ful speech with much the same idea, telling his followers that he dreamt that his “four children [would] one day live in a nation where they [would] not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” The institution of slavery was so powerful that it still affects society in the United States today.Jacobs believes that slaves are closer to God than the slave owners. She writes of men that commit atrocities against slaves that “[they] also boasted the name and standing of a Christian, though Satan never had a truer follower” (49). She also says that the slaves are “nearer to the gate of heaven than … long-faced Christians, who see wounded Samaritans, and pass by on the other side” (70). The blacks were viewed on such a low scale by whites that, “if a pastor has offspring by a woman not his wife, the church dismiss him, if she is a white woman; but if she is colored, it does not hinder his continuing to be their good shepherd” (74). When asked by Flint to join the church, Jacobs replies, “There are sinners enough in it already. If I could be allowed to live like a Christian, I should be glad” (75). Slave owners treated slaves, human beings, like animals. Indeed, many slaves were much more wholesome and Christian than any slave owner could ever truly be in God’s impartial eyes. The statutes of Christianity sharply contrasted with the actions of the typical Southern slave owner. Slaveholders committed atrocities and based them on a handful of quotations from the Bible. However, if a white befell the same violence, the action was immoral, illegal, and punishable. Slavery, the “Peculiar Institution,” was the cause for the suffering of countless of human souls. Americans today can look back and truly see that chattel slavery was a cruel, perverse institution that no human should ever have to endure. Most people rea...
