Reading up about the lead-up to the American Civil War - big plantation owners were able to point to plenty of Biblical quotes to back up their positions, slaves obey your masters and all that. However it surprised me that famed abolitionist and notable lunatic John Brown considered himself staunchly religious and thought slavery was a sin.
Did abolitions in the U.S. before and during the Civil War ever try and use the Bible to support their positions? How did they respond to the slaveholders use of it?
If you are sticking to the Americas as a whole and not just concentrating on the US, then yes, lots of prominent Christians opposed slavery, especially Catholics. Pope Paul III issued a Papal Bull forbidding slavery of Indigenous Americans
As silenus implies, John Brown of Ossawatomie was a devout Calvinist preacher. The Golden Rule and the Commandment “Thou shalt not steal” were enough to prove slavery wrong, but Brown especially liked to quote a verse in Epistle to the Hebrews:
[QUOTE=Hebrews 13:3]
Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.
[/QUOTE]
(I’ve become especially fond of John Brown since learning he is my close relative. )
The fact that the Bible could be used to both promote and denounce slavery at the same time shows that anyone can use excerpts from the Bible to defend pretty much any position they want…
Most British abolitionists either expressly based their arguments on Christian principles or came to their viewpoints based on Biblical interpretation. This was a big deal, since Britain became the primary force for abolition in the 17th-19th centuries, mostly at the behest of the Committee.
The British government concluded more than a dozen treaties requiring both parties to combat the slave trade in that period, such as the Anglo-French Treaty of Paris of 1814:
OP: you may wish to peruse the writings of William Wilberforce.
The church in the North was not the only force behind the abolitionist movement, but it was certainly a major one. A number of church denominations split over the issue of slavery. Some reunited after the war (e.g., the Episcopal Church) and some didn’t (e.g., the American Baptist Churches and the Southern Baptist Convention).
Mark you this, Bassanio, The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.
An evil soul producing holy witness
Is like a villain with a smiling cheek,
A goodly apple rotten at the heart:
O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!
Antonio, “The Merchant of Venice”, William Shakespeare (emphasis mine)
My grandfather does that a lot, too. And churches are still cherry-picking Scripture today, I’m sorry to say.
In the North, the New England Emigrant Aid Company (NEEAC) was founded in July, 1854, to help New Englanders and foreigners settle in the west (i.e. the Kansas Territory). NEEAC was not shy about stating its purpose, which was to offer the potential settler the chance to help settle the frontier, and also the “satisfaction of participating in the holy cause of saving Kansas for freedom [from slavery].”
NEEAC knew of the potential for trouble in the territory, and so, also helped to arm its settlers. As NEEAC founder Eli Thayer said in an 1854 speech:
Emphasis added. As can be seen, abolitionists did advocate using the Bible, but did not suggest it as the only weapon to use.
Source for the above quotations:
Etcheson, Nicole; Bleeding Kansas: Contested Liberty in the Civil War Era; (Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 2004).
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