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(Part 1 of 7)
INTRODUCTION
In 1789, the General Committee of
Virginia Baptists turned to Massachusetts native John Leland to craft
a statement concerning slavery.
An articulate spokesperson for religious
liberty among Virginia Baptists, Leland produced a stirring statement
against slavery. (1) "Slavery is the violent deprivation of the rights
of nature, and inconsistent with republican government," Leland
declared, as he called for "the use of every legal measure to
extirpate this horrible evil from the land." (2)
Fifty years later, in 1839, Leland, then
living in his home state of Massachusetts, called the institution of
slavery "humane, just and benevolent," and argued for the rights of
slave owners rather than the liberty of slaves. In addition, Leland
declared that slavery was "not an article to be settled by
legislation.... It belongs to the moral and religious department, and
not to the legislative." (3)
Continue to
Historiography of Leland's Views on Slavery
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