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American slavery was unique. It was race based, hereditary and based on the status of the mother. In English Common Law, the child's status followed the father's normally. Even up to around 1800 slavery was seen as a necessary evil, but by then for over 100 years how to reconcile slavery with religion was debated. Can slaves become Christians, can a Christian enslave another Christian? And what of Jews conducting a Passover Seder celebrating freedom from slavery while being served by chattel slaves?
There were many arguments used for slavery. In 1843, Josiah Priest published Slavery, as it Relates to the Negro, or African Race. It defends slavery using Genesis and Noah's curse on Ham whom Priest said had black skin. -- Leviticus 25:44-46 also was used to justify it.
And as offensive as it is, slaves were simply not seen as people, but as property. In VA, they were real estate. As convoluted as it seems, if slaves were property, they were not people and hence for those who took this view, there was conflict. Only when recognizing a slave's humanity was there an issue.
I am old and grew up at the tail end of segregation during the era of "Massive Resistance." We were taught in public school - ours was not closed, but it was segregated - that not only was slavery Biblical, but that slaves were fed, housed and clothed and isn't that a good thing?
And even after slavery was abolished, the Bible was used to justify segregation. In Loving v. Virginia, Judge Brazile justified Virginia's position: Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix. Genesis 4.11-26, 6.1-7 were often cited as the first separation of the races.
That begs the question: Why would a person who has achieved nirvana spend time with us rubes on city-data?
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