Blog 3 Slavery/Religion Challenge

 Slavery has always been a very controversial topic in our world. Most people today would claim that they are strongly against slavery and think it is wrong, but it used to not be like that. Christianity used to be proslavery as well as Judaism. As we do our research, we have seen that these ideas have changed over time. 

In Judaism, the slaves were given protection and special treatments so that they were not treated as slaves or property but as “extended family with certain protections and could be freed”. By them saying this, they are not directly supporting slavery but they are finding loopholes to work around it. The Jews played a large part in the Atlantic Slave Trade and a very prominent role in the enslavement of Africans in America. Both Christians and Jews used the excuse of learning about their religion as a way to justify slavery. “Since their enslavement would allow them to encounter the Christian message and thus their eternal souls would be saved,” said a historian of The American Christianity. They are using the education of the religion and their souls being saved as a way to justify slavery. A lot of preachers encouraged people who own slaves to bring them to worship services but they were separate services that were run by proslavery preachers. In these services, they would preach that they need to obey and listen to their masters. The idea that Africans were descendants of Ham, the son of Noah, was another reason why these preachers were proslavery. Ham was known to be cursed in the bible, therefore, supporting their ideas that enslavement is justified and okay. https://www.lse.ac.uk/Economic-History/Assets/Documents/Research/GEHN/GEHNConferences/conf10/Conf10-ClarenceSmith.pdf 

Hinduism is a religion that has always been antislavery, as they have always accepted followers coming from any background. They practiced having a strong devotion to one single divine being. By all of them practicing this, it caused them to all be seen as equal no matter what race or background. Buddhism, which comes from Hinduism, is another religion that was against slavery. The Buddha did not allow the followers to participate in the slave trade and “showed compassion for their lot.” Servitude and slavery were seen as very different and the Buddist leader wrote in stone to cease slavery and treat them fairly. The main goal of Buddhism is to have equality and to have everyone be in the same community. Buddhist temples have been known to be a safe place for enslaved people as well as escaped slaves. The “Discourse to Sigala” is a Buddist statement that is saying that any employer in the home should be paid a set wage, get a health care plan, and have dedicated days off. “Brute force, no matter how strongly applied, can never subdue the basic human desire for freedom. Peace can only last where human rights are respected, where the people are fed, and where individuals and nations are free” Said Dalai Lama. 

Slavery was and has always been a huge debate and a major issue. There are many arguments that support slavery as well as many that are against it. Overall, we noticed that the people that were in favor of slavery tended to use some sort of loophole to try to justify it while those against it had valid reasons that sparked mainly from their religion. We also noticed that most religions that are well known and still around today were all in favor of slavery at some point and played a large part in the Atlantic Slave Trade. 

https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/issues/issue-33/why-christians-supported-slavery.html 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/the-bible-was-used-to-justify-slavery-then-africans-made-it-their-path-to-freedom/2019/04/29/34699e8e-6512-11e9-82ba-fcfeff232e8f_story.html