Rev. Henry Evans Holder, a Barbadian Minister and Slaveowner, defends Slavery, 1788

Rev. Henry Evans Holder, curate of St. Joseph Parish in Barbados, authored A Short Essay on the Subject of Negro Slavery in 1788 as a response to the burgeoning abolitionist movement in Britain. He also authored a poem in 1792 in response to an antislavery poem by Major John Marjoribanks. His essay emerged at a time when colonial Anglican ministers sought to defend the institution of slavery against critiques that questioned both its morality and necessity. Holder's work was part of a broader effort to counteract the arguments made by figures like Rev. James Ramsay, who had called for more humane treatment and religious instruction for enslaved people. In his treatise, Holder defended slavery by emphasizing the supposed benefits it brought to the enslaved, including religious conversion and moral upliftment, while framing abolitionist calls for emancipation as misguided and detrimental. His essay provides rare insight into the pro-slavery stance held by some colonial clergy and their belief in the ameliorative potential of Christianity within the framework of slavery.

I. Of Slavery in General

One of the strongest arguments which can be alleged against Slavery, is that of the essential and original independence and equality of man, by the law of nature; in consequence of which he derives certain personal rights, which are inalienable, and cannot be invaded without violence or injury. This argument is specious, but it will admit of some qualification. May it not be asked, whether the law of nature can mean any thing else than the law of the God of nature? and whether men can have any rights at all, but those which they derive from him? Their independence and equality can only subsist by his appointment, and under the controul of his supreme authority; and does it not appear, that, by permitting those varieties of rank and condition in the world, which are to be found there, he has so far modified all the personal rights of men, as that no one common scale can be ascertained concerning them, to be applied indiscriminately to the whole race. Even in the most uncultivated state of human nature, it is more than probable that a difference of rank subsists; in particular, that in those wilds, where the combinations of society are least extensive, least artfully formed, and least accurately defined, the power which one man acquires over many, is exerted in a very extraordinary degree. It is asserted, with respect to the inhabitants of Africa, on the slave coast, that the heads of families assume to themselves the right of selling any of the individuals composing them, as they please; which seems to imply, that, with them, the ideas of such subordination among polished nations. Should it be asked, if, by citing this barbarous custom, I would mean to affirm that Providence authorities, by permitting, it, I shall certainly disclaim the conclusion: I would only collect from thence, that every where a difference of rank and condition subsists, by his designation; although, in many cases, that difference is often abused to the injury of inferiors; and that it is likely that Slavery may come in, to close the gradation, and, in its place, may answer some part of the moral purpose, which Providence intends to promote, by diversifying the situations of mankind, with respect to each other. Nor let any one suppose that the presumption is too bold an one, “that Slavery may constitute a portion of the scheme of Divine government;” since if we will take the trouble to advert to the xxvth chapter of Leviticus, v. 44, 45, 46, we shall find that an especial law was provided in the Mosaic code for the institution and perpetuating of Slavery: “Both thy bond-men and thy bond-maids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the Heathen that are round about you; of Them shall ye buy bond-men and bond-maids: moreover, of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they beget in your land; and they shall be your possession: an ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be your bond-men for ever.” In the xxist chapter of Exodus, v. 20, where a merciful, but cautious, attention is shewn to the treatment of the Slave by the Master, the concluding clause contains a position, which marks the relationship in the most striking manner: “If a man smite his servant, or his maid, he shall be surely punished; notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished: for he is his money.” In these quotations, it is clear that Slavery, in its proper sense, is designed; and as the Mosaic law is universally allowed to be of divine origin, they may well be taken as declarative of the Divine will. Nothing, in the Christian dispensation of the gospel, can be alleged to prove, that the arrangements of the law of Moses, on this subject, were local, and may not be cited as a general argument; and, therefore, we may safely conclude, that Slavery is one of those gradations of rank and condition, which God has been pleased to establish in this world, to answer a particular moral purpose; although, at the same time, it should be observed, that, as a particular set of reciprocal duties and obligations lies upon the members of other gradations, so also upon those of this; and therefore, that, while the authority, which Slavery gives the Master over the Slave, may be, on the one hand, exercised consistently with right, it is, on the other hand, limited, and may be abused; and, when it is carried to extremities, must be especially amenable to Divine indignation and punishment.

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IV. Of the Conversion of the Negroes

There is no part of the subject in question, which appears so important and delicate to be handled, as this. To communicate the blessings of the gospel as widely as possible, is a duty of the most indispensable kind; to withhold them must be a crime of the blackest dye; but how they may be applied to our Negroes, consistently with the true spirit of that dispensation, it is not easy to determine. To impose it as an involuntary obligation, would be to depart entirely from its design, and to reduce that to empty formality, which is intended to work upon the mind, and to establish a lasting and a purifying influence upon it. Among other obstacles, arising from their present moral state, there is one, particularly striking, which it appears necessary to bring forward. How are we to accommodate the principles of Christianity to the licentious tendencies of a Negro, who openly associates himself with as many women (whom he calls his wives) as his constitution, humour, and circumstances, will enable him to maintain in that relationship; and who, when the passion of the present time is evaporated, and some little cause of difference supervenes, in the succeeding period of coldness and neglect, abandons his former favourite, and seeks a new wife, to supply her precarious place? Among many wives, which shall we say that he shall reject, and which retain; and how shall we keep those united, who are determined to separate? This difficulty is, certainly, considerable; and therefore, unless the attempt of conversion could be confined to the young, who have not yet formed the habits before alluded to, or unless polygamy should be tolerated, in favour of those, who were converted, in the practice of it, one might almost answer for its failure: indeed, should it be referred to the young exclusively, the carelessness and indifference of their parents and friends, about its success, and the many impediments they would throw in their way, by the seducing influence of their own examples, might justify the apprehension, that even this limited mode of operation would not be so advantageous, as might otherwise be imagined. But let it not be conceived that these difficulties suggested, are intended to preclude the attempt, to promote a work so laudable in its design, so benevolent in its principles. It is an undoubted fact, that is has not yet been fairly made: notwithstanding every thing which has been said in England on this subject, nothing has been done from thence, which could promise any good effect. If now the necessity and expedience of such a work are more strikingly apparent, it might be an useful plan for those societies, who are particularly zealous in the cause of religion and humanity, to send out missionaries, to establish Sunday-Schools throughout the island, for the instruction of the Negroes in the first principles of Christian knowledge; and to let their choice fall upon men of good abilities, but humble expectations, who would be thankful to accept of some moderate stipend from them, increased by a little gratuity from each Owner of Negroes, in proportion to the number of Catechumens whom he should send to the teacher, and who would consider the charge with which they were invested, as important to their own comfort. It might further the undertaking, to engage the planters, to select, from each large plantation, one particular Negro or Mulatto, of youthful age and quick apprehension, whose instruction should be daily attended to, and carried on to some degree of literary improvement, to qualify him as an assistant to the missionary of the quarter, who by that means might be enabled to establish many schools within his district, and to visit them himself, in rotation; while, at other times, the several assistants would supply the want of his presence, in those of the schools, whose turn was past or yet to come. Let this, or any other plan, which might be thought better, be adopted, and let the effect of it be seen, in the course of a fair, consistent, and durable experiment. Should it succeed, it might then become a means to introduce a gradual enlargement of the privileges of the converts, and thereby others might be engaged to court a share of them, by enlisting under the same religious auspices with themselves. It cannot be denied, that such a change in the moral condition of our Slaves, would be highly beneficial. So far as it was real, and adequate to the design, there is not a doubt that it would occasion them to perform their services to their Masters more conscientiously and faithfully. To consider the affairs of this world as under direction of a good and gracious God, to regard this life as a period of trial and probationary suffering to every one, and to look for the rewards of a patient endurance of the lot which he has assigned to each, in another and a better state of existence, are truths which they could not fail to gather from the general tenor of the gospel, and to be influenced by, in proportion to the sincerity of their conversion; and the tendency of these will at once demonstrate the absurdity of supposing that Christianity would in any respect avail to make them unwilling to remain in their present relationship to us, or that that relationship is incompatible with its requisitions and principles. The difficulties attending upon their conversion do not arise from their Slavery, but from their ignorance, prejudices, and preconceived habits; from causes which must oppose it, in any other situation; and which actually do oppose it, in the native country from whence their race was originally derived….The attempt is, undoubtedly, laudable; and the more so, as it is proved to be arduous and troublesome: it would reflect honour upon the age; and, among other beneficial consequences to be hoped for, from it, to the West-Indies, it might stir up the languishing spirit of religion among their white inhabitants, and excite an emulation in their minds, to promote the conversion of their Negroes, by the influence of their own examples; an effect, greatly wanted, most devoutly to be wished, and anxiously to be sought after, by every means in our power!