Through My Eyes...: September 2020

Sunday, September 27, 2020

Bleeding Kansas: A Mini Civil War

It all began with the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 which allowed slavery to spread in western territories through the adoption of an idea called “popular sovereignty”. When it became time for a state to enter the United States, citizens of the state can vote based on whether or not they want the state to condone slavery.

Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854

The settlers of Kansas overall did not want slavery in their state. However, people who lived in the surrounding states, such as Missouri, would cross the border and vote to rig the election to allow slavery. These people were called border ruffians. At the time, there were only about 1,500 settlers in Kansas, and over 6,000 votes were counted!

The border ruffians were successful, and Kansas entered the US as a pro-slavery state with a pro-slavery government in Lecompton. Settlers of Kansas were not happy with their government, yet they had no power because only pro-slavery officials could be elected into office! Therefore, the citizens of Kansas decided to make their own government in Topeka.

On May 21, 1856, violence erupted when pro-slavery settlers began to destroy anti-slavery towns such as Topeka.

This violence spread to surrounding areas such as Washington DC. Charles Sumner, a senator from Massachusetts, gave a speech saying how pro-slavery settlers were destroying Kansas. This caused Preston Brooks, of South Carolina, to beat Sumner near death with a cane on the floor of the US Senate.

Charles Sumner being caned by Preston Brooks

On May 24th, 1856, an abolitionist from Ohio by the name of John Brown had traveled to Kansas with his sons to encourage the violence. He murdered five pro-slavery settlers.

John Brown

While no one is sure how many people died during Bleeding Kansas, it is assumed to be approximately 55 deaths.

Finally, in January of 1861, Kansas was admitted into the union as a free state.

Bleeding Kansas lead to the division of the country and began the formation of the Republican Party to abolish slavery.

Learn more about Bleeding Kansas by watching this educational video:

Thursday, September 17, 2020

Town Hall Reflection: Progressing as a Country

This week in my “Talking about Freedom” class we hosted a Town Hall Meeting on slavery. Each student presented an argument either condemning or condoning slavery from the viewpoint of a historical figure during the civil rights era.
Read more about my presentation on Samuel Morse here!

During these speeches, I noticed a common thread between all who were defending slavery differentiating them from those supporting the argument. Every single person who supported slavery believed that those with colored skin are innately inferior. It was as if being black was a disease altering people to be less human.

On the other hand, abolitionists believed that race was only skin deep. They preached that there are no scientific findings that prove blacks and whites to be different beyond skin color.

If these two groups of people cannot agree on the basic facts of the argument, they will never agree on a greater outcome. It is simply not feasible. Both sides must first acknowledge one set of facts they both believe to base their argument on.

This issue is still present in modern-day politics. Many arguments including those on abortion, sexuality, and even gender will never be settled because both sides of the argument believe in a different set of facts. How can someone who believes life begins at birth convince someone who believes life begins at conception that abortion is okay? Simple, they can’t.

This leads us to the conclusion that our history is essential to learn to progress forward as a country.

Tuesday, September 15, 2020

Samuel Morse's Thoughts on Slavery

Samuel Morse

Samuel Morse studied at Yale University and became quite successful as a painter and inventor. He primarily painted portraits, including “Gallery of the Louvre” in 1833 and a portrait of his wife “Susan Walker Morse (The Muse)” in 1837. Amid his painting career, he also developed an electric telegraph in 1835. Three years later, he established the infamous “morse code”. Throughout his life, he was very charitable as he gave many funds to a variety of people and organizations.

Morse's Electric Telegraph

"Susan Walker Morse" (1837)

"Gallery of the Louvre" (1833)

After Morse graduated from Yale, he moved down to South Carolina and became the president of two pro-slavery organizations: The American Society for the Promotion of National Unity and Society for the Diffusion of Political Knowledge. Every aspect of slavery he saw as a positive good for society.

Morse held very extreme views on slavery. During his time as President of the American Society for the Promotion of National Unity, the organization "thanked God that four million beings, incapable of self-care, were entrusted to Southerners” (Mabee, 1943: 346, 348-350). The term ‘beings’ implies that slaves do not have humane lives, they are just present. Therefore, not only is Morse saying that slaves are not self-sufficient, they are not equally human.

Morse believed slavery is sanctioned by God as it is “in perfect harmony with the Savior’s mission to earth” (Morse, Ethical Position of Slavery, 1863:10). He argues that slavery is not denounced anywhere in the Bible, so therefore it must not be a sin and is perfectly acceptable.

Furthermore, Morse claimed it is sinful to oppose slavery and that all abolitionists should be excommunicated from the church. He argued that abolitionists refute an “essential and indispensable divinely arranged part of the social system” and are the root of all arising problems regarding slavery (Morse, Ethical Position of Slavery, 1863: 10). He views abolitionists as evil for presenting slavery in a negative way which divides the country when slavery would work perfectly if left to happen naturally under God.

Additionally, Morse saw slavery as an indispensable regulator of the social system. He expressed that master/slave relations are the “most beautiful example of domestic happiness and contentment that this fallen world knows” (Morse, Ethical Position of Slavery, 1863: 13). He sees that society is not perfect, but he understands that slavery is the key to fixing all the problems that abolitionists cause.

Friday, September 11, 2020

Slavery: Is There Historical Support in The Bible?

People constantly look to religion when determining their stance on a moral argument. But what if historical texts do not explicitly state what is deemed morally acceptable? This can be examined through the issue of slavery throughout the Bible. One can observe how slavery can both be supported and condemned in the Bible based on interpretation.

In the Old Testament of the Holy Bible, there are verses that support the use of slavery and in some cases, slavery is encouraged. First of all, in Genesis 9:25-27 “Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers.” He also said “praise be to the lord, the god of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem. This bible verse shows Noah giving his grandson a curse, showing to the people that slavery was around, and it was justified.

There is more than one bible verse that mentions bondservants obeying masters, such as Ephesians 6:5, Colossians 3:22, and Peter 2:18. In the New Testament in the Holy Bible changes the wording and the idea of Slavery changed, in the New Testament slavery is not talked about as well as changed the viewpoint a little. In the New testament slavery is no longer encouraged, it seems to be frowned upon.

Thus, in all the verses that are listed proves that the Old Testament of the Holy Bible supports and encourages slavery, whereas in the New Testament of the Holy Bible, it no longer encourages and the supporting idea of slavery seemed to change.

[Pro-Slavery portion written by Jacob Dillman. Check out more of his work here!]

One can also argue that slavery is condemned in the Bible as God constantly preaches the equality of all humans.

First of all, it is important to note that God expresses his wisdom and lessons progressively over time; therefore, when researching slavery in the Bible we must observe the narrative as a whole. In this case, it is seen in creation and the gospel. God “created [all men] in his own image” (Genesis 1:27). By grouping everyone as his descendants, he is implying equality of all his creations.

Similarly, the gospel tells us that God’s ultimate goal is to create a people “from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages” (Rev. 7:19). This demonstrates that God both created all humans as equal and wishes for them to remain equal.

However, the Bible does oppose slavery in specific situations as well. For example, Onesimus, a former runaway slave of Paul’s, was found by Philemon. Paul told Philemon to treat Onesimus “no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother” (Philemon 1:16). Paul wanted to elevate the status of Onesimus far beyond slave, beyond friend to brother, a status of equality.

Thus, the Bible consistently shows that all his creations are not to be treated as slaves, but as equals.

In sum, the bible is open to interpretation as seen through these different viewpoints about slavery. Slavery is a deep argument that needs evidence to support reasoning. The reader can only make a decision for themselves and base it on the historical text. Thus, the bible has different viewpoints on whether or not slavery is supported by the bible.