The implementation of Christianity in slavery proved to be controversial and mind puzzling as the peaceful ideas derived from the Bible juxtaposed with the cruel treatment and intentions exercised by slave owners and masters. Consequently, slave owners and overseers stood blind to how their tyrannical exercise of power devastated the mentality and experience of an African American in the 18th to 19th century United States of America. Slave narratives as a literary genre enhanced towards the middle of the 19th century as the sentiment of abolition and freedom started to rise. A multitude of slaves scribed and reflected on their times in enslavement, which includes Olaudah Equiano, Harriet Jacobs, Frederick Douglass, and Phyllis Wheatley. Although
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Passages in the Bible has accepted and affirmed the regulation of slavery, ranging from first Peter 2:18, “Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust” to Colossians 3:22, “Slaves, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eyeservice, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord”. However, slave owners were highly selective on what scriptures were applicable to their circumstances. In the Autobiography of Frederick Douglass, the author tends to criticize in tangents on the dissimulation of slave owner rhetoric that revered Biblical texts, yet perpetuate the obscenities in slavery from physical abuse to severe punishments with the inclusion of certain characters such as Thomas Auld, whom cruelty exacerbated after Methodist camp training, and the infamous antagonist Edward Covey. Specifically, in Chapter 10, Douglass reprimanded his overseer at the time, Edward Covey, “I do verily believe that he sometimes deceived himself into the solemn belief, that he was a sincere worshipper of the most high God”. Covey garnered the notorious reputation of breaking young negroes, harshly whipping for surface reasons (e.g. discomfiture), while praying instantly in the morning and taking time to construct a well-thought …show more content…
At the pinnacle of the Second Great Awakening, the sentiment of abolition rose as the Evangelic religion preached against the exercise of slavery and violation of human rights. For Douglass, he received a great load of backlash for his criticism of Christianity from his diatribe on questioning Christian Catechisms. The “Autobiography of Frederick Douglass” author clarified his conflict is not with the religion itself nor how one conducts on the Sabbath Day, but rather how they conduct themselves on the rest of the week before declaring “slave holders aren’t real Christians”. He, then, continues by stating, “I therefore hate the corrupt slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity. I look upon it as the climax of all misnomers the boldest of all frauds and the grossest of misnomers”. As formerly a recently-freed African American, Douglass orated in public speeches and activist rallies how concerning and mind-puzzling American Christianity was as the system functioned on iniquity and disobedience to biblical principles such as altruism and empathy. The North Star founder issued the blatant difference between Christianity of the land and Christianity of Christ. On the contrary, Phyllis Wheatley masterfully censured slavery in an allusive manner by writing a
Passages in the Bible has accepted and affirmed the regulation of slavery, ranging from first Peter 2:18, “Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust” to Colossians 3:22, “Slaves, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eyeservice, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord”. However, slave owners were highly selective on what scriptures were applicable to their circumstances. In the Autobiography of Frederick Douglass, the author tends to criticize in tangents on the dissimulation of slave owner rhetoric that revered Biblical texts, yet perpetuate the obscenities in slavery from physical abuse to severe punishments with the inclusion of certain characters such as Thomas Auld, whom cruelty exacerbated after Methodist camp training, and the infamous antagonist Edward Covey. Specifically, in Chapter 10, Douglass reprimanded his overseer at the time, Edward Covey, “I do verily believe that he sometimes deceived himself into the solemn belief, that he was a sincere worshipper of the most high God”. Covey garnered the notorious reputation of breaking young negroes, harshly whipping for surface reasons (e.g. discomfiture), while praying instantly in the morning and taking time to construct a well-thought …show more content…
At the pinnacle of the Second Great Awakening, the sentiment of abolition rose as the Evangelic religion preached against the exercise of slavery and violation of human rights. For Douglass, he received a great load of backlash for his criticism of Christianity from his diatribe on questioning Christian Catechisms. The “Autobiography of Frederick Douglass” author clarified his conflict is not with the religion itself nor how one conducts on the Sabbath Day, but rather how they conduct themselves on the rest of the week before declaring “slave holders aren’t real Christians”. He, then, continues by stating, “I therefore hate the corrupt slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity. I look upon it as the climax of all misnomers the boldest of all frauds and the grossest of misnomers”. As formerly a recently-freed African American, Douglass orated in public speeches and activist rallies how concerning and mind-puzzling American Christianity was as the system functioned on iniquity and disobedience to biblical principles such as altruism and empathy. The North Star founder issued the blatant difference between Christianity of the land and Christianity of Christ. On the contrary, Phyllis Wheatley masterfully censured slavery in an allusive manner by writing a