Slavery was the divisive issue during much of Dr Thomas ‘time in America, and was also decisive in the formation of our community. Without the passions slavery aroused, there would have been no Civil War, and no cessation of the Herald of the Kingdom, since circulation north and south became impossible. And, who knows, perhaps no name “Christadelphian,” which was coined to satisfy, the government by differentiating our denomination for purposes of conscientious objection to that war Likely, there would have been no transfer of publishing authority to Robert Roberts, at least at that time.
Dr Thomas had his own strong views on the subject, which he did not hesitate to voice. So we turn to his own accounts to see what this English doctor and editor, this dissident Campbellite and proclaimer of “The Gospel of the Kingdom,” had to say on slavery, and to learn how this influenced the development of other doctrines as Dr Thomas searched the scriptures for answers.
Background
In 1800, the population of the US included 893,602 slaves, of which only 36,505 were in the northern states Vermont, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey had provided for the emancipation of their slaves before 1804, most of them by gradual measures Amazingly, there were 3,953,760 slaves by the census of 1860, all of whom were in the southern states Thus, when Dr Thomas went back and forth between Virginia and Illinois, in the short period of 1839 through 1843, he went from a slavery-dominated society to one bitterly opposed, and then back again.
In America at the time, largely but not exclusively in the southern states, there was considerable opposition to the anti-slavery movement among the churches. As The Southern Presbyterian Herald said in 1860, “We are not only contending for our own rights but for the Bible itself Abolition is an infidel.” John Thomas’ congregation at the Campbellite Richmond Sycamore Church in 1835 numbered slaves among its attendants. He was associated with the Campbellite Church for the first decade of his time in America, as he was not forced out until around 1845. This movement was one of the largest Protestant denominations which did not split over slavery; the Methodists, Baptists, and Presbyterians all suffered schism over the issue. Alexander Campbell himself, the main leader of the Campbellites, had changed his views from being an ardent abolitionist in the 1820’s to a much more neutral position by 1845. He freed his own slaves, after a period often year’s service in at least two cases, but he did not condemn those who remained slave holders. Thus, despite the cries of the abolitionists on the one hand and the southern slave owners on the other hand, Campbell managed to keep his community together when most denominations split. In fact, the divisions caused by “slavery vs. abolition” remain to this day: For example, the Southern Baptist Convention is still separate from its northern equivalent.
The initial contacts with slavery
When Dr. Thomas took up residence in Virginia in 1834, he was in a state with many plantations, farmed largely by slaves. When he bought his plantation in Amelia County, Virginia in 1835, it was being farmed by slaves rented from their owner, and this practice continued when Dr. Thomas took up residence there a year or so later. So he lived for some time deep in the heart of a slave-holding section of the country, with his ailing wife Ellen and their infant daughter, Eusebia. It was not a happy experience: In a letter he wrote in 1840 to James Wallis (editor of the British Millennial Harbinger), he complained that the farm operated at a loss, and “Slavery has a blighting effect upon modem professors of Christianity in slave-holding countries.”
On his trip to Illinois in 1839, he met travelers who assumed, because he was from Virginia, he was a slave owner, which he denied. According to the biographies, he and his family, along with his brother Robert, took a servant and a boy with them to Illinois. These two were almost certainly freed slaves. (Incidentally, Bro. Ken Ruhland recently sent me copies of hand written records, showing that in 1840 Dr. Thomas and his wife sold land in what is now Kendall County, Illinois, so the exact location of his farm there, over which I had puzzled, is now confirmed!) It is possible some of his formerly rented slaves stayed with him for many years. As noted in the last issue of the Herald of the Future Age in 1850, Sis. Thomas, his long-suffering wife, had a servant with her when Dr. Thomas and Eusebia left her in Richmond, Virginia, while they were in England from 1848 to 1850.
Passions about slavery ran deep. Dr. Thomas was challenged by fierce abolitionists among his readers in the 1840’s, and numbered among his friends two men who were prominent among this movement These were George Storrs, with whom we dealt last month, and Nathaniel Field, of Jeffersonville, Indiana, who had followed Dr Thomas in his split from the Campbellites m 1845 With his English background, one might expect John Thomas to have been a supporter of the anti-slavery movement – but to do so would have split his emerging congregation, which from early times was much stronger in the southern states than in the North
Dr. Thomas writes on “Slavery and Abolitionism”
In the Herald of the Future Age for 1846, Dr Thomas printed his lengthy reply to correspondents from New York and Illinois, both strongly attacking slavery One said, “Slavery is the abomination of the age,” and the other, that “the greatest evil and sin in the world (is) involuntary slavery” Dr Thomas replied “In the Herald, we are neither in nor out on this topic, as involuntary slavery is not the subject proposed to be discussed in our pages There is a greater evil and sin than this, and that is, voluntary slavery to sin and Satan The whites and blacks are all enslaved by the god of this world ” He went on to say, “Slavery is a great sin, but Sin, the cause of slavery is greater abolish sin from among men, and slavery will cease spontaneously” Basing his position on the Bible, he argued, “The scripture recognizes these two parties (master and slave) First, the slave owner has a right of property in his slave This right is recognized by Paul in his letter to Philemon Secondly, the slave has a right to that which is just and equal, but it is no part of that justice to emancipate them (Col 4 1) ” He concluded, “We leave sectarianism to battle with slavery We shoot at higher game we aim to elevate civilized men to communion with God”
It is not surprising, Dr Thomas’ stance drew strong reaction from some of his readers in the North, but he stood by his writings on the subject Slavery was evil, but the bondage of sin under which all men fell was a greater evil “If our correspondent only appreciated God’s estimation of the heinousness, and loathsomeness of sin, he would gird himself with sackcloth, lay his hand upon his mouth, and put dust and ashes upon his head, and cry ‘unclean, unclean’ He should seek first his own emancipation, before he troubled himself about the remote circumstantial incident of slavery m Virginia”
He was often outspoken about terrible working conditions in the mills and factories of New England and Manchester, England as being worse than the lot of plantation slaves.
Many years later, on the eve of the Civil War, Dr Thomas’ views were the same As recounted in the Herald for 1860, he was challenged by a colored man, who said “Do you, Dr Thomas, baptize slave owners, and fellowship them?” He replied, “Yes, we do both” He went on to say “And why should not a slave owner be baptized? There is no man on earth who can show a scriptural reason why he should not, and no man intelligent in the gospel would attempt to show it Nor is there any reason why, when baptized, he should send his slaves adrift any more than his wife and children If called being a master, let him remain a master, and treat his slaves and children like a Christian master and father By his baptism, his slaves and all he possesses become Christ’s He is only Christ’s steward and overseer, and he has nowhere ordered his stewards to set them free The man m Christ has no sympathy with the crotchets and fallacies which agitate and perplex the man in Satan [state of evil] “
Slaves who were “Christadelphians”
At least two believers were named as slave owners, each of whom had at least one slave who was baptized Owners and slaves alike were in full fellowship with Dr Thomas Of course, they were not yet called “Christadelphians,” since the name was not coined until the closing year of the Civil War There were undoubtedly others, but the first recorded believing slave is a “Brother Braxton,” owned by Bro Lemuel Edwards, a wealthy Virginia planter from Lanesville Bro Alan Eyre, in his “Lanesville Story,” told how this slave helped build the Zion Ecclesial Hall in 1845, the predecessor to the present Lanesville Hall It was highly unlikely that Dr Edwards had Just one slave, but only one is recorded as being a brother.
Much later, in 1860, Dr Thomas noted, “the congregation of the faithful in Jefferson, Mississippi now numbers 20, of whom one is a slave belonging to sister Maghee She can read, is quite intelligent in the gospel, and is highly esteemed by the whites who know her, and being Christ’s freed woman, she is quite contented in the calling in which she was called, and much happier than the white slaves around her, who love and hug the chains of slavery which bind them to the chariot wheels of their hard taskmaster, the Devil [or human evil personified ]”
Thus there were at least one brother and one sister in Christ who were slaves of their Christian masters How common this was I do not know with certainty, but as it was illegal in the South at the tune to teach slaves to read and write, there cannot have been many capable of reading the Bible for themselves and therefore it would be more difficult for them to make a good confession (Of course, non-readers and poor readers in all ages have been able to listen and learn ) There must have been, in many southern ecclesias, as Bro Eyre puts it, “a First Century air,” slaves and masters worshipping together, Joined by the bonds of Christ.
Dr Thomas wrote admiringly of the gentle efficiency of the southern slaves, contrasted to the brash rudeness and incompetence of those he came across in his travels elsewhere Many of the terms he used for them, and his candid opinions of their mental abilities, would not be politically correct m our time.
The Civil War and its aftermath
The end of the war in 1865 left a legacy of enormous destruction, loss of life, and economic devastation in the South The followers of Dr Thomas did not escape unscathed, with many losing their all to roving bands of plunderers Dr Thomas’ sympathies had all along clearly been with the South — and in fact this was true for most of the population m England at the tune When Dr Thomas visited the little bands of followers m Virginia and elsewhere m 1865/66 and later, he found them dispirited, scattered, and weak.
Meanwhile in England, Robert Roberts was gaining in influence among the brotherhood, and when Dr Thomas stopped publishing the Herald during the Civil War, it was replaced two years later by Roberts’ Ambassador of the Coming Age By then there were several competing Christadelphian magazines of varying doctrinal soundness and editorial strength But the Ambassador was the only periodical with Dr Thomas’ full support, both financial and by his pen.
Roberts wrote of his differences over slavery with Dr Thomas in his autobiography “His friends were mainly in the South and comprised several planters, who though owning slaves, were men of an open generous hand, under whom the colored people were better provided for than in a state of freedom We differed from the Doctor somewhat in these views The reading of Uncle Tom ‘s Cabin when a boy had powerfully influenced me against the Legrees of the South” But Roberts concluded they “could leave personal views on an ephemeral question in abeyance” because of their agreement on scriptural things Roberts was clearly on the side of the North and emancipation Dr Thomas for the South and the status quo.
Summary and conclusion
The Civil War without doubt slowed the progress of the Truth in this country — as it did for a number of other churches (The shift of authority to Roberts did, however, increase the number of believers m England ) But at least the issue of slavery caused no decisive split among Dr Thomas’ followers, despite cancellation letters from a few disenchanted subscribers He argued masterfully for staying to the mam issue of overcoming human slavery to sin wherever it is found, and to stand clear from taking sides m topical controversies such as “Slavery vs Abolition” His perceptive thinking and faculty for selecting just the right scriptures, words and logic, allowed him to save his followers from schism in this case His opponents might accuse him of intellectual dishonesty and subterfuge, but a close reading of all his arguments reveals he had been speaking only the carefully worded truth.
What can we learn from this? That our only focus should be on ridding the world of Sin by spreading the gospel, not on imposing our own moral views about side issues on others Also we must make ourselves wise to the saving of our households and ecclesias through constant immersion in and judicious use of the same scriptures Dr John Thomas used For they “are able to make us wise unto salvation”
Note on Sources A discussion on the Campbellites and slavery is found in Disciple Thought a History by A T DeGroot The statistics on slavery came from Without Consent or Contract by R W Pogel Dr Thomas’ views on slavery are to be found in the Herald of the Future Age and the Herald of the Kingdom Robert Roberts’ opinions are in his autobiography, My Days and Ways The “Lanesville Story” is in the Christadelphian of February, 1993.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One