March 9, 2025 • 33 mins
A revolutionary theological upheaval took place in early 19th century America that fundamentally challenged how Christianity interpreted freedom. When Anglican Bishop George Berkeley crafted his 1727 letter to plantation owners, he created a theological framework that would dominate American Christianity for generations: the dangerous notion that "Christian freedom" was strictly inward—freedom from sin and Satan—rather than outward freedom from physical bondage. This convenient interpretation allowed slaveholders to Christianize enslaved people without granting them physical freedom.
But as enslaved people gained literacy and began reading the Bible for themselves, a radical new understanding emerged. Three revolutionary ministers—Gabriel Prosser (1800), Denmark Vesey (1822), and Nat Turner (1831)—became what scholar Gayraud Wilmore calls "generals in the Lord's army." Each interpreted Scripture not as justification for slavery but as a mandate for liberation. Prosser identified with Samson, Vesey with Joshua at Jericho, and Turner reinterpreted "Seek ye first the kingdom of God" as a call for Black liberation as the fulfillment of God's kingdom on earth.
What united these three ministers was their profound reinterpretation of Christianity itself. While white clergy used the Bible to maintain slavery, these men transformed Christian theology into a powerful tool for liberation rather than oppression. They understood their ministerial calling as fighting for abolition, marking the first public declaration of Black liberation theology that encompassed both spiritual and physical freedom. Their theological revolution laid the groundwork for the abolitionist movement and influenced generations of religious leaders from Frederick Douglass to Harriet Tubman.
Explore how these revolutionary preachers permanently challenged the notion that Christianity could coexist with human bondage, throwing down a theological gauntlet that continues to challenge churches today to confront systemic injustice rather than merely focusing on personal salvation.
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Speaker 1 (00:12):
Good evening, welcome to this next segment of Native
Native Drums podcast of theSavannah Grove Baptist Church,
pastored by the Reverend DrRalph W Canty.
Picking up off of the lastsegment on the coming of the
gods, I want to take anopportunity to use this segment
to complement it with theemergence of a militant black
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clergy, coming off of, of course, the anti-slavery theology and
the presuppositions, thebiblical passages we listened to
in the previous segment.
And so I want to use thissegment to talk to you this
evening about insurrectionisttheology, the origins of a
militant black clergy.
Insurrectionist theology, theorigins of a militant black
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clergy.
Before I get into the threeexamples of militant black
clergy that will comprise thissegment, I feel it also
necessary to give you a littlebackground about the theological
history of America relative tothe Slavocracy and how slavery
was understood by both plantersand slaveholders alike.
And so, when we look at thatbackground, we see a bondage
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freedom dilemma, as I call it,emerging in the 18th century,
about 100 years into theSlavocracy.
And of course, the questionsthat surrounded that dialogue
about the bondage freedomdilemma was how to reconcile
Christian freedom with eternalslavery.
How are we going toChristianize, baptize slaves,
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and should we and three did theChristianization of the slave
mean immediate freedom?
These are all legitimatequestions, namely because
Christian faith is a faiththat's ultimately rooted in
human freedom.
But yet, at the same time,planters and white Christian
ministers were not ministers,were not interested in black
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people being free from slavery.
And so, even though theoriginal planters committed
Christian faith to theSlavocracy and maintained that
slavery was an institution thatwas to remain eternal until the
end of time, they wereconstantly beset, as we moved
into the 18th century, byquestions about not only the
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Christianization of the slave,but whether, in grounding the
Slavocracy and Christianityitself, does the
Christianization of the slavemean immediate freedom?
Of course, this was not thegoal of white planters, because
the goal was to Christianize theslave, to make the slave more
docile and readily accepting ofhis or her enslavement, not to
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free them from slavery itselfand what it represented for them
from a standpoint of Christianredemption and, of course, from
a standpoint of Christiancharity.
And so the challenge then forthe slave holding community and
for white Christian ministerswas to create an approach to
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freedom that touted the value offreedom in the Christian life
and in biblical revelation,while at the same time not
freeing slaves from slavery,from slavery.
And so, to answer this question, still under British rule,
before the Revolution in 1727,anglican Bishop George Berkeley
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decided to address this issueand to help out his fellow
colonial planters and, of course, to help out his white
Christian colleagues in theministry.
And so he crafts this lettertitled to the masters and
mistresses of families in theministry.
And so he crafts this lettertitled to the masters and
mistresses of families in theEnglish plantations abroad,
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exhorting them to encourage andpromote the instruction of the
Negroes in the Christian faith.
Long title and, of course, evenlonger impact as we move
through American history.
Here is an excerpt from thatparticular letter that I think
is representative of the entireletter.
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And of course this is BishopBerkeley addressing how we were
going to proceed as a Europeannation and as, of course, a
European colony, touting thevalues of freedom while at the
same time not allowing Africanslaves to be free.
And so Bishop Berkeley, in thisexcerpt, proclaims Christianity
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and the embracing of the gospeldoes not make the least
alteration of civil property orin any of the duties which
belong to civil relations, butin all these respects it
continues persons in the samestate as it found them, the
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freedom which Christianity givesis a freedom from the bondage
of sin and Satan and from thedominion of ones of men's lusts
and passions and inordinatedesires.
But as to their outwardcondition, whatever that was
before, whether bond or free,they're being baptized, and
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becoming Christians makes nomanner of change in it.
And becoming Christians makesno manner of change in it.
What was Bishop Berkeley saying?
His argument First Christianfreedom is strictly inward and
not outward.
The freedom which Christianitygives is a freedom from the
bondage of sin and Satan.
What did that mean for him?
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Interpretation wise, it meantthat only the slaves inward
state was corrupt and can bechanged by conversion or baptism
, but not the slaves outwardstate in terms of societal
freedom from chattel slavery.
And of course, the otherstatement bears significance for
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our discussion.
The statement bearssignificance for our discussion.
But as to their outwardcondition, whether bond or free,
they're becoming baptized, andbecoming Christians makes no
manner of change in it, itmeaning their status.
And so the meaning of thatstatement from Bishop Berkeley
was that the slaves outwardstate was unchanged by
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conversion and it was equallyunchanged by baptism.
Why is that important?
This letter was so significantin the life of maintain that
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they were doing it under theauspices of the God of Jesus
Christ.
And so the impact of thisletter is threefold.
Number one it becomes thetheological norm in slave life,
even after the Revolutionary War.
As we move into the late 18thand into the 19th century, it
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becomes the prevailing numbertwo understanding of Christian
faith in America after therevolution and the Declaration
of Independence.
And, of course, number three,it becomes the apologetic
mandate in the life of thechurch.
Apologetic in this sense,meaning orthodox, in that the
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converted Christian shoulddefend this interpretation of
Christian faith with his or herlife if necessary.
And not only has that been thecase in the sovocracy has that
been the case in the sovocracy,but even today, as we look at
Christianity and the way it'spracticed in the life of the
church and thought about in bothblack and white churches, we
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see a lot of acquiescence withthis understanding of Christian
faith given by Bishop Berkeley.
A lot of talk about Satan, alot of talk about sin, but
usually that sin deals withsexual morality, not racial,
gender, class morality.
We see Satan mentioned a lot inour worship services, and we
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talk about Satan within thecontext of a mythical figure
that can keep us from heavenafter we die, but we don't talk
about Satan in terms ofhumanity's evil deeds as they
live on this earth.
And so, for the most part,bishop Berkeley's understanding
of Christian faith, in terms ofthe transformation of that
Christianity and the freedomthat Christianity gives, being
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an inward freedom, has reallymaintained itself up to the
present day.
Really maintained itself up tothe present day.
But as we move into the late18th and into the early 19th
century, things begin to change.
The black church, even thoughstarted on the plantation 1758
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in Mecklenburg, virginia, we seeour first black church
established 1773, 75,.
We see the second black church,established in Silver Bluff,
south Carolina, all with theintent of, number one, keeping
slaves pious, ie not connectingChristian faith with their
freedom from slavery, and numbertwo, keeping blacks away from
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whites, who did not want blacksin their churches and did not
want blacks to worship with them, even though they were in the
balcony or what we pejorativelyrefer to as buzzard roosts.
And so, in this sense, as blackpeople became more and more
Christianized and began toindependently read the Bible for
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themselves, we began to see theemergence of a different type
of hermeneutic relative to theblack struggle for justice.
But more particularly, we beganto see the emergence of a black
clergy who understand theirprimary call to be ending
slavery, called to be endingslavery whether it be by
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nonviolent means or whether itbe through violent means,
whether it be through unarmedmeans or whether it be through
armed means.
And so, as we move into the 19thcentury, we see the emergence,
in particular, of three men, whoI will deal with in this
segment, who saw their callingto God to enter the ministry not
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to preach a conciliatory,otherworldly gospel, not to
preach what we call an in-housegospel or a systems maintenance
gospel, but to preach a gospelof societal transformation, of
outward transformation, indirect contradiction of that in
terms of the implication ofbishop berkeley's letter in 1727
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.
And in fact, it was in hostileand direct opposition to that
particular type of theologicalunderstanding and theological
mood that it was the purpose ofthese three men in particular to
forever change the theologicallandscape in America and to see
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Christian faith, a tool that hadbeen used and was continuing to
be used for black oppression,to now be used for black
liberation that dealt not onlywith one's inward condition,
one's sins and one's inwardlusts, but also dealt with the
transformation of one's identityand humanity in the larger
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society.
In other words, we see thefoundation being laid for the
emergence of what would becomecalled, in the 50s and 60s, a
black theology of liberation.
We began in the counter toBishop Berkeley's letter.
Gerard Wilmore, in his bookBlack Religion and Black
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Radicalism, refers to them asthree generals in the Lord's
army, and it's an excellentnaming of these three men as
they began to lay a newministerial and theological
foundation for United States ofAmerica and for Black people.
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We begin at the turn of thecentury, in 1800, as we are now
in the United States of America.
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Colonies have gotten theirindependence from Britain but
still understood his calling tobe to destroy the institution of
slavery, not to not to cajoleand, of course, acquiesce to the
institution of slavery.
He considered himself the BlackSamson and deliverer of his
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people.
Of course, his favoritebiblical passage was Judges 15,
where Samson slews one thousandPhilistines with the jawbone of
a donkey and of course killsseveral Philistines, hundreds of
Philistines, when he of coursebrings back the columns of the
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banquet and kills not onlyhimself but several Philistines
as well.
Prosser understood his role tobe To awaken the conscience of
black people theologically andto lead them to their freedom,
their outward freedom fromslavery, and direct
contradiction to Bishop Berkeley.
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And so in that sense we startseeing, even in the beginning of
the 19th century, a newunderstanding of what it means
to be a black minister, that onemust not just seek to be a
black minister to preachstandard theology, but one must
preach prophetic theology, lifechanging theology, not just in
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the conversion experience, notjust in the church, but
conversion experience in termsof being a new person and having
a rage about the condition inwhich you find yourself as a
black person, and to see thatcondition more particularly as
ungodly and as unchristian.
Not your running away from theplantation, not your attempt to
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destroy slavery as it was taughtto slaves as being ungodly and
unchristian, but acquiescing toit to be ungodly and unchristian
.
And in this sense, as we turnthe page on the century, we are
also turning the page on a newunderstanding of theology among
the slaves.
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Twenty two years later, denmarkVesey, right down the street in
Charleston, south Carolina, afree man that worked as a slave
and purchased his freedom as aslave holder, allowed him to
work for some pay and of coursehe took money that he saved.
He didn't spend a penny of itsaved all of it for his freedom.
When he worked up what thatprice was, he gave it to his
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master and he was free.
And, of course, when hepurchased the freedom his
freedom, he did not go to theNorth looking to live in a
condition of luxury and turn hishead on the condition of
slavery and his people.
He understood his call to beministerial, he understood it to
be organizational and heunderstood it to be liberative.
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He organizes black ministers inCharleston of all denominations
something that's unheard of atthe time.
Denominations something that'sunheard of at the time.
By this time we are caught up inour denominational differences
and our denominational polityand, of course, working across
denominations was just somethingthat was simply considered
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taboo and considered politicallydangerous.
Politically dangerous, prosser,excuse me.
Vesey is able to transcend allof these denominational
differences, in all of thesedangers, and he's able to
sidestep the landmines oforganizing people in all
denominations, including a fewwhites as well, and he organizes
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black ministers to talk totheir congregations about the
necessity of an outward freedom,not just an inward freedom, but
a freedom from the Slavocracyas the freedom that Christian
faith and the Bible calls for,the freedom that Jesus and Paul
call for.
And so for Veazey, he wasguided by the Zechariah 14
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passage and the judges sixpassage.
The Zechariah 14 passage the dayof Jehovah, where God has
promised the Israelites that Godwill lead the fight would be
the general against unjustnations.
This is a very significantpassage, not only in biblical
history but also in contemporaryhistory.
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Biblical history, but also incontemporary history, because we
now extend the critique ofungodly behavior from the
religious individual to thedecisions that leaders of
nations make in creating unjustconditions for populations of
their citizens, which hits theUnited States of America dead
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center, namely because evenafter the revolution, the
founding fathers got two thingswrong.
That is number one.
They decided to maintain racialslavery and they decided to
continue with the politicalexclusion of women, two major
mistakes that they made.
And here you see, in thisbiblical passage from Zechariah
passage from Zechariah, thatwe're dealing with a God that
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doesn't, in contradistinction toBishop Berkeley, just deal with
one's inward condition, thatthat God is also concerned about
the way one lives in society.
Here you see Jehovah enlistingJehovah to go up against unjust
nations and fight against them.
Very significant for Vesey theZechariah 14 passage.
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And then Judges 6, joshua fellsthe walls of Jericho.
The walls are seen as symbolsof division, they are seen as
symbols of ignorance, they areseen as symbols of productivity.
And of course, in Judges 6,joshua is given the divine
command from God to walk aroundthe walls with his army seven
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times, promising Jericho thatthose walls will fall.
And of course the Israeliteswill go into the territory.
And Joshua, in obedience to God, does that and the walls of
Jericho fall.
And of course, for Vazey, hesaw America as a modern Jericho.
He saw America as a Jerichothat prides itself on division,
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especially racial division, thatprides itself on deceit, that
prides itself on trickery, thatprides itself on sophistry and
making slaves think that theonly hope they had of fulfilling
God's promises was after deathin heaven.
And of course, he saw inJericho and its counterpart,
contemporarily America, a nationthat was comfortable with its
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unjust treatment of black peopleand its undressed just
treatment of women, black people, and it's undressed just
treatment of women.
And so the Joshua six passage,very, very significant for
Denmark Vesey in Charleston in1822, as he leads this
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insurrection.
And of course it stands toreason that an insurrection
would be led in Charlestonbecause of course Charleston was
the major regional port topurchase slaves for slave
masters.
In fact, it is estimated thatclose to half of the slaves
purchased during the Americanslave trade were purchased in
Charleston, south Carolina.
In fact, the other regionalcenters were Richmond, virginia,
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new Orleans, louisiana, butthey were attended far less than
slaveholders attending theregional meetings, slave
auctions in Charlotte, it wassaid among slaveholders, if
you're looking for what you'relooking for, if you really want
what you're looking for, whetherit be in a slave woman or a
slave man, charleston was theplace to go.
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And so it was poetic justicethat an insurrection of major
proportions would be led numberone by a minister, number two by
a Christian minister and numberthree in Charleston, south
Carolina.
And of course, this thirdgeneral in the Lord's army,
according to Wilmore, general inthe Lord's army, according to
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Wilmore, the one you're probablythe most familiar with, nat
Turner, in Southampton, virginia, in 1831.
And of course, nat Turner wasprobably the one of the three
that was most given over toarmed insurrection as the only
way to achieve freedom.
For Turner, the logic was thateven the slave master's six and
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seven year old sons will grow upto be slaveholders when they
become adults and will probablybe even more virulent in their
psychical and their physicalexacting on black people's
bodies and minds as theirfathers.
And so for him, not only didyou have to kill the slave
masters, but you had to killtheir sons as well.
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Uh, walker is uh, uh.
Turner is believed to be deeplyinfluenced by David Walker's
appeal to the colored citizensof America.
We'll talk about that shortly,uh, particularly in the next
segment.
But David Walker's appeal wasone of the most incendiary books
ever written.
Walker, of course, was bornfree uh, free in Wilmington,
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north Carolina, made his way upto Boston, started a seamstress
shop to pay the bills, as theysay, and, of course, wrote this
incendiary track, and I suggestyou read it as well.
That comes out in 1829.
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And it is an incendiarymanifesto that condemns slavery
and connects America to all ofthe great kingdoms, including
Rome and Babylon, who had theirday in terms of prosperity, in
terms of their rise, but alsohad their falls, and
prophetically predicted thatAmerica would fall as well.
This book was published inBoston, was sent down in ships
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with other goods, the cover waswrapped in paper bags so you
couldn't see what the title was,and it was distributed to
slaves who could read, andslaves who could read read it to
slaves who couldn't read.
And of course, it upped theante in terms of insurrections.
And many historians believethat Turner was influenced by
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David Walker's appeal to thecolored citizens of the world In
1830,.
His insurrection takes place ayear later, in 1831.
A year later, in 1831, turneris going to be influenced
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biblically, as a minister, bythe Luke 1231 passage and of
course, in this case he haschosen a New Testament passage
over and against the OldTestament passages of Vesey and
Prosser in their understandingof ministry, of Vesey and
Prosser and their understandingof ministry.
For those of you familiar withthe Luke 1231 passage, it reads
Seek ye first the kingdom of Godand all other things will be
added.
And so, for you know, turner,it was clear that the kingdom of
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God was rooted in blackliberation and that if we work
to get black liberation, notonly would liberation happen,
but all other accoutrements ofGod's grace would come our way
as well.
They will be the French pastry,they will be added.
But of course God calls us,like God called Moses, to go to
Egypt and tell Pharaoh us, likeGod called Moses to go to Egypt
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and tell Pharaoh, let my peoplego.
That Turner truly believed thatGod called us and actually
called ministers to lead, inthis case black people, to their
freedom, and so he is seekingthe kingdom of God, which is
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very significant because ofcourse the kingdom of God
theology was used by whiteministers throughout the
plantation, throughout slavery,to establish as the Slavocracy
itself being synonymous with thekingdom of God.
And so slaves had to hear adnauseum in Sunday sermons in
church how the Slavocracy itselfwas the manifestation of the
kingdom of God and of coursethey refer to it historically as
manifest destiny, that thedestiny of black and white
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people in America has beencreated and inaugurated by God,
perpetuated by God, andtherefore God's favor is on the
Slavocracy, and that they wereliving in the midst of the
kingdom.
But of course most black people, including Turner, did not buy
this understanding of thekingdom, for the kingdom, as
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I've even argued, cannot beequated with human bondage, that
there is no way that thecongruency Of bondage, human
bondage of one group overanother, equating to the kingdom
of God, can be seen as a soundand as a reasonable and
convincing theological concept,that it reeks with hypocrisy and
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it reeks with favoritism andwhite privilege.
And in that sense no kingdomcan emerge when one group of
people using another people andoppressing another people in
order to achieve incomparableeconomic ends.
And so the kingdom wasreinterpreted by Turner in order
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to make it chime with theliberating aspirations of
African-Americans and, of course, for him it more closely chimed
with the understanding of thekingdom in the Bible itself, and
so he was engaged in adifferent biblical hermeneutic
than white ministers relative tothe kingdom, one that was
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rooted in human liberation, notin the furtherance of African
slavery.
And so we see this passage asbeing significant.
Beyond the insurrection, itbrings a theological critique of
a new interpretation of thekingdom, and kingdom is now
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understood not as slavery andacquiescent to it, but to its
abolition.
What is then the significance?
The commonality of theinsurrectionists.
First, I must say, in all threecases and all three
insurrections we see establishedofficially for the first time
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in history, the black spy, orwhat we would call in
contemporary circles spy, orwhat we would call in
contemporary circles,pejoratively to Uncle Tom,
emerged because each three ofthese insurrections were told to
the slaveholder and they weredefeated ultimately because
someone from the slave communitywent back and told the master.
And so what we see from anunfortunate standpoint in the
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evolving of American history forblack people is the official
emergence.
We already had the Overseer andthe driver on the plantations
who actually went to plantationsand voted I mean in in bulk
slaves and bid it on slaves fortheir masters.
And that's why we say when wesell out the aspirations of
black people that you're doingyour master's bidding.
But now we're about to see,officially, unfortunately, the
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emergence of the Uncle Tom whogoes back and that you're doing
your master's bidding.
But now we're about to see,officially, unfortunately, the
emergence of the Uncle Tom whogoes back and tells the masters
of the slaves uprising and theirplans, but more particularly
from a standpoint of fortune andpositively, the commonality of
the insurrectionists is this thecommonality of the
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insurrectionists is this Allthree are Christian ministers,
which means they've taken theinterpretation of Christianity
by white clergy and they stoodit on its head.
It now becomes a tool ofliberation, no longer a tool of
oppression.
All three are Christianministers fighting for freedom
and who see that freedomimperative, not just an inward
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freedom, but see an outwardfreedom, a societally
transforming freedom, asimperative in the gospel message
itself.
This is crucial for the slavecommunity as it moves into the
19th century because it's goingto lay the groundwork for more
insurrectionist activity as wemove up to the Civil War Number
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two.
All three of these menunderstood their call to
ministry to fight for theabolition of slavery and not
promote its merits.
Up to this point, most of theministers that had been produced
in the black church Openlyadvocated the merits of slavery,
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namely because generally therewere white overseers in the
black back of the church andthey prohibited black pastors
from making direct references tofreedom in their sermons, not
unless that freedom of coursemagnified Bishop Berkeley's
interpretation of an inwardfreedom but not an outward
freedom.
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And so for the most partpastors were systems maintenance
kinds of pastors.
But you're going to see withthese insurrectionists here that
they're called to ministry, andmy judgment is more authentic
because they were fighting for aliberation hermeneutic of the
gospel to be pragmaticallyrealized in American society,
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not only for black people butfor all people.
And they understood that thisunderstanding of biblical
revelation was more closely akinwith what the Bible actually
says and what the Bible isactually about the central
meaning, the central witness ofthe gospel than for the Bible to
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be used in the demonic way ofjustifying one's enslavement of
another race of people.
And so all of them understoodtheir call to ministry to fight
for the abolition of slavery andnot promote its merits.
And three, for all three ofthese men, it marks the first
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public declaration of aChristian faith, of black
liberation.
In that sense, liberation meansnot only one's inward freedom
but one's outward freedom.
Liberation is a more holisticterm than freedom itself and
lays the ground foundation for acomplete understanding of
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freedom for human beings, andblack people in particular, and
not just one's inward freedom,as Bishop Berkeley suggested.
And this lays the groundworkfor the emergence of the black
abolitionist tradition in the19th century.
We're going to see FrederickDouglass, we're going to see
Harriet Tubman emerge out ofthis milieu.
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We're going to see Ida B WellsBarnett emerge out of this
milieu.
Richard Allen is going toemerge out of this milieu.
Richard Allen is going toemerge out of this milieu.
And of course, at the end of the20th century, 19th century,
you're going to see theemergence of Reverend C Ransom,
a very progressive pastor inCalifornia, and you're going to
see the emergence as well ofDaniel Payne, an AME minister
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and Bishop, henry McNeil Turner,who actually publishes the
article and sets Atlanta in thesouth on fire when he publishes
the article in 1898 that God isa Negro, to the proliferation of
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white images of Jesus that aregoing to begin in the 18th
century, along with the FugitiveSlave Act, as a last ditch
effort to maintain white controland as a last ditch effort to
maintain white supremacy.
And so this is going to throwdown the gauntlet to America
that we have become a maturepeople as we move into the 19th
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century and that we are notgoing to accept slavery, not
only in terms of itsanthropological significance,
but we're certainly not going toaccept slavery anymore in its
theological significance andapplication, that the notion
that we should see an easyaffinity between God and human
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bondage has been severed, andit's been severed forever.
And in many ways we began ineighteen hundred, of course,
with process, processinsurrection, to throw down not
only the historical gauntlet toAmerica but to throw down the
theological gauntlet as well.
And of course, in the nextsegment we'll talk about how
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that emerged and unfolded as wemove through the 18th century up
to the Civil War.
As always, it's been real.
Thank you for joining metonight and good night.
Good evening, welcome to this next segment of Native
Native Drums podcast of theSavannah Grove Baptist Church,
pastored by the Reverend DrRalph W Canty.
Picking up off of the lastsegment on the coming of the
gods, I want to take anopportunity to use this segment
to complement it with theemergence of a militant black
(00:37):
clergy, coming off of, of course, the anti-slavery theology and
the presuppositions, thebiblical passages we listened to
in the previous segment.
And so I want to use thissegment to talk to you this
evening about insurrectionisttheology, the origins of a
militant black clergy.
Insurrectionist theology, theorigins of a militant black
(01:02):
clergy.
Before I get into the threeexamples of militant black
clergy that will comprise thissegment, I feel it also
necessary to give you a littlebackground about the theological
history of America relative tothe Slavocracy and how slavery
was understood by both plantersand slaveholders alike.
And so, when we look at thatbackground, we see a bondage
(01:24):
freedom dilemma, as I call it,emerging in the 18th century,
about 100 years into theSlavocracy.
And of course, the questionsthat surrounded that dialogue
about the bondage freedomdilemma was how to reconcile
Christian freedom with eternalslavery.
How are we going toChristianize, baptize slaves,
(01:45):
and should we and three did theChristianization of the slave
mean immediate freedom?
These are all legitimatequestions, namely because
Christian faith is a faiththat's ultimately rooted in
human freedom.
But yet, at the same time,planters and white Christian
ministers were not ministers,were not interested in black
(02:06):
people being free from slavery.
And so, even though theoriginal planters committed
Christian faith to theSlavocracy and maintained that
slavery was an institution thatwas to remain eternal until the
end of time, they wereconstantly beset, as we moved
into the 18th century, byquestions about not only the
(02:26):
Christianization of the slave,but whether, in grounding the
Slavocracy and Christianityitself, does the
Christianization of the slavemean immediate freedom?
Of course, this was not thegoal of white planters, because
the goal was to Christianize theslave, to make the slave more
docile and readily accepting ofhis or her enslavement, not to
(02:48):
free them from slavery itselfand what it represented for them
from a standpoint of Christianredemption and, of course, from
a standpoint of Christiancharity.
And so the challenge then forthe slave holding community and
for white Christian ministerswas to create an approach to
(03:09):
freedom that touted the value offreedom in the Christian life
and in biblical revelation,while at the same time not
freeing slaves from slavery,from slavery.
And so, to answer this question, still under British rule,
before the Revolution in 1727,anglican Bishop George Berkeley
(03:30):
decided to address this issueand to help out his fellow
colonial planters and, of course, to help out his white
Christian colleagues in theministry.
And so he crafts this lettertitled to the masters and
mistresses of families in theministry.
And so he crafts this lettertitled to the masters and
mistresses of families in theEnglish plantations abroad,
(03:51):
exhorting them to encourage andpromote the instruction of the
Negroes in the Christian faith.
Long title and, of course, evenlonger impact as we move
through American history.
Here is an excerpt from thatparticular letter that I think
is representative of the entireletter.
(04:11):
And of course this is BishopBerkeley addressing how we were
going to proceed as a Europeannation and as, of course, a
European colony, touting thevalues of freedom while at the
same time not allowing Africanslaves to be free.
And so Bishop Berkeley, in thisexcerpt, proclaims Christianity
(04:35):
and the embracing of the gospeldoes not make the least
alteration of civil property orin any of the duties which
belong to civil relations, butin all these respects it
continues persons in the samestate as it found them, the
(04:55):
freedom which Christianity givesis a freedom from the bondage
of sin and Satan and from thedominion of ones of men's lusts
and passions and inordinatedesires.
But as to their outwardcondition, whatever that was
before, whether bond or free,they're being baptized, and
(05:20):
becoming Christians makes nomanner of change in it.
And becoming Christians makesno manner of change in it.
What was Bishop Berkeley saying?
His argument First Christianfreedom is strictly inward and
not outward.
The freedom which Christianitygives is a freedom from the
bondage of sin and Satan.
What did that mean for him?
(05:41):
Interpretation wise, it meantthat only the slaves inward
state was corrupt and can bechanged by conversion or baptism
, but not the slaves outwardstate in terms of societal
freedom from chattel slavery.
And of course, the otherstatement bears significance for
(06:03):
our discussion.
The statement bearssignificance for our discussion.
But as to their outwardcondition, whether bond or free,
they're becoming baptized, andbecoming Christians makes no
manner of change in it, itmeaning their status.
And so the meaning of thatstatement from Bishop Berkeley
was that the slaves outwardstate was unchanged by
(06:23):
conversion and it was equallyunchanged by baptism.
Why is that important?
This letter was so significantin the life of maintain that
(06:47):
they were doing it under theauspices of the God of Jesus
Christ.
And so the impact of thisletter is threefold.
Number one it becomes thetheological norm in slave life,
even after the Revolutionary War.
As we move into the late 18thand into the 19th century, it
(07:09):
becomes the prevailing numbertwo understanding of Christian
faith in America after therevolution and the Declaration
of Independence.
And, of course, number three,it becomes the apologetic
mandate in the life of thechurch.
Apologetic in this sense,meaning orthodox, in that the
(07:30):
converted Christian shoulddefend this interpretation of
Christian faith with his or herlife if necessary.
And not only has that been thecase in the sovocracy has that
been the case in the sovocracy,but even today, as we look at
Christianity and the way it'spracticed in the life of the
church and thought about in bothblack and white churches, we
(07:52):
see a lot of acquiescence withthis understanding of Christian
faith given by Bishop Berkeley.
A lot of talk about Satan, alot of talk about sin, but
usually that sin deals withsexual morality, not racial,
gender, class morality.
We see Satan mentioned a lot inour worship services, and we
(08:14):
talk about Satan within thecontext of a mythical figure
that can keep us from heavenafter we die, but we don't talk
about Satan in terms ofhumanity's evil deeds as they
live on this earth.
And so, for the most part,bishop Berkeley's understanding
of Christian faith, in terms ofthe transformation of that
Christianity and the freedomthat Christianity gives, being
(08:37):
an inward freedom, has reallymaintained itself up to the
present day.
Really maintained itself up tothe present day.
But as we move into the late18th and into the early 19th
century, things begin to change.
The black church, even thoughstarted on the plantation 1758
(09:00):
in Mecklenburg, virginia, we seeour first black church
established 1773, 75,.
We see the second black church,established in Silver Bluff,
south Carolina, all with theintent of, number one, keeping
slaves pious, ie not connectingChristian faith with their
freedom from slavery, and numbertwo, keeping blacks away from
(09:23):
whites, who did not want blacksin their churches and did not
want blacks to worship with them, even though they were in the
balcony or what we pejorativelyrefer to as buzzard roosts.
And so, in this sense, as blackpeople became more and more
Christianized and began toindependently read the Bible for
(09:44):
themselves, we began to see theemergence of a different type
of hermeneutic relative to theblack struggle for justice.
But more particularly, we beganto see the emergence of a black
clergy who understand theirprimary call to be ending
slavery, called to be endingslavery whether it be by
(10:09):
nonviolent means or whether itbe through violent means,
whether it be through unarmedmeans or whether it be through
armed means.
And so, as we move into the 19thcentury, we see the emergence,
in particular, of three men, whoI will deal with in this
segment, who saw their callingto God to enter the ministry not
(10:30):
to preach a conciliatory,otherworldly gospel, not to
preach what we call an in-housegospel or a systems maintenance
gospel, but to preach a gospelof societal transformation, of
outward transformation, indirect contradiction of that in
terms of the implication ofbishop berkeley's letter in 1727
(10:53):
.
And in fact, it was in hostileand direct opposition to that
particular type of theologicalunderstanding and theological
mood that it was the purpose ofthese three men in particular to
forever change the theologicallandscape in America and to see
(11:13):
Christian faith, a tool that hadbeen used and was continuing to
be used for black oppression,to now be used for black
liberation that dealt not onlywith one's inward condition,
one's sins and one's inwardlusts, but also dealt with the
transformation of one's identityand humanity in the larger
(11:36):
society.
In other words, we see thefoundation being laid for the
emergence of what would becomecalled, in the 50s and 60s, a
black theology of liberation.
We began in the counter toBishop Berkeley's letter.
Gerard Wilmore, in his bookBlack Religion and Black
(11:56):
Radicalism, refers to them asthree generals in the Lord's
army, and it's an excellentnaming of these three men as
they began to lay a newministerial and theological
foundation for United States ofAmerica and for Black people.
(12:20):
We begin at the turn of thecentury, in 1800, as we are now
in the United States of America.
(12:42):
Colonies have gotten theirindependence from Britain but
still understood his calling tobe to destroy the institution of
slavery, not to not to cajoleand, of course, acquiesce to the
institution of slavery.
He considered himself the BlackSamson and deliverer of his
(13:03):
people.
Of course, his favoritebiblical passage was Judges 15,
where Samson slews one thousandPhilistines with the jawbone of
a donkey and of course killsseveral Philistines, hundreds of
Philistines, when he of coursebrings back the columns of the
(13:25):
banquet and kills not onlyhimself but several Philistines
as well.
Prosser understood his role tobe To awaken the conscience of
black people theologically andto lead them to their freedom,
their outward freedom fromslavery, and direct
contradiction to Bishop Berkeley.
(13:46):
And so in that sense we startseeing, even in the beginning of
the 19th century, a newunderstanding of what it means
to be a black minister, that onemust not just seek to be a
black minister to preachstandard theology, but one must
preach prophetic theology, lifechanging theology, not just in
(14:09):
the conversion experience, notjust in the church, but
conversion experience in termsof being a new person and having
a rage about the condition inwhich you find yourself as a
black person, and to see thatcondition more particularly as
ungodly and as unchristian.
Not your running away from theplantation, not your attempt to
(14:30):
destroy slavery as it was taughtto slaves as being ungodly and
unchristian, but acquiescing toit to be ungodly and unchristian
.
And in this sense, as we turnthe page on the century, we are
also turning the page on a newunderstanding of theology among
the slaves.
(14:52):
Twenty two years later, denmarkVesey, right down the street in
Charleston, south Carolina, afree man that worked as a slave
and purchased his freedom as aslave holder, allowed him to
work for some pay and of coursehe took money that he saved.
He didn't spend a penny of itsaved all of it for his freedom.
When he worked up what thatprice was, he gave it to his
(15:14):
master and he was free.
And, of course, when hepurchased the freedom his
freedom, he did not go to theNorth looking to live in a
condition of luxury and turn hishead on the condition of
slavery and his people.
He understood his call to beministerial, he understood it to
be organizational and heunderstood it to be liberative.
(15:37):
He organizes black ministers inCharleston of all denominations
something that's unheard of atthe time.
Denominations something that'sunheard of at the time.
By this time we are caught up inour denominational differences
and our denominational polityand, of course, working across
denominations was just somethingthat was simply considered
(15:57):
taboo and considered politicallydangerous.
Politically dangerous, prosser,excuse me.
Vesey is able to transcend allof these denominational
differences, in all of thesedangers, and he's able to
sidestep the landmines oforganizing people in all
denominations, including a fewwhites as well, and he organizes
(16:21):
black ministers to talk totheir congregations about the
necessity of an outward freedom,not just an inward freedom, but
a freedom from the Slavocracyas the freedom that Christian
faith and the Bible calls for,the freedom that Jesus and Paul
call for.
And so for Veazey, he wasguided by the Zechariah 14
(16:42):
passage and the judges sixpassage.
The Zechariah 14 passage the dayof Jehovah, where God has
promised the Israelites that Godwill lead the fight would be
the general against unjustnations.
This is a very significantpassage, not only in biblical
history but also in contemporaryhistory.
(17:03):
Biblical history, but also incontemporary history, because we
now extend the critique ofungodly behavior from the
religious individual to thedecisions that leaders of
nations make in creating unjustconditions for populations of
their citizens, which hits theUnited States of America dead
(17:25):
center, namely because evenafter the revolution, the
founding fathers got two thingswrong.
That is number one.
They decided to maintain racialslavery and they decided to
continue with the politicalexclusion of women, two major
mistakes that they made.
And here you see, in thisbiblical passage from Zechariah
passage from Zechariah, thatwe're dealing with a God that
(17:46):
doesn't, in contradistinction toBishop Berkeley, just deal with
one's inward condition, thatthat God is also concerned about
the way one lives in society.
Here you see Jehovah enlistingJehovah to go up against unjust
nations and fight against them.
Very significant for Vesey theZechariah 14 passage.
(18:09):
And then Judges 6, joshua fellsthe walls of Jericho.
The walls are seen as symbolsof division, they are seen as
symbols of ignorance, they areseen as symbols of productivity.
And of course, in Judges 6,joshua is given the divine
command from God to walk aroundthe walls with his army seven
(18:31):
times, promising Jericho thatthose walls will fall.
And of course the Israeliteswill go into the territory.
And Joshua, in obedience to God, does that and the walls of
Jericho fall.
And of course, for Vazey, hesaw America as a modern Jericho.
He saw America as a Jerichothat prides itself on division,
(18:54):
especially racial division, thatprides itself on deceit, that
prides itself on trickery, thatprides itself on sophistry and
making slaves think that theonly hope they had of fulfilling
God's promises was after deathin heaven.
And of course, he saw inJericho and its counterpart,
contemporarily America, a nationthat was comfortable with its
(19:19):
unjust treatment of black peopleand its undressed just
treatment of women, black people, and it's undressed just
treatment of women.
And so the Joshua six passage,very, very significant for
Denmark Vesey in Charleston in1822, as he leads this
(19:40):
insurrection.
And of course it stands toreason that an insurrection
would be led in Charlestonbecause of course Charleston was
the major regional port topurchase slaves for slave
masters.
In fact, it is estimated thatclose to half of the slaves
purchased during the Americanslave trade were purchased in
Charleston, south Carolina.
In fact, the other regionalcenters were Richmond, virginia,
(20:02):
new Orleans, louisiana, butthey were attended far less than
slaveholders attending theregional meetings, slave
auctions in Charlotte, it wassaid among slaveholders, if
you're looking for what you'relooking for, if you really want
what you're looking for, whetherit be in a slave woman or a
slave man, charleston was theplace to go.
(20:23):
And so it was poetic justicethat an insurrection of major
proportions would be led numberone by a minister, number two by
a Christian minister and numberthree in Charleston, south
Carolina.
And of course, this thirdgeneral in the Lord's army,
according to Wilmore, general inthe Lord's army, according to
(20:44):
Wilmore, the one you're probablythe most familiar with, nat
Turner, in Southampton, virginia, in 1831.
And of course, nat Turner wasprobably the one of the three
that was most given over toarmed insurrection as the only
way to achieve freedom.
For Turner, the logic was thateven the slave master's six and
(21:06):
seven year old sons will grow upto be slaveholders when they
become adults and will probablybe even more virulent in their
psychical and their physicalexacting on black people's
bodies and minds as theirfathers.
And so for him, not only didyou have to kill the slave
masters, but you had to killtheir sons as well.
(21:29):
Uh, walker is uh, uh.
Turner is believed to be deeplyinfluenced by David Walker's
appeal to the colored citizensof America.
We'll talk about that shortly,uh, particularly in the next
segment.
But David Walker's appeal wasone of the most incendiary books
ever written.
Walker, of course, was bornfree uh, free in Wilmington,
(21:49):
north Carolina, made his way upto Boston, started a seamstress
shop to pay the bills, as theysay, and, of course, wrote this
incendiary track, and I suggestyou read it as well.
That comes out in 1829.
(22:11):
And it is an incendiarymanifesto that condemns slavery
and connects America to all ofthe great kingdoms, including
Rome and Babylon, who had theirday in terms of prosperity, in
terms of their rise, but alsohad their falls, and
prophetically predicted thatAmerica would fall as well.
This book was published inBoston, was sent down in ships
(22:33):
with other goods, the cover waswrapped in paper bags so you
couldn't see what the title was,and it was distributed to
slaves who could read, andslaves who could read read it to
slaves who couldn't read.
And of course, it upped theante in terms of insurrections.
And many historians believethat Turner was influenced by
(22:53):
David Walker's appeal to thecolored citizens of the world In
1830,.
His insurrection takes place ayear later, in 1831.
A year later, in 1831, turneris going to be influenced
(23:16):
biblically, as a minister, bythe Luke 1231 passage and of
course, in this case he haschosen a New Testament passage
over and against the OldTestament passages of Vesey and
Prosser in their understandingof ministry, of Vesey and
Prosser and their understandingof ministry.
For those of you familiar withthe Luke 1231 passage, it reads
Seek ye first the kingdom of Godand all other things will be
added.
And so, for you know, turner,it was clear that the kingdom of
(23:41):
God was rooted in blackliberation and that if we work
to get black liberation, notonly would liberation happen,
but all other accoutrements ofGod's grace would come our way
as well.
They will be the French pastry,they will be added.
But of course God calls us,like God called Moses, to go to
Egypt and tell Pharaoh us, likeGod called Moses to go to Egypt
(24:02):
and tell Pharaoh, let my peoplego.
That Turner truly believed thatGod called us and actually
called ministers to lead, inthis case black people, to their
freedom, and so he is seekingthe kingdom of God, which is
(24:25):
very significant because ofcourse the kingdom of God
theology was used by whiteministers throughout the
plantation, throughout slavery,to establish as the Slavocracy
itself being synonymous with thekingdom of God.
And so slaves had to hear adnauseum in Sunday sermons in
church how the Slavocracy itselfwas the manifestation of the
kingdom of God and of coursethey refer to it historically as
manifest destiny, that thedestiny of black and white
(24:47):
people in America has beencreated and inaugurated by God,
perpetuated by God, andtherefore God's favor is on the
Slavocracy, and that they wereliving in the midst of the
kingdom.
But of course most black people, including Turner, did not buy
this understanding of thekingdom, for the kingdom, as
(25:07):
I've even argued, cannot beequated with human bondage, that
there is no way that thecongruency Of bondage, human
bondage of one group overanother, equating to the kingdom
of God, can be seen as a soundand as a reasonable and
convincing theological concept,that it reeks with hypocrisy and
(25:29):
it reeks with favoritism andwhite privilege.
And in that sense no kingdomcan emerge when one group of
people using another people andoppressing another people in
order to achieve incomparableeconomic ends.
And so the kingdom wasreinterpreted by Turner in order
(25:51):
to make it chime with theliberating aspirations of
African-Americans and, of course, for him it more closely chimed
with the understanding of thekingdom in the Bible itself, and
so he was engaged in adifferent biblical hermeneutic
than white ministers relative tothe kingdom, one that was
(26:12):
rooted in human liberation, notin the furtherance of African
slavery.
And so we see this passage asbeing significant.
Beyond the insurrection, itbrings a theological critique of
a new interpretation of thekingdom, and kingdom is now
(26:33):
understood not as slavery andacquiescent to it, but to its
abolition.
What is then the significance?
The commonality of theinsurrectionists.
First, I must say, in all threecases and all three
insurrections we see establishedofficially for the first time
(26:57):
in history, the black spy, orwhat we would call in
contemporary circles spy, orwhat we would call in
contemporary circles,pejoratively to Uncle Tom,
emerged because each three ofthese insurrections were told to
the slaveholder and they weredefeated ultimately because
someone from the slave communitywent back and told the master.
And so what we see from anunfortunate standpoint in the
(27:20):
evolving of American history forblack people is the official
emergence.
We already had the Overseer andthe driver on the plantations
who actually went to plantationsand voted I mean in in bulk
slaves and bid it on slaves fortheir masters.
And that's why we say when wesell out the aspirations of
black people that you're doingyour master's bidding.
But now we're about to see,officially, unfortunately, the
(27:43):
emergence of the Uncle Tom whogoes back and that you're doing
your master's bidding.
But now we're about to see,officially, unfortunately, the
emergence of the Uncle Tom whogoes back and tells the masters
of the slaves uprising and theirplans, but more particularly
from a standpoint of fortune andpositively, the commonality of
the insurrectionists is this thecommonality of the
(28:04):
insurrectionists is this Allthree are Christian ministers,
which means they've taken theinterpretation of Christianity
by white clergy and they stoodit on its head.
It now becomes a tool ofliberation, no longer a tool of
oppression.
All three are Christianministers fighting for freedom
and who see that freedomimperative, not just an inward
(28:25):
freedom, but see an outwardfreedom, a societally
transforming freedom, asimperative in the gospel message
itself.
This is crucial for the slavecommunity as it moves into the
19th century because it's goingto lay the groundwork for more
insurrectionist activity as wemove up to the Civil War Number
(28:50):
two.
All three of these menunderstood their call to
ministry to fight for theabolition of slavery and not
promote its merits.
Up to this point, most of theministers that had been produced
in the black church Openlyadvocated the merits of slavery,
(29:12):
namely because generally therewere white overseers in the
black back of the church andthey prohibited black pastors
from making direct references tofreedom in their sermons, not
unless that freedom of coursemagnified Bishop Berkeley's
interpretation of an inwardfreedom but not an outward
freedom.
(29:33):
And so for the most partpastors were systems maintenance
kinds of pastors.
But you're going to see withthese insurrectionists here that
they're called to ministry, andmy judgment is more authentic
because they were fighting for aliberation hermeneutic of the
gospel to be pragmaticallyrealized in American society,
(29:53):
not only for black people butfor all people.
And they understood that thisunderstanding of biblical
revelation was more closely akinwith what the Bible actually
says and what the Bible isactually about the central
meaning, the central witness ofthe gospel than for the Bible to
(30:13):
be used in the demonic way ofjustifying one's enslavement of
another race of people.
And so all of them understoodtheir call to ministry to fight
for the abolition of slavery andnot promote its merits.
And three, for all three ofthese men, it marks the first
(30:34):
public declaration of aChristian faith, of black
liberation.
In that sense, liberation meansnot only one's inward freedom
but one's outward freedom.
Liberation is a more holisticterm than freedom itself and
lays the ground foundation for acomplete understanding of
(30:55):
freedom for human beings, andblack people in particular, and
not just one's inward freedom,as Bishop Berkeley suggested.
And this lays the groundworkfor the emergence of the black
abolitionist tradition in the19th century.
We're going to see FrederickDouglass, we're going to see
Harriet Tubman emerge out ofthis milieu.
(31:17):
We're going to see Ida B WellsBarnett emerge out of this
milieu.
Richard Allen is going toemerge out of this milieu.
Richard Allen is going toemerge out of this milieu.
And of course, at the end of the20th century, 19th century,
you're going to see theemergence of Reverend C Ransom,
a very progressive pastor inCalifornia, and you're going to
see the emergence as well ofDaniel Payne, an AME minister
(31:39):
and Bishop, henry McNeil Turner,who actually publishes the
article and sets Atlanta in thesouth on fire when he publishes
the article in 1898 that God isa Negro, to the proliferation of
(32:02):
white images of Jesus that aregoing to begin in the 18th
century, along with the FugitiveSlave Act, as a last ditch
effort to maintain white controland as a last ditch effort to
maintain white supremacy.
And so this is going to throwdown the gauntlet to America
that we have become a maturepeople as we move into the 19th
(32:23):
century and that we are notgoing to accept slavery, not
only in terms of itsanthropological significance,
but we're certainly not going toaccept slavery anymore in its
theological significance andapplication, that the notion
that we should see an easyaffinity between God and human
(32:44):
bondage has been severed, andit's been severed forever.
And in many ways we began ineighteen hundred, of course,
with process, processinsurrection, to throw down not
only the historical gauntlet toAmerica but to throw down the
theological gauntlet as well.
And of course, in the nextsegment we'll talk about how
(33:05):
that emerged and unfolded as wemove through the 18th century up
to the Civil War.
As always, it's been real.
Thank you for joining metonight and good night.
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