The Slave Bible

The History of the Slave Bible,

How Religion and Faith have  been used to uphold White Supremacy 

Oct,2, 2022

Marketplace of ideas.

Throughout history there have been many versions of the Bible that have been written to assist believers in reading the good word.

There is the ESV, NASB and KJV; plus the Passion Bible, The Message, and The Living Bible. 

Even the strange yet interesting Klingon Bible Translation Project.

However in all my travels the most strange and disturbing translation would have to fall to the Slave Bible.

Now what is the slave bible you ask?

Well when I found out I was intrigued.

It appears it is the  translation were select parts of the Holy Bible had parts removed for the use of the Negro slaves in the British West-India Islands, a censored version of the Bible specifically made for teaching a  pro-slavery version of Christianity to enslaved people in the British West Indies.

But wait the fun didn't stop there.

The book was published by a collective group of missionaries called The Incorporated Society for the Conversion and Religious Instruction and Education of the Negro Slaves in the British West India Islands; Beilby Porteus was the president of this society.

All humans are made equally in God’s image (Gen. 1:26–28, 5:1–3, 9:6) however this bastardized version of The word tried to ignore that truth.

This Bible was produced in England in the early 18th century for use in the British West Indies. It had all "references to freedom and escape from slavery" removed, while passages encouraging obedience and submission were emphasized.

These references emphasize loyalty and submission to the slave master where instructions were handed down by Porteus junior pl, who stated: "prepare a short form of public prayer, together with select portions of scripture particularly those which relate to the slave duties toward the master."

Now one might ask why would a slave trading Christian organization produce a Bible to such Horrible ends?

The Money!!! profit and cold hard cash the slave trade was a amazingly lucrative endeavor.

The estimates suggest that the selling of humans for the English reached a magnitude equivalent to about 11% of the British economy by the early nineteenth century.

With that kind of profit to be made 

British missionaries and clergymen used every manner of deplorable means to  education and  brain wash the  enslaved population. The editors included only 10 percent of the Old Testament and half of the New Testament. 

The publishers of the  slave bible thought the sections, such as Exodus, the Book of Psalms, and the Book of Revelation, could instill in slaves a dangerous hope for freedom and dreams of equality.

Passages like Ephesians 6:5, "Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ," were retained. 

Slave owners in the British West-Indies were always afraid of uprisings and revolution. This fear was heightened when,Haitian slaves overcame their masters only three years before the publishing of the slave Bible.  

The Haitian Revolution was a successful insurrection by self-liberated slaves against French colonial rule in Saint-Domingue, now the sovereign state of Haiti.

Along with that Missionaries had to simultaneously respond to the growing abolitionist movement around the world. They had to prove that they had the slaves"best interests at heart",While holding them in the confines of chattel slavery.

This attitude was disturbing to say the least but it follows a pattern of certain denominations within the Christian faith that have a very hard and difficult time reconciling with their racist past and moving forward in unity.

Just take the recently appointed saviour of the white Evangelical right in the United States of America.

Our perpetual Saint of dysentery

Donald J Trump.

After years within  a sorid hipublic life and a laundry list of shady business dealings.

Multiple extra marital affairs.

Roughly seven-in-ten white evangelical Protestants (72%) said they approved of the way Trump was handling his job, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted June 16 2020

It would be easy to say that the Slave Bible was a one off, an isolated incident where the church was complacent in the ugliness of racism but that would certainly not be the case.

Many southern Christians felt that slavery, in one Baptist minister’s words, “stands as an institution of God.” Here are some common arguments made by Christians in favor of slavery.

Biblical Reasons

• Abraham, the “father of faith,” and all the patriarchs held slaves without God’s disapproval (Gen. 21:9–10).

• Canaan, Ham’s son, was made a slave to his brothers (Gen. 9:24–27).

• The Ten Commandments mention slavery twice, showing God’s implicit acceptance of it (Ex. 20:10, 17).

• Slavery was widespread throughout the Roman world, and yet Jesus never spoke against it.

The apostle Paul specifically commanded slaves to obey their masters (Eph. 6:5–8).

• Paul returned a runaway slave, Philemon, to his master (Philem. 12).

Charitable and Evangelistic Reasons

• Slavery removes people from a culture that “worshipped the devil, practiced witchcraft, and sorcery” and other evils.

• Slavery brings heathens to a Christian land where they can hear the gospel. Christian masters provide religious instruction for their slaves.

• Under slavery, people are treated with kindness, as many northern visitors can attest.

• It is in slaveholders’ own interest to treat their slaves well.

•Slaves are treated more benevolent than are workers in oppressive northern factories.

Social Reasons

• Just as women are called to play a subordinate role (Eph. 5:22; 1 Tim. 2:11–15), so slaves are stationed by God in their place.

• Slavery is God’s means of protecting and providing for an inferior race (suffering the “curse of Ham” in Gen. 9:25 or even the punishment of Cain in Gen. 4:12).

 Abolition would lead to slave uprisings, bloodshed, and anarchy. Consider the mob’s “rule of terror” during the French Revolution.

Political Reasons

• Christians are to obey civil authorities, and those authorities permit and protect slavery.

The church should concern itself with spiritual matters, not political ones.

Those who support abolition are, in James H. Thornwell’s words, “atheists, socialists, communists and red republicans.”

Modern day western Christianity has in large part turned its back on people of color.

Not by returning to segregated white and colored pews or in banning blacks from their doors.

They have done so by aligning themselves with the Christian Nationalist rhetoric.

Within the last 6 years Baptist  denominations in the west  have professed to follow Republican and Conservative parties.

These parties have given Christian Nationalist a seat at the table of the Supreme Court  in America,in exchange for votes.

Unfortunately the losers in this transaction have been the poor working class and people of color.

In a piece written in 2018

By Campbell Robertson 

A Quiet Exodus: Why Black Worshipers Are Leaving White Evangelical Churches.

Campbell Robertson puts into detail what a lot of us have been feeling.

"In the last couple of decades, there had been signs, however modest, that eleven o’clock on Sunday morning might cease to be the most segregated hour in America." “Racial reconciliation” was the talk of conferences and the subject of formal resolutions. Large Christian ministries were dedicated to the aim of integration, and many black Christians decided to join white-majority congregations. Some went as missionaries, called by God to integrate. Others were simply drawn to a different worship style — short, conveniently timed services that emphasized a personal connection to God."

"Then white evangelicals voted for Mr. Trump by a larger margin than they had voted for any presidential candidate. They cheered the outcome, reassuring uneasy fellow worshipers with talk of abortion and religious liberty, about how politics is the art of compromise rather than the ideal. Christians of color, even those who shared these policy preferences, looked at Mr. Trump’s comments about Mexican immigrants, his open hostility to N.F.L. players protesting police brutality and his earlier “birther” crusade against President Obama, claiming falsely he was not a United States citizen. In this political deal, many concluded minorities  were compromised.

“It said, to me, that something is profoundly wrong at the heart of the white church,” said Chanequa Walker-Barnes, a professor of practical theology at the McAfee School of Theology at Mercer University in Atlanta."

"Early last year, Professor Walker-Barnes left the white-majority church where she had been on staff. Like an untold number of black Christians around the country, many of whom had left behind black-majority churches, she is not sure where she belongs anymore."

The  misuse of the Bible and the Christian faith to help sell humans was evil.

The sad part is that now we are still witnessing religion being used to justify violence and the spreading of hate.

You can look no further than the failed Jan 6 2021 insurrection of the United States Capitol for that.

Or the historic decision, the U.S. Supreme Court took to reverse Roe v. Wade on Friday,June 24 2022,.Declaring that the constitutional right to abortion, upheld for nearly a half century, no longer exists.

"Activists who work in Black and brown communities fear the socioeconomic effects of this decision. Abortion rights, they say, are an economic and health justice issue."

Said by Kiara Alfonseca on June 24,2022,8:43am

In an article written for ABC news

"Why abortion restrictions disproportionately impact people of color

Black and Hispanic women have the highest abortion rates, the CDC reports".

Only time will tell  if we are finally able to deal with the bigotry and institutionalized racism that is prevalent within the western Evangelical Church.

By realizing the people who suffer the most from these issues are people of color.

Unfortunately with the strangle hold that many conservative parties around the globe have within traditional Christian circles I'm not holding my breath.