Christianity Ended Slavery - Granite Grok

Christianity Ended Slavery

Remember this about slavery and racism: As of 300 years ago, slavery had been a normal practice nearly worldwide throughout human history. In the U.S., free Blacks, as well as whites, owned slaves (e.g., in 1830, about 3,770 blacks owned slaves).

What changed the worldwide attitude toward slavery? Christianity: the Christian principle that all men are created in the image of God and, therefore, slavery is a sin.

Christians began arguing about slavery in Roman times. In the late 18th and early 19th century, Christians who favored abolishing slavery gained enough power in Great Britain to begin the effort to abolish it. Following Britain’s lead, other European powers joined, fought, and eliminated slavery in their empires by about the end of the 19th century.

It was European (white) Christians who provided the military power and paid the great human and financial cost to change the worldwide attitude toward outlawing and abolishing slavery; it wasn’t Africans or Asians or any other religion that led the fight and paid the cost to eliminate slavery.

Some say that all white Americans benefit from slavery; that’s ridiculous. In the Civil War, hundreds of thousands of wives and children lost their husbands, fathers, and main providers. Most formerly rich slave owners became destitute, having contributed their fortunes to the war effort and had their formerly valuable slaves (some worth $40,000 each) freed without compensation.

Since the Civil War, Democrats have been dividing Americans by race while blaming Republicans for the problems that Democrats themselves create.

The U.S. outlaws discrimination on the basis of race. The only obvious, apparent systemic racism against Black Americans is in the bad schools, dangerous neighborhoods, government abuse, and the poor jobs, housing, and other services provided in Democrat-controlled cities.

 

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