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(Part 3 of 7)
THE STRIDENT ANTI-SLAVERY LELAND:
1789-1802
In the decade following Leland's 1789
pronouncement against slavery, Virginia Baptists on the local church,
associational, and state levels struggled with the issue of slavery,
against the backdrop of slavery becoming ever more instrumental in a
cotton-based southern economy. (18) Leland, who lived in Orange County
in north central Virginia during the turbulent 1780s, never owned
slaves. (19) Nonetheless, slavery in Virginia made an indelible
impression upon him. Following his return to the North in his later
years, Leland insisted that anyone who desired to have an informed
opinion on slavery should first live at least seven years in a slave
state. (20)
Leland's 1789 Baptist General Committee
anti-slavery resolution was consistent with his other slavery-related
statements in the middle years of his life. In 1790, Leland wrote "The
Virginia Chronicle," a brief history of religion in the state,
particularly as related to Baptists. Nearly five pages of this
relatively short document dealt expressly with the issue of slavery.
As did most whites of his day, Leland viewed African Americans as an
inferior race. His opposition to slavery, however, was clear and
pointed. He judged the entire matter of slavery to be so vile that
"the whole scene of slavery is pregnant with enormous evils. On the
master's side, pride, haughtiness, domination, cruelty, deceit and
indolence; and on the side of the slave, ignorance, servility, fraud,
perfidy and despair." (21) Leland's observations led him to call for
abolishing slavery. "The sweets of rural and social life will never be
well enjoyed, until it [abolition] is the case." (22)
Leland was well aware that the sudden
emancipation of slaves would wreck financial havoc. He also believed
that abolishing slavery would destroy Virginian society, and was
convinced that the prospect of disruption of social status alone
ensured that Virginians would not liberate their slaves. (23)
Nonetheless, Leland insisted that slavery must come to an end, and
quickly. "It is a question, whether men had not better lose all their
property, than deprive an individual of his birth-right
blessing-freedom. If a political system is such, that common justice
cannot be administered without innovation, the sooner such a system is
destroyed, the better for the people." (24) Leland continued, "one
thing is pretty certain ... [slaves] could [not] serve the whites
worse than the whites now serve them. Something must be done! May
Heaven point out that something, and may the people be obedient." (25)
Prophetically, Leland declared, "If they [slaves] are not brought out
of bondage, in mercy, with the consent of their masters, I think they
will be, by judgment, against their [masters'] consent." (26)
One year later, in 1791, on the eve of his
departure for New England, Leland wrote a "Letter of Valediction" to
Virginia Baptists, in which he asserted: "I can never be reconciled to
the keeping of them [slaves]; nor can I endure to see one man strip
and whip another, as free by nature as himself ... slavery, in its
best appearance, is a violent deprivation of the rights of nature,
inconsistent with republican government, destructive of every humane
and benevolent passion of the soul, and subversive to that liberty
absolutely necessary to ennoble the human mind." (27) Leland longed
for the day of freedom for slaves and employed powerful biblical
imagery of liberation: "How would every benevolent heart rejoice to
see the ... day appear ... when the poor slaves, with a Moses at their
head, should hoist up the standard, and march out of bondage!" (28)
In his parting letter to Virginia Baptists,
Leland reserved his final words for his "black brethren." He
acknowledged that most slaves were dealt with harshly by their
masters, and pointed out that the masters' souls were being punished
for such evil. Yet, he admonished slaves to obey their masters until
God sent his deliverance, and he expressed confidence that he would
meet them again in heaven, "where your melodious voices, that have
often enchanted my ears and warmed my heart, will be incessantly
employed in the praise of our common Lord." (29)
Moving back to New England, Leland's attention
for the next decade was consumed by other matters, of which religious
liberty was foremost. In 1802, he again addressed the issue of slavery
in a political speech delivered in Cheshire, Massachusetts. "Poor
Creatures! is there no liberty for them? must they forever drag the
galling chain of vassalage under their despotic masters? How would
every benevolent heart rejoice to see them all emancipated from
slavery, and enjoy that little pittance of freedom, by nature due to
them. May heaven move on the minds of their masters, and open a way in
Providence to bring them out of bondage, with the consent of their
masters, and consistent with good policy." (30) Yet in the next
breath, Leland shifted his focus from "personal slavery," a new
designation he employed to refer to chattel slavery, to religious
enslavement, referring to those under bondage of church-state
alliances: "Oh! that the day ... may come, when the chains of personal
slavery, and the manacles of religious despotism may be broken
asunder, and freedom and religion pervade the whole earth." (31)
Continue to
The Silent Leland |
