that, no Pretence will remain for not treating them like Men.” Nevertheless, Secker in the same sermon assured his audience that God backed the royal and colonial law for permanent slavery for blacks even after baptism: “The Scripture, far from making any Alteration in Civil Rights, expressly directs, that every Man abide in the Condition wherein he is called, with great Indifference of Mind concerning outward circumstances.” Not only did the SPG do virtually nothing to challenge slaveowners, and not only did it virtually wink at their practices, but it was a slaveowner for most of its existence. The Society—technically a royal corporation—inherited plantations with slaves in 1710 and managed them as an absentee owner. Not only did it not consider manumitting its slaves, but it followed the standard Barbadian practice of branding slaves. How is that for Christian witness against a system that its own clergy members themselves acknowledged as evil?