Native Drums

The Emergence of A Militant Black Clergy

• Savannah Grove Baptist Church • Season 1 • Episode 5

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A revolutionary theological upheaval took place in early 19th century America that fundamentally challenged how Christianity interpreted freedom. When Anglican Bishop George Berkeley crafted his 1727 letter to plantation owners, he created a theological framework that would dominate American Christianity for generations: the dangerous notion that "Christian freedom" was strictly inward—freedom from sin and Satan—rather than outward freedom from physical bondage. This convenient interpretation allowed slaveholders to Christianize enslaved people without granting them physical freedom.

But as enslaved people gained literacy and began reading the Bible for themselves, a radical new understanding emerged. Three revolutionary ministers—Gabriel Prosser (1800), Denmark Vesey (1822), and Nat Turner (1831)—became what scholar Gayraud Wilmore calls "generals in the Lord's army." Each interpreted Scripture not as justification for slavery but as a mandate for liberation. Prosser identified with Samson, Vesey with Joshua at Jericho, and Turner reinterpreted "Seek ye first the kingdom of God" as a call for Black liberation as the fulfillment of God's kingdom on earth.

What united these three ministers was their profound reinterpretation of Christianity itself. While white clergy used the Bible to maintain slavery, these men transformed Christian theology into a powerful tool for liberation rather than oppression. They understood their ministerial calling as fighting for abolition, marking the first public declaration of Black liberation theology that encompassed both spiritual and physical freedom. Their theological revolution laid the groundwork for the abolitionist movement and influenced generations of religious leaders from Frederick Douglass to Harriet Tubman.

Explore how these revolutionary preachers permanently challenged the notion that Christianity could coexist with human bondage, throwing down a theological gauntlet that continues to challenge churches today to confront systemic injustice rather than merely focusing on personal salvation.

Speaker 1:

Good evening, welcome to this next segment of Native Native Drums podcast of the Savannah Grove Baptist Church, pastored by the Reverend Dr Ralph W Canty. Picking up off of the last segment on the coming of the gods, I want to take an opportunity to use this segment to complement it with the emergence of a militant black clergy, coming off of, of course, the anti-slavery theology and the presuppositions, the biblical passages we listened to in the previous segment. And so I want to use this segment to talk to you this evening about insurrectionist theology, the origins of a militant black clergy. Insurrectionist theology, the origins of a militant black clergy. Before I get into the three examples of militant black clergy that will comprise this segment, I feel it also necessary to give you a little background about the theological history of America relative to the Slavocracy and how slavery was understood by both planters and slaveholders alike. And so, when we look at that background, we see a bondage freedom dilemma, as I call it, emerging in the 18th century, about 100 years into the Slavocracy. And of course, the questions that surrounded that dialogue about the bondage freedom dilemma was how to reconcile Christian freedom with eternal slavery. How are we going to Christianize, baptize slaves, and should we and three did the Christianization of the slave mean immediate freedom? These are all legitimate questions, namely because Christian faith is a faith that's ultimately rooted in human freedom.

Speaker 1:

But yet, at the same time, planters and white Christian ministers were not ministers, were not interested in black people being free from slavery. And so, even though the original planters committed Christian faith to the Slavocracy and maintained that slavery was an institution that was to remain eternal until the end of time, they were constantly beset, as we moved into the 18th century, by questions about not only the Christianization of the slave, but whether, in grounding the Slavocracy and Christianity itself, does the Christianization of the slave mean immediate freedom? Of course, this was not the goal of white planters, because the goal was to Christianize the slave, to make the slave more docile and readily accepting of his or her enslavement, not to free them from slavery itself and what it represented for them from a standpoint of Christian redemption and, of course, from a standpoint of Christian charity. And so the challenge then for the slave holding community and for white Christian ministers was to create an approach to freedom that touted the value of freedom in the Christian life and in biblical revelation, while at the same time not freeing slaves from slavery, from slavery. And so, to answer this question, still under British rule, before the Revolution in 1727, anglican Bishop George Berkeley decided to address this issue and to help out his fellow colonial planters and, of course, to help out his white Christian colleagues in the ministry. And so he crafts this letter titled to the masters and mistresses of families in the ministry. And so he crafts this letter titled to the masters and mistresses of families in the English plantations abroad, exhorting them to encourage and promote the instruction of the Negroes in the Christian faith. Long title and, of course, even longer impact as we move through American history.

Speaker 1:

Here is an excerpt from that particular letter that I think is representative of the entire letter. And of course this is Bishop Berkeley addressing how we were going to proceed as a European nation and as, of course, a European colony, touting the values of freedom while at the same time not allowing African slaves to be free. And so Bishop Berkeley, in this excerpt, proclaims Christianity and the embracing of the gospel does not make the least alteration of civil property or in any of the duties which belong to civil relations, but in all these respects it continues persons in the same state as it found them, the freedom which Christianity gives is a freedom from the bondage of sin and Satan and from the dominion of ones of men's lusts and passions and inordinate desires. But as to their outward condition, whatever that was before, whether bond or free, they're being baptized, and becoming Christians makes no manner of change in it. And becoming Christians makes no manner of change in it.

Speaker 1:

What was Bishop Berkeley saying? His argument First Christian freedom is strictly inward and not outward. The freedom which Christianity gives is a freedom from the bondage of sin and Satan. What did that mean for him? Interpretation wise, it meant that only the slaves inward state was corrupt and can be changed by conversion or baptism, but not the slaves outward state in terms of societal freedom from chattel slavery. And of course, the other statement bears significance for our discussion. The statement bears significance for our discussion. But as to their outward condition, whether bond or free, they're becoming baptized, and becoming Christians makes no manner of change in it, it meaning their status. And so the meaning of that statement from Bishop Berkeley was that the slaves outward state was unchanged by conversion and it was equally unchanged by baptism.

Speaker 1:

Why is that important? This letter was so significant in the life of maintain that they were doing it under the auspices of the God of Jesus Christ. And so the impact of this letter is threefold. Number one it becomes the theological norm in slave life, even after the Revolutionary War. As we move into the late 18th and into the 19th century, it becomes the prevailing number two understanding of Christian faith in America after the revolution and the Declaration of Independence. And, of course, number three, it becomes the apologetic mandate in the life of the church. Apologetic in this sense, meaning orthodox, in that the converted Christian should defend this interpretation of Christian faith with his or her life if necessary.

Speaker 1:

And not only has that been the case in the sovocracy has that been the case in the sovocracy, but even today, as we look at Christianity and the way it's practiced in the life of the church and thought about in both black and white churches, we see a lot of acquiescence with this understanding of Christian faith given by Bishop Berkeley. A lot of talk about Satan, a lot of talk about sin, but usually that sin deals with sexual morality, not racial, gender, class morality. We see Satan mentioned a lot in our worship services, and we talk about Satan within the context of a mythical figure that can keep us from heaven after we die, but we don't talk about Satan in terms of humanity's evil deeds as they live on this earth. And so, for the most part, bishop Berkeley's understanding of Christian faith, in terms of the transformation of that Christianity and the freedom that Christianity gives, being an inward freedom, has really maintained itself up to the present day. Really maintained itself up to the present day.

Speaker 1:

But as we move into the late 18th and into the early 19th century, things begin to change. The black church, even though started on the plantation 1758 in Mecklenburg, virginia, we see our first black church established 1773, 75,. We see the second black church, established in Silver Bluff, south Carolina, all with the intent of, number one, keeping slaves pious, ie not connecting Christian faith with their freedom from slavery, and number two, keeping blacks away from whites, who did not want blacks in their churches and did not want blacks to worship with them, even though they were in the balcony or what we pejoratively refer to as buzzard roosts. And so, in this sense, as black people became more and more Christianized and began to independently read the Bible for themselves, we began to see the emergence of a different type of hermeneutic relative to the black struggle for justice. But more particularly, we began to see the emergence of a black clergy who understand their primary call to be ending slavery, called to be ending slavery whether it be by nonviolent means or whether it be through violent means, whether it be through unarmed means or whether it be through armed means.

Speaker 1:

And so, as we move into the 19th century, we see the emergence, in particular, of three men, who I will deal with in this segment, who saw their calling to God to enter the ministry not to preach a conciliatory, otherworldly gospel, not to preach what we call an in-house gospel or a systems maintenance gospel, but to preach a gospel of societal transformation, of outward transformation, in direct contradiction of that in terms of the implication of bishop berkeley's letter in 1727. And in fact, it was in hostile and direct opposition to that particular type of theological understanding and theological mood that it was the purpose of these three men in particular to forever change the theological landscape in America and to see Christian faith, a tool that had been used and was continuing to be used for black oppression, to now be used for black liberation that dealt not only with one's inward condition, one's sins and one's inward lusts, but also dealt with the transformation of one's identity and humanity in the larger society. In other words, we see the foundation being laid for the emergence of what would become called, in the 50s and 60s, a black theology of liberation. We began in the counter to Bishop Berkeley's letter. Gerard Wilmore, in his book Black Religion and Black Radicalism, refers to them as three generals in the Lord's army, and it's an excellent naming of these three men as they began to lay a new ministerial and theological foundation for United States of America and for Black people. We begin at the turn of the century, in 1800, as we are now in the United States of America.

Speaker 1:

Colonies have gotten their independence from Britain but still understood his calling to be to destroy the institution of slavery, not to not to cajole and, of course, acquiesce to the institution of slavery. He considered himself the Black Samson and deliverer of his people. Of course, his favorite biblical passage was Judges 15, where Samson slews one thousand Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey and of course kills several Philistines, hundreds of Philistines, when he of course brings back the columns of the banquet and kills not only himself but several Philistines as well. Prosser understood his role to be To awaken the conscience of black people theologically and to lead them to their freedom, their outward freedom from slavery, and direct contradiction to Bishop Berkeley. And so in that sense we start seeing, even in the beginning of the 19th century, a new understanding of what it means to be a black minister, that one must not just seek to be a black minister to preach standard theology, but one must preach prophetic theology, life changing theology, not just in the conversion experience, not just in the church, but conversion experience in terms of being a new person and having a rage about the condition in which you find yourself as a black person, and to see that condition more particularly as ungodly and as unchristian. Not your running away from the plantation, not your attempt to destroy slavery as it was taught to slaves as being ungodly and unchristian, but acquiescing to it to be ungodly and unchristian. And in this sense, as we turn the page on the century, we are also turning the page on a new understanding of theology among the slaves.

Speaker 1:

Twenty two years later, denmark Vesey, right down the street in Charleston, south Carolina, a free man that worked as a slave and purchased his freedom as a slave holder, allowed him to work for some pay and of course he took money that he saved. He didn't spend a penny of it saved all of it for his freedom. When he worked up what that price was, he gave it to his master and he was free. And, of course, when he purchased the freedom his freedom, he did not go to the North looking to live in a condition of luxury and turn his head on the condition of slavery and his people. He understood his call to be ministerial, he understood it to be organizational and he understood it to be liberative. He organizes black ministers in Charleston of all denominations something that's unheard of at the time. Denominations something that's unheard of at the time.

Speaker 1:

By this time we are caught up in our denominational differences and our denominational polity and, of course, working across denominations was just something that was simply considered taboo and considered politically dangerous. Politically dangerous, prosser, excuse me. Vesey is able to transcend all of these denominational differences, in all of these dangers, and he's able to sidestep the landmines of organizing people in all denominations, including a few whites as well, and he organizes black ministers to talk to their congregations about the necessity of an outward freedom, not just an inward freedom, but a freedom from the Slavocracy as the freedom that Christian faith and the Bible calls for, the freedom that Jesus and Paul call for. And so for Veazey, he was guided by the Zechariah 14 passage and the judges six passage.

Speaker 1:

The Zechariah 14 passage the day of Jehovah, where God has promised the Israelites that God will lead the fight would be the general against unjust nations. This is a very significant passage, not only in biblical history but also in contemporary history. Biblical history, but also in contemporary history, because we now extend the critique of ungodly behavior from the religious individual to the decisions that leaders of nations make in creating unjust conditions for populations of their citizens, which hits the United States of America dead center, namely because even after the revolution, the founding fathers got two things wrong. That is number one. They decided to maintain racial slavery and they decided to continue with the political exclusion of women, two major mistakes that they made. And here you see, in this biblical passage from Zechariah passage from Zechariah, that we're dealing with a God that doesn't, in contradistinction to Bishop Berkeley, just deal with one's inward condition, that that God is also concerned about the way one lives in society. Here you see Jehovah enlisting Jehovah to go up against unjust nations and fight against them. Very significant for Vesey the Zechariah 14 passage.

Speaker 1:

And then Judges 6, joshua fells the walls of Jericho. The walls are seen as symbols of division, they are seen as symbols of ignorance, they are seen as symbols of productivity. And of course, in Judges 6, joshua is given the divine command from God to walk around the walls with his army seven times, promising Jericho that those walls will fall. And of course the Israelites will go into the territory. And Joshua, in obedience to God, does that and the walls of Jericho fall. And of course, for Vazey, he saw America as a modern Jericho. He saw America as a Jericho that prides itself on division, especially racial division, that prides itself on deceit, that prides itself on trickery, that prides itself on sophistry and making slaves think that the only hope they had of fulfilling God's promises was after death in heaven. And of course, he saw in Jericho and its counterpart, contemporarily America, a nation that was comfortable with its unjust treatment of black people and its undressed just treatment of women, black people, and it's undressed just treatment of women.

Speaker 1:

And so the Joshua six passage, very, very significant for Denmark Vesey in Charleston in 1822, as he leads this insurrection. And of course it stands to reason that an insurrection would be led in Charleston because of course Charleston was the major regional port to purchase slaves for slave masters. In fact, it is estimated that close to half of the slaves purchased during the American slave trade were purchased in Charleston, south Carolina. In fact, the other regional centers were Richmond, virginia, new Orleans, louisiana, but they were attended far less than slaveholders attending the regional meetings, slave auctions in Charlotte, it was said among slaveholders, if you're looking for what you're looking for, if you really want what you're looking for, whether it be in a slave woman or a slave man, charleston was the place to go. And so it was poetic justice that an insurrection of major proportions would be led number one by a minister, number two by a Christian minister and number three in Charleston, south Carolina. And of course, this third general in the Lord's army, according to Wilmore, general in the Lord's army, according to Wilmore, the one you're probably the most familiar with, nat Turner, in Southampton, virginia, in 1831. And of course, nat Turner was probably the one of the three that was most given over to armed insurrection as the only way to achieve freedom. For Turner, the logic was that even the slave master's six and seven year old sons will grow up to be slaveholders when they become adults and will probably be even more virulent in their psychical and their physical exacting on black people's bodies and minds as their fathers. And so for him, not only did you have to kill the slave masters, but you had to kill their sons as well. Uh, walker is uh, uh.

Speaker 1:

Turner is believed to be deeply influenced by David Walker's appeal to the colored citizens of America. We'll talk about that shortly, uh, particularly in the next segment. But David Walker's appeal was one of the most incendiary books ever written. Walker, of course, was born free uh, free in Wilmington, north Carolina, made his way up to Boston, started a seamstress shop to pay the bills, as they say, and, of course, wrote this incendiary track, and I suggest you read it as well. That comes out in 1829. And it is an incendiary manifesto that condemns slavery and connects America to all of the great kingdoms, including Rome and Babylon, who had their day in terms of prosperity, in terms of their rise, but also had their falls, and prophetically predicted that America would fall as well. This book was published in Boston, was sent down in ships with other goods, the cover was wrapped in paper bags so you couldn't see what the title was, and it was distributed to slaves who could read, and slaves who could read read it to slaves who couldn't read. And of course, it upped the ante in terms of insurrections. And many historians believe that Turner was influenced by David Walker's appeal to the colored citizens of the world In 1830,.

Speaker 1:

His insurrection takes place a year later, in 1831. A year later, in 1831, turner is going to be influenced biblically, as a minister, by the Luke 1231 passage and of course, in this case he has chosen a New Testament passage over and against the Old Testament passages of Vesey and Prosser in their understanding of ministry, of Vesey and Prosser and their understanding of ministry. For those of you familiar with the Luke 1231 passage, it reads Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all other things will be added. And so, for you know, turner, it was clear that the kingdom of God was rooted in black liberation and that if we work to get black liberation, not only would liberation happen, but all other accoutrements of God's grace would come our way as well. They will be the French pastry, they will be added. But of course God calls us, like God called Moses, to go to Egypt and tell Pharaoh us, like God called Moses to go to Egypt and tell Pharaoh, let my people go.

Speaker 1:

That Turner truly believed that God called us and actually called ministers to lead, in this case black people, to their freedom, and so he is seeking the kingdom of God, which is very significant because of course the kingdom of God theology was used by white ministers throughout the plantation, throughout slavery, to establish as the Slavocracy itself being synonymous with the kingdom of God. And so slaves had to hear ad nauseum in Sunday sermons in church how the Slavocracy itself was the manifestation of the kingdom of God and of course they refer to it historically as manifest destiny, that the destiny of black and white people in America has been created and inaugurated by God, perpetuated by God, and therefore God's favor is on the Slavocracy, and that they were living in the midst of the kingdom. But of course most black people, including Turner, did not buy this understanding of the kingdom, for the kingdom, as I've even argued, cannot be equated with human bondage, that there is no way that the congruency Of bondage, human bondage of one group over another, equating to the kingdom of God, can be seen as a sound and as a reasonable and convincing theological concept, that it reeks with hypocrisy and it reeks with favoritism and white privilege. And in that sense no kingdom can emerge when one group of people using another people and oppressing another people in order to achieve incomparable economic ends. And so the kingdom was reinterpreted by Turner in order to make it chime with the liberating aspirations of African-Americans and, of course, for him it more closely chimed with the understanding of the kingdom in the Bible itself, and so he was engaged in a different biblical hermeneutic than white ministers relative to the kingdom, one that was rooted in human liberation, not in the furtherance of African slavery. And so we see this passage as being significant. Beyond the insurrection, it brings a theological critique of a new interpretation of the kingdom, and kingdom is now understood not as slavery and acquiescent to it, but to its abolition.

Speaker 1:

What is then the significance? The commonality of the insurrectionists. First, I must say, in all three cases and all three insurrections we see established officially for the first time in history, the black spy, or what we would call in contemporary circles spy, or what we would call in contemporary circles, pejoratively to Uncle Tom, emerged because each three of these insurrections were told to the slaveholder and they were defeated ultimately because someone from the slave community went back and told the master. And so what we see from an unfortunate standpoint in the evolving of American history for black people is the official emergence. We already had the Overseer and the driver on the plantations who actually went to plantations and voted I mean in in bulk slaves and bid it on slaves for their masters. And that's why we say when we sell out the aspirations of black people that you're doing your master's bidding. But now we're about to see, officially, unfortunately, the emergence of the Uncle Tom who goes back and that you're doing your master's bidding. But now we're about to see, officially, unfortunately, the emergence of the Uncle Tom who goes back and tells the masters of the slaves uprising and their plans, but more particularly from a standpoint of fortune and positively, the commonality of the insurrectionists is this the commonality of the insurrectionists is this All three are Christian ministers, which means they've taken the interpretation of Christianity by white clergy and they stood it on its head.

Speaker 1:

It now becomes a tool of liberation, no longer a tool of oppression. All three are Christian ministers fighting for freedom and who see that freedom imperative, not just an inward freedom, but see an outward freedom, a societally transforming freedom, as imperative in the gospel message itself. This is crucial for the slave community as it moves into the 19th century because it's going to lay the groundwork for more insurrectionist activity as we move up to the Civil War Number two. All three of these men understood their call to ministry to fight for the abolition of slavery and not promote its merits. Up to this point, most of the ministers that had been produced in the black church Openly advocated the merits of slavery, namely because generally there were white overseers in the black back of the church and they prohibited black pastors from making direct references to freedom in their sermons, not unless that freedom of course magnified Bishop Berkeley's interpretation of an inward freedom but not an outward freedom. And so for the most part pastors were systems maintenance kinds of pastors.

Speaker 1:

But you're going to see with these insurrectionists here that they're called to ministry, and my judgment is more authentic because they were fighting for a liberation hermeneutic of the gospel to be pragmatically realized in American society, not only for black people but for all people. And they understood that this understanding of biblical revelation was more closely akin with what the Bible actually says and what the Bible is actually about the central meaning, the central witness of the gospel than for the Bible to be used in the demonic way of justifying one's enslavement of another race of people. And so all of them understood their call to ministry to fight for the abolition of slavery and not promote its merits. And three, for all three of these men, it marks the first public declaration of a Christian faith, of black liberation. In that sense, liberation means not only one's inward freedom but one's outward freedom. Liberation is a more holistic term than freedom itself and lays the ground foundation for a complete understanding of freedom for human beings, and black people in particular, and not just one's inward freedom, as Bishop Berkeley suggested. And this lays the groundwork for the emergence of the black abolitionist tradition in the 19th century.

Speaker 1:

We're going to see Frederick Douglass, we're going to see Harriet Tubman emerge out of this milieu. We're going to see Ida B Wells Barnett emerge out of this milieu. Richard Allen is going to emerge out of this milieu. Richard Allen is going to emerge out of this milieu.

Speaker 1:

And of course, at the end of the 20th century, 19th century, you're going to see the emergence of Reverend C Ransom, a very progressive pastor in California, and you're going to see the emergence as well of Daniel Payne, an AME minister and Bishop, henry McNeil Turner, who actually publishes the article and sets Atlanta in the south on fire when he publishes the article in 1898 that God is a Negro, to the proliferation of white images of Jesus that are going to begin in the 18th century, along with the Fugitive Slave Act, as a last ditch effort to maintain white control and as a last ditch effort to maintain white supremacy.

Speaker 1:

And so this is going to throw down the gauntlet to America that we have become a mature people as we move into the 19th century and that we are not going to accept slavery, not only in terms of its anthropological significance, but we're certainly not going to accept slavery anymore in its theological significance and application, that the notion that we should see an easy affinity between God and human bondage has been severed, and it's been severed forever. And in many ways we began in eighteen hundred, of course, with process, process insurrection, to throw down not only the historical gauntlet to America but to throw down the theological gauntlet as well. And of course, in the next segment we'll talk about how that emerged and unfolded as we move through the 18th century up to the Civil War. As always, it's been real. Thank you for joining me tonight and good night.