Douglass's Appendix "I see no reason for calling the religion of this land Christianity ... boldest of all frauds"

This morning I finished this little book. I agree with historian David Blight that everyone should read it. It is powerful and an important part of our history. To read the perspective of a slave and to read of his journey and his escape and all the emotions that come with it ... all 20 years before the civil war.

Since I shared some of his thoughts on the religious slaveholders I also wanted to share from his Appendix where he explains:

I find, since reading over the foregoing Narrative, that I have, in several instances, spoken in such a tone and manner, respecting religion, as may possibly lead those unacquainted with my religious views to suppose me an opponent of all religion. To remove the liability of such misapprehension, I deem it proper to append the following brief explanation. What I have said respecting and against religion, I mean strictly to apply to the slaveholding religion of this land, and with no possible reference to Christianity proper; for, between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference...I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land. Indeed, I can see no reason, but the most deceitful one, for calling the religion of this land Christianity. I look upon it as the climax of all misnomers, the boldest of all frauds, and the grossest of all libels.

Douglass goes on at some length illustrating the disparity and immorality of slaveholding christianity --"He who proclaims it a religious duty to read the Bible denies me the right of learning to read the name of the God who made me ... The warm defender of the sacredness of the family relation is the same that scatters whole families ... We have men sold to build churches, women sold to support the gospel, and babes sold to purchase Bibles for the poor heathen! all for the glory of God and the good of souls!

I think its important to see that some of the worst deeds in US history were covered with the name Christianity ... that Christianity as a title, church attendance, etc does not save you from gross sin ...

At the end he includes a poem written by nameless northern Methodist preacher which riffs on a popular hymn called heavenly union:

 "Come, saints and sinners, hear me tell
     How pious priests whip Jack and Nell,
     And women buy and children sell,
     And preach all sinners down to hell,
     And sing of heavenly union.

     "They'll bleat and baa, dona like goats,
     Gorge down black sheep, and strain at motes,
     Array their backs in fine black coats,
     Then seize their negroes by their throats,
     And choke, for heavenly union.

     "They'll church you if you sip a dram,
     And damn you if you steal a lamb;
     Yet rob old Tony, Doll, and Sam,
     Of human rights, and bread and ham;
     Kidnapper's heavenly union.

It goes on for many stanzas ... 

Frederick Douglass - "religious slaveholders are the worst"

I have been reading old books. I don't know why people are so quick to distance themselves from the past ... saying well I didn't have anything to do with slavery and can't help it. Of course, no one can change the past ... its merciless in that regard. But those same people celebrate the 4th of July? Like to talk about the constitution or the founding fathers? I am not going back that far, just been reading around 40 plus and minus the civil war ... 1840s to 1930s in various books.

One of them is Frederick Douglass - An American Slave. It is powerful and there is much here to learn from and take up ... But this stood out as something that especially Christians and religious people should take seriously ... he had just made it through a year with a slave-breaker Covey and was passed on to Mr. Freeland. He says "Another advantage I gained from my new master was, he made no pretensions to, or profession of, religion ... this, in my opinion, was truly a great advantage."

No, listen in close:

I assert most unhesitatingly, that the religion of the south is a mere covering for the most horrid crimes,--a justifier of the most appalling barbarity,--a sanctifier of the most hateful frauds,--and a dark shelter under, which the darkest, foulest, grossest, and most infernal deeds of slaveholders find the strongest protection. Were I to be again reduced to the chains of slavery, next to that enslavement, I should regard being the slave of a religious master the greatest calamity that could befall me. For of all slaveholders with whom I have ever met, religious slaveholders are the worst. I have ever found them the meanest and basest, the most cruel and cowardly, of all others. It was my unhappy lot not only to belong to a religious slaveholder, but to live in a community of such religionists. Very near Mr. Freeland lived the Rev. Daniel Weeden, and in the same neighborhood lived the Rev. Rigby Hopkins. These were members and ministers in the Reformed Methodist Church. Mr. Weeden owned, among others, a woman slave, whose name I have forgotten. This woman's back, for weeks, was kept literally raw, made so by the lash of this merciless, religious wretch. He used to hire hands. His maxim was, Behave well or behave ill, it is the duty of a master occasionally to whip a slave, to remind him of his master's authority. Such was his theory, and such his practice.

Mr. Hopkins was even worse than Mr. Weeden. His chief boast was his ability to manage slaves. The peculiar, feature of his government was that of whipping slaves in advance of deserving it. He always managed to have one or more of his slaves to whip every Monday morning. He did this to alarm their fears, and strike terror into those who escaped. His plan was to whip for the smallest offences, to prevent the commission of large ones. There was not a man in the whole county, with whom the slaves who had the getting their own home, would not prefer to live, rather than with this Rev. Mr. Hopkins. And yet there was not a man any where round, who, made higher professions of religion, or was more active in revivals, --more attentive to the class, love-feast, prayer and preaching meetings, or more devotional in his family,--that prayed earlier, later, louder, and longer,--than this same reverend slave-driver, Rigby Hopkins. 

There is always the danger that religion and church going acts to launder injustice ... A danger that religion becomes a tool for power wielding instead of the wildness of Jesus who lived and taught among the poor and was lynched by power. I want to be careful that religion doesn't become a way to divert my eyes from my own misdeeds ... a way to forgiveness without change, without even the desire to change.