I sort of agree in this particular way -- It makes no sense at all as endorsement or support of slavery for God to make this commandment He made:
15 If a slave has taken refuge with you, do not hand them over to their master. 16 Let them live among you wherever they like and in whatever town they choose. Do not oppress them.
That law is telling Hebrews to allow slaves who have escaped their foreign masters in foreign lands to settle in one of their (Hebrew) towns. It doesn't apply to Hebrew slaveowners or their slaves. "let them live among you" implies they came from foreign lands.
Even if it did apply to all slaves, it just meant that Hebrew masters had to keep their slaves locked up or in chains if they thought that they might escape. It doesn't mean that slaves were free to come and go as they chose.
Of course in America before 1865, slave owners infamously violated almost every law from even the Old Testament on slavery.
You are conflating two separate issues:
- Having laws in place to protect slaves from abuse
- The degree to which these laws were enforced
- the 1739 South Carolina code limited the number of hours that slaves could be made to work and fined anyone who killed a slave £700.
- The 1833 Alabama law code dictated, “Any person who shall maliciously dismember or deprive a slave of life, shall suffer such punishment as would be inflicted in case the like offense had been committed on a free white person.”
- Ten Southern codes made it a crime to mistreat a slave.... Under the Louisiana Civil Code of 1825 (art. 192), if a master was "convicted of cruel treatment," the judge could order the sale of the mistreated slave, presumably to a better master
- In 1791, the North Carolina legislature made the willful killing of a slave murder unless it was done who was resisting or under moderate correction
- The South Carolina slave code was revised in 1739, with the following amendments:
- No slave could work on Sunday, or work more than 15 hours per day in summer and 14 hours in winter.
- The willful killing of a slave was fined £700, and "passion" killing £350.
- No slave could work on Sunday, or work more than 15 hours per day in summer and 14 hours in winter.
Similarly, the bible contains laws that protect slaves from being abused. Do you know the degree to which the bibles laws were enforced? You imply they were? What is your justification for this?
It's no wonder that the most effective workers in the abolition movements were Christians, like powerful evangelists such as Charles Spurgeon (who is still known as one of the great evangelists of all time) who reached tens and tens of thousands with powerful preaching.
Christian Abolitionism - Wikipedia
"In these venues Spurgeon frequently preached to audiences numbering more than 10,000. At 22, Spurgeon was the most popular preacher of the day.[7]"
Charles Spurgeon - Wikipedia
Christians may have been responsible for ending slavery in the US, but remember virtually everyone identified as a Christian at the time. Also Christians on both sides of the slavery debate used the Bible to justify their views.
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, who supported slavery at the time:
- Abraham, the “father of faith,” and all the patriarchs held slaves without God’s disapproval (Genesis 21:9-10).
- Canaan, Ham’s son, was made a slave to his brothers (Genesis 9:24-27).
- The Ten Commandments mention slavery twice, showing God’s implicit acceptance of it (Exodus 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 (
Ephesians 6:5-8). - Paul returned a runaway slave, Philemon, to his master (Philemon 12).
While there were also many Christians who opposed slavery, they picked and chose the verses that supported their cause and ignored or interpreted away the verses that didn't. In particular they ignored 1 Corinthians 7:17-24, which says "each person should live as a believer in whatever situation the Lord has assigned to them, just as God has called them." The fact that it also says "although if you can gain your freedom, do so" is more of an afterthought and of no real help to the slave. It effectively said: “if your master lets you go, then take your freedom”. I can imagine a slaves response to be "Gee, thanks for nothing!"
Also remember that although the Abolitionist Movement used religious arguments against slavery, there there were also many enlightenment thinkers who condemned slavery on humanistic grounds. People realized that slavery was deeply immoral because:
- It reduces people to objects that can be owned
- Increases leads to a great deal of suffering
- It exploits and degrades human beings
- It violates basic human rights
- It perpetuates the abuse of children
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