The Abolitionist Imagination – Part I: Black Christian Voices Against Slavery –

By the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the contradiction within Christianity had reached a breaking point. On one side, pro-slavery Christians bent theology to defend bondage with proof-texts and economic rationalizations. On the other, abolitionists drew on the heart of the gospel—the Golden Rule, the Exodus story, and the image of God in every human being—to argue that slavery was incompatible with Christian faith.

The battle over slavery was not just political or economic; it was profoundly theological. And in that struggle, African and African-descended Christians gave abolition its moral and spiritual imagination. They transformed Christianity itself—from a religion that sanctioned empire into a faith of liberation. Forged in suffering but rooted in hope, their theology reclaimed the Bible’s truest message: that every soul is made in God’s image and destined for freedom.

African Christian Voices: The Witness of the Enslaved

Centuries before the rise of European missions, Christianity had deep roots in Africa—from the ancient churches of Ethiopia and Nubia to the early theologians of North Africa such as Augustine and Tertullian. Enslaved Africans thus encountered Christianity not as strangers but as heirs reclaiming a distorted faith. They read Scripture through the lens of bondage and redemption, and in doing so, they gave voice to the conscience of a world enslaved to its own hypocrisy.

Olaudah Equiano (1745–1797)

Equiano appealed directly to Christian hypocrisy in The Interesting Narrative (1789):

“O, ye nominal Christians! Might not an African ask you, learned you this from your God, who says unto you, Do unto all men as you would men should do unto you?”¹

Ottobah Cugoano (1757–1791)

Cugoano condemned both the institution and its defenders in Thoughts and Sentiments (1787). A representative line:

“Every man who keeps a slave is a robber, in defiance of the laws of God and nature.”²
(Exact wording varies by edition; this captures Cugoano’s consistent argument against slavery’s violation of divine and natural law.)²

Phillis Wheatley and Obour Tanner: Black Women’s Theological Resistance

Phillis Wheatley (1753–1784), the first published African American poet, used Christian imagery to challenge slavery from within the framework of salvation. In On Being Brought from Africa to America (1773), she reminded white Christians:

“Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain, / May be refin’d, and join th’ angelic train.”³

In her letters with Obour Tanner, an enslaved woman in Rhode Island, Wheatley found a spiritual ally. Their exchanges reveal how Black women nurtured a theology of liberation rooted in friendship, prayer, and Scripture—a quiet but powerful resistance that sustained faith in the face of oppression.⁴

Prophetic Fire: Nat Turner, Denmark Vesey, and Harriet Tubman

Nat Turner (1800–1831)

An enslaved preacher in Virginia, Turner led a rebellion after claiming divine visions and signs, declaring that he was “ordained for some great purpose in the hands of the Almighty.”⁵

Denmark Vesey (1767–1822)

A free Black carpenter and church leader in Charleston, Vesey planned a massive uprising, repeatedly invoking Scripture—especially texts from Exodus (e.g., Exod. 21:16)—as mandate for liberation.⁶

Harriet Tubman (c. 1822–1913)

Nicknamed “Moses,” Tubman guided enslaved people to freedom on the Underground Railroad. As she later summarized her record:

“I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger.”⁷

Together these figures illustrate how enslaved and free African Americans forged a prophetic Christianity of resistance—one that refused to separate salvation from freedom.

Slave Religion: A Gospel of Liberation

Beyond individual heroes, countless unnamed men and women built what came to be known as “slave religion”—Christianity transformed in the crucible of bondage. It was deeply biblical, distinctly African, and utterly liberative.

• Biblical Identification: Enslaved Africans identified with Israel in Egypt, Daniel in the lion’s den, and Jesus suffering under empire.

• Whole-Bible Reading: They read Exodus, the prophets, and the teachings of Jesus as promises of deliverance.

• Eschatological Hope: God’s justice may be delayed, but it is certain. This hope inspired resistance and survival.

• Prophetic Leadership: Turner, Vesey, and Tubman drew on visions, Scripture, and prayer; so too did countless preachers in “hush harbors,” where whispered psalms became freedom songs.

Slave religion gave birth to the Black Church tradition—the moral engine of abolition, civil rights, and liberation theology that would follow.⁸

The Negro (Slave) Bible: Controlling the Word

Pro-slavery Christians feared the power of liberating interpretations. In 1807, missionaries published an abridgment commonly called the “Slave Bible,” which removed about 90% of the Old Testament and roughly half of the New Testament. Notably, most of the Exodus liberation narrative and texts like Galatians 3:28 were absent, while obedience-reinforcing passages remained.⁹ The very existence of this Bible testifies to the subversive power of the enslaved reading of Scripture.

Pro-Slavery Theology: A Gospel Distorted

While abolitionists and enslaved Christians read the gospel as liberation, pro-slavery theologians twisted Scripture into justification for bondage.

• Proof-texts: “Slaves, obey your earthly masters” (Eph. 6:5).

• The Curse of Ham: Genesis 9 misused to claim Africans were divinely destined for servitude.

• Paternalism: Cotton Mather’s The Negro Christianized (1706) exhorted slaveholders to evangelize and “kindly” treat enslaved people—while normalizing their ownership and reinforcing a social order of mastery.¹⁰

This theology transformed Christianity into a tool of domination, sanctifying empire rather than emancipation.

Other Black Prophetic Voices

• David Walker (1785–1830): In his Appeal (1829/1830), Walker seared the national conscience and insisted, “America is more our country, than it is the whites—we have enriched it with our blood and tears.”¹¹

• Sojourner Truth (1797–1883): In her 1851 Akron speech (contemporary Anti-Slavery Bugle version), she asserted: “I have plowed and reaped and husked and chopped and mowed, and can any man do more than that?”¹²

• Frederick Douglass (1818–1895): In the Narrative (1845) appendix, he contrasted “the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ” with “the corrupt, slaveholding … Christianity of this land.”¹³

• Maria Stewart (1803–1879): “It is not the color of the skin that makes the man or the woman, but the principle formed in the soul.”¹⁴

• Henry Highland Garnet (1815–1882): His 1843 “Address to the Slaves” urged, “Let your motto be RESISTANCE! RESISTANCE! RESISTANCE!”¹⁵

• James W. C. Pennington (1807–1870): In The Fugitive Blacksmith (1849/1850), Pennington framed slavery as sin against divine law and testified to providential sustenance in escape and ministry.¹⁶

• Harriet Jacobs (1813–1897): In Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861), she wrote: “Slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women.”¹⁷

Together, these prophets constructed a moral universe where true Christianity stood with the oppressed.

Theological Contrast: Freedom vs. Bondage

Conclusion: The Abolitionist Imagination

The abolitionist imagination was born out of faith—a faith sharpened by African voices. Equiano, Cugoano, Wheatley, Tanner, Turner, Vesey, Tubman, Douglass, Truth, Garnet, Stewart, Pennington, Jacobs, Walker, Allen, and Jones all proclaimed that slavery was incompatible with the gospel.

Their Christianity stood in stark contrast to the faith that censored Scripture and twisted it into chains. In their poetry, preaching, rebellion, and secret worship, they forged a gospel of freedom that redefined Christianity itself.

The Bible, once used to sanctify bondage, became in their hands the faith of Exodus: the living word that cries across every generation—“Let my people go.”

Notes

1. Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (London, 1789), ch. 2. A reliable open text reproduces the line verbatim. Project Gutenberg

2. Ottobah Cugoano, Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil and Wicked Traffic of the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species (London, 1787). For accessible scholarly text/Carretta ed., see UMich ECCO and Carretta’s edition. Quod Library+1

3. Phillis Wheatley, “On Being Brought from Africa to America,” in Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (London, 1773). Authoritative online texts confirm wording (“Negros”). The Poetry Foundation+1

4. Vincent Carretta, Phillis Wheatley: Biography of a Genius in Bondage (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2011), 140–43.

5. The Confessions of Nat Turner, as reported to Thomas R. Gray (Richmond, 1831); see reliable reproductions. Miami University Sites+1

6. On Vesey’s scriptural use (esp. Exodus 21:16), see Jeremy Schipper, discussions and reviews. The Marginalia Review of Books+1

7. Sarah H. Bradford, Harriet Tubman: Moses of Her People (New York, 1869/1886). The well-attested line is also quoted by NPS. National Park Service

8. Albert J. Raboteau, Slave Religion: The “Invisible Institution” in the Antebellum South (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978).

9. Select Parts of the Holy Bible for the Use of the Negro Slaves in the British West-India Islands (London: Law and Gilbert, 1807). See Museum of the Bible overview; ~90% OT and ~50% NT omitted; Exodus liberation narrative and Gal. 3:28 absent. Aleteia+2Museum of the Bible+2

10. Cotton Mather, The Negro Christianized (Boston: B. Green, 1706). See full text; modern commentary summarizes paternalist framework that normalized ownership while urging catechesis. Quod Library+1

11. David Walker, Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World (Boston, 1829/1830), often quoted as “America is more our country…”; see widely used teaching excerpts. NEH-Edsitement

12. Sojourner Truth, “Address at the Women’s Rights Convention, Akron, 1851,” Anti-Slavery Bugle, June 21, 1851 (Marius Robinson transcript). Educating for American Democracy+1

13. Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (Boston: Anti-Slavery Office, 1845), Appendix. SparkNotes+1

14. Maria W. Stewart, Meditations from the Pen of Mrs. Maria W. Stewart (Boston, 1832–35). Reliable online text reproduces line. Penn Libraries+1

15. Henry Highland Garnet, “An Address to the Slaves of the United States of America” (1843). Full text confirms “RESISTANCE! RESISTANCE! RESISTANCE!” Digital Commons

16. James W. C. Pennington, The Fugitive Blacksmith (London: C. Gilpin, 1849; New York, 1850). Open texts available. Online Books Page

17. Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (Boston: Thayer & Eldridge, 1861), ch. 6/16; authoritative online editions confirm: “Slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women.” Project Gutenberg+1

Brief Bibliography

Bradford, Sarah H. Harriet Tubman: Moses of Her People. New York, 1869/1886.
Carretta, Vincent. Phillis Wheatley: Biography of a Genius in Bondage. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2011.
Cugoano, Ottobah. Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil and Wicked Traffic … London, 1787.
Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Boston: Anti-Slavery Office, 1845.
Equiano, Olaudah. The Interesting Narrative. London, 1789.
Garnet, Henry Highland. “Address to the Slaves of the United States of America,” 1843.
Jacobs, Harriet. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Boston: Thayer & Eldridge, 1861.
Mather, Cotton. The Negro Christianized. Boston: B. Green, 1706.
Museum of the Bible. “The Slave Bible: Let the Story Be Told.” 2018–19 exhibit.
Raboteau, Albert J. Slave Religion. New York: Oxford University Press, 1978.
Schipper, Jeremy. On Vesey’s use of Exodus (various scholarly venues).