The American Church Was Deeply Divided, Wielding the Same Bible as Both a Weapon of Oppression and a Tool of Liberation
The American pulpit was profoundly divided. Ministers across the nation read from the same scripture but preached entirely opposite messages, turning the Bible into a weapon in the fight over slavery.
From the colonial period onward, ministers have wrestled with the moral weight of slavery. By the mid-19th century, these opposing views hardened into institutional conflict. Pro-slavery clergy, like Virginia’s Rev. Thornton Stringfellow, built a theological defense of bondage. They argued that slavery was a divinely ordained institution, sanctioned by the Old Testament patriarchs and permitted by the apostles. They routinely preached from verses demanding total submission:
• Colossians 3:22: “Slaves, obey your masters in everything…”
• Ephesians 6:5: “Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear…”
In fierce opposition, abolitionist ministers like Rev. Henry Ward Beecher and AME Church founder Rev. Richard Allen argued that slavery was a profound sin, fundamentally incompatible with the Gospel’s message of freedom and equality. For them, the Bible was a call to liberation, not a call to bondage. This deep theological schism tore the American church apart, leading to major denominational splits, including the formation of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1845, which was founded on the principle that slaveholders could serve as missionaries. Similar rifts split the Methodists and Presbyterians, giving America a set of churches divided along the same lines as the country itself. These conflicts showed how scripture could be interpreted to either uphold a violent status quo or to demand its destruction.
The stories of these ministers reveal the immense moral courage required to challenge slavery from the pulpit and the violent, powerful forces aligned to protect it. These accounts prove that for every minister who twisted scripture to justify bondage, another faced the vigilance committee’s lash, the assassin’s bullet, or the complete erasure from history to proclaim it a sin. These histories of violence, suppression, and defiant faith are an essential, though often buried, part of the American story.
Clergy Who Defended vs. Opposed Slavery
| Defended Slavery | Opposed Slavery |
|---|---|
| Rev. Thornton Stringfellow (1788–1869) – Baptist minister, author of A Brief Examination of Scripture Testimony on the Institution of Slavery (1841), claiming slavery was biblically ordained. | Rev. John Wesley (1703–1791) – Founder of Methodism, called slavery “the sum of all villainies” in his Thoughts Upon Slavery (1774). |
| Rev. James Henley Thornwell (1812–1862) – Presbyterian theologian who argued slavery was part of God’s natural order. | Rev. Theodore Dwight Weld (1803–1895) – Evangelical preacher, author of The Bible Against Slavery (1837), insisting scripture condemned human bondage. |
| Bishop Stephen Elliott (1806–1866) – Episcopal bishop of Georgia, claimed slavery was a Christianizing institution. | Rev. Charles Finney (1792–1875) – Presbyterian revivalist, refused communion to slaveholders, helped make Oberlin College a hub for abolition. |
| Rev. Benjamin Morgan Palmer (1818–1902) – Presbyterian minister in New Orleans, defended slavery as divinely ordained in his 1860 sermon. | Rev. Henry Ward Beecher (1813–1887) – Congregationalist preacher, dramatized slavery’s evils in sermons and staged mock slave auctions. |
| Rev. Richard Furman (1755–1825) – Baptist leader, argued slavery was a trust from God in his 1822 exposition. | Rev. Richard Allen (1760–1831) – Founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, former enslaved man who championed abolition. |
| Rev. William A. Smith (1802–1870) – Methodist minister, author of Lectures on the Philosophy and Practice of Slavery(1856), claiming slavery was necessary to control “inferior races.” | Rev. Absalom Jones (1746–1818) – First African American Episcopal priest, abolitionist, and co-founder of the Free African Society. |
| Bishop John Henry Hopkins (1792–1868) – Episcopal Bishop of Vermont, defended slavery in Bible View of Slavery (1861). | Rev. Elijah Lovejoy (1802–1837) – Presbyterian minister and abolitionist editor, killed by a pro-slavery mob for denouncing slavery. |
| Rev. Robert Lewis Dabney (1820–1898) – Presbyterian minister and Confederate chaplain, defended slavery as biblically sanctioned. | Rev. Samuel J. May (1797–1871) – Unitarian minister, preached abolition and social reform. |
| Rev. Jonathan Edwards Jr. (1745–1801) – Son of theologian Jonathan Edwards, denounced slavery as incompatible with Christianity. | |
For Black pastors, merely preaching unsupervised was seen as rebellion. Their underground “Invisible Church” gathered in secret, whispering hymns in the woods to avoid detection. Punishment meant flogging, imprisonment, or lynching. Figures like Denmark Vesey, a free Black lay preacher executed in 1822 for an alleged revolt, symbolized the risk of spiritual defiance. While white clergy suffered for their ideas, Black ministers faced death for simply proclaiming a gospel of hope and freedom, making every sermon an act of revolutionary faith.
The myth of the North as a haven for Black Americans collapses in the story of John Harrison, a young Black itinerant preacher in 1880s Vermont. After settling in Norwich, he became the target of the Eastman brothers, who subjected him to relentless harassment and violence, once beating him with an iron kettle. In 1890, Harrison disappeared. Five years later, William Eastman confessed on what he thought was his deathbed to murdering Harrison with three others—but he survived. No investigation ever followed. Harrison’s name vanished from town records, surviving only through racist place names like “Darkey Bridge,” a grim reminder of erased justice in the “free” North.
White abolitionist pastors also faced brutal repression. Across the United States, dissent from the pulpit was punished with whippings, imprisonment, and murder. In 1835, theology student Amos Dresser was publicly flogged in Nashville for carrying abolitionist pamphlets. Rev. Daniel Worth of North Carolina was jailed and crippled by frostbite for distributing anti-slavery literature. Most tragically, Rev. Elijah Lovejoy, a Presbyterian minister and newspaper editor in Illinois, was gunned down in 1837 while defending his printing press from a pro-slavery mob. These attacks underscored that opposition to slavery was treated not as debate but as treason against the nation’s social and economic order.
From Civil War to Civil Rights
When the Civil War ended, slavery itself was abolished, but the church’s divisions endured. Many white congregations in the South embraced segregation well into the 20th century, while Black churches became vital centers of resistance, education, and hope.
By the 1950s and 60s, pastors like Martin Luther King Jr. drew from this abolitionist heritage, showing once again that faith could catalyze liberation. The Southern Baptist Convention, which had been born in defense of slaveholding missionaries, finally acknowledged its past in 1995, issuing a formal apology for its role in supporting slavery and racism.
The Legacy Today
The story of pastors who defended and opposed slavery reminds us that religion has never been neutral in America’s struggle for justice. The pulpit has been both shield and sword—used to sanctify bondage and to demand freedom.
References:
Forbidden Sermons: How Black Ministers in America Risked Death to Preach the Gospel During Slavery
The Church, the Klan, and the Police
A brief history of the Black church’s diversity, and its vital role in American political history