(This blog is part of series on famous people in Church history. It is written as if the person himself were telling you about their life. Paul says “These things happened as our examples” 1 Corinthians 10:6,11.)
Hold up!! Now wait a minute! Just hold on before you judge me! Let me tell you my story first. I’m not in any way defending slavery. Its just I found myself in a situation that wasn’t as black-and-white as you folks in the 20th Century seem to think. Let me explain….
I was born and raised in western Virginia in the 1700′s. Masters treated their slaves very harshly there and I was determined to never own a slave. I moved to eastern Virginia where slaves were treated more leniently. I fell in love with and married a girl who had inherited slaves from her parents. She knew I was terrible opposed to slavery and said I could do what I thought best. I found I could not just set them free, for the laws of the state forbid that. Even if I could, they had no way of supporting themselves, and chances are some white would come along and sell them back into slavery for some quick, easy money. I could send them back to Africa, but most weren’t in a condition to go, and none wanted to leave family (most had husbands, wives or children on neighboring plantations) and friends for a strange land. The same would have been true had I sent them north, and then they would have had to depend on finding some charitable hands to support them. Finally, after much prayer and deliberation, I was determined to sell them or give them away. However they begged me to keep them. Moving away from family and friends, and from a kind master, was more than they could think of. I felt I had a duty to care for them in the best Christian manner I could. This responsibility was especially strong since many of my slaves were also Christians. This made the whole slavery issue even more complicated. If it would have been stopped in the beginning it would have been much more simple.
The first slaves came to this country when Jamestown bought 20 from a trading ship in 1619. By 1830 there were 2 million here. In the south there were 2 blacks for every white. Slaves were used to raise tobacco, and very hard crop to raise. The cotton gin made it a lucrative business, and manpower was needed to grow it. The founding fathers debated outlawing slavery in the Constitution, but the south so objected that it was dropped to keep much-needed unity at that critical time in our nation’s birth. I think the real reason slavery flourished and stayed, though, is because of the sinfulness and depravity of the human heart. What other explanation is there for one person owning another!
There were more anti-slavery organizations in the south than the north, but they didn’t have much impact. Those in the south who found salvation in Jesus had to leave their cold, dead main-line churches for teaching and fellowship. The new, growing Baptist and Methodist churches they joined were looked upon by the powers that be as outsiders and rejects, so they carried no weight in the south.
While many slave-owners were Christians, most were nominal church-goers who didn’t want their slaves to become Christians. They didn’t want they hearing about love and equality. They were afraid the slaves would feel proud and equal with the masters. Some wanted to be the only ‘god’ the slaves served. When a slave was a Christian and lived like Jesus masters often focused their hate and violence on him (or her). I guess they were convicted of their own ungodly life and, like always, found someone to blame. Many slaves, though, did turn to Jesus to meet their needs during their terrible years of slavery. They brought no real religion with them from Africa and saw enough true Christianity among the whites to turn to Jesus. They kept the basic truths, of course, but changed all the cultural trimmings from white to black.
Several nights a week blacks from neighboring plantations would slip out to meet in the woods to sing, pray, and listen to preaching. The emphasis was on encouragement to each other and trusting in God for their present needs and future deliverance. Those gifted among them became preachers.
One of the most gifted was a man named John Jasper. He was born a slave on July 4, 1812, on Peachy Plantation, Virginia. At 22 he married a girl on a neighboring plantation, and returned the next day. Accused of trying to run away, he was separated from his wife and never saw her again. He became very bitter and hard, turning to any in he could find. When he was 27 God’s Spirit began convicting him greatly, so much so that he finally broke under the Lord’s hand and turned to Jesus crying “Oh, Jesus, have mercy on me.” Immediately a light broke in his heart, the burden was gone, and he began telling others about Jesus.
Jasper had a very godly, understanding master who had been praying for his salvation. He gave Jasper freedom to preach and tell about Jesus. He was such an animated, emotional, exceptional speaker that he started doing all the black funerals he could travel to. Even whites came to hear him preach, saying he was the only black man God ever called to preach. Women would faint, men would shout, and sometimes even hours after the sermon a few would still be lying about as if they were dead. Jasper preached with such eloquence that the hearers were ready to crown Christ “Lord of All” right then and there. Even white pastors came to hear him because his special way of lifting Jesus up encouraged all who heard him. After the Civil War he pastored a black church in Richmond, but many whites came, too. He died in 1901.
Negro spirituals developed early. Singing was a way of encouraging each other and keeping their focus on Jesus. It made the work easier and the time pass more quickly. Focusing on God’s deliverance as seen in Jesus, Moses, Daniel and others, Negro spirituals developed into an important part of their life. Even today we can be ministered to by songs such as: Every Time I Feel The Spirit, Go Tell It On The mountain, I Know The Lord Has Laid His Hands on Me, I’m a Rolling Through An Unfriendly World, I’ve Got To Walk My Lonesome Valley, Joshua Fought The Battle of Jericho, Lord I Want to Be a Christian In-a My Heart, Nobody Knows The Trouble I’ve Seen, Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child, We Are Climbing Jacob’s Ladder and Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?
Yes, slavery was awful, and unacceptable. I make no excuses for it or us for not doing more sooner to remove it. Before you judge us too harshly, though, ask yourself how future generations will look at your allowing abortion to continue. Are you any better than us?
Still, God used slavery to bring many poor slaves into His kingdom forever. They are now enjoying eternity with the One who helped make their lives livable. Trials always bring God’s people closer to Him, and with the hardship the slaves faced their developed a real closeness with their true Master, the One who really loved them and would provide the only real freedom they would ever find. Is He your Master? If not, you are more of a slave than those poor blacks ever were. No southern slave owner was ever a more cruel master than sin, and without Jesus sin is your master. How much better to find freedom in Jesus!
