How Pope Nicholas V Used the Church to Start the Disgraceful Slave Trade

Religious dogma created the dehumanization of African indigenous people

In 1452, Pope Nicholas V charged Alfonso of Portugal with the Christian duty to enslave any non-Christian. The Pope’s act would be the first recorded international edict to literally grant a Christian nation the right to promote, enforce, and heavily profit from slave trading. Decades later, Pope Alexander VI beckoned Christian monarchs to conquer native populations in the name of the Catholic Church, upholding his predecessor’s tradition to enslave non-Christians in whatever lands they called home (Muhammad, 2019).

While discussions about slavery often center on European nations’ wrongdoings, historians often obscure the role of the Catholic Church. The truth is like the sound of an alarm after a long night of drinking; it may sound unpleasant, but it is essential to move on from the drunken stupor.

The Catholic Church forced their views onto African and Indigenous people. There was no peaceful conversion and mending of ideological differences. Conversion by missionaries was historically violent, dehumanizing, and destabilizing for African nations. White people justified African enslavement because they did not deem non-Christians worthy of respect.

Colonization is the preamble to every injustice Black and Indigenous people experience today through white supremacy. Pope Nicholas V charged Portugal with the duty to enslave non-Christian people, crossing the rubicon.

The enslavement of non-Christians

Though the Bible does not mention race or skin color in this narrative, according to these sixteenth and seventeenth century theologians, Africans inherited Ham and Canaan’s curse of slavery. By the nineteenth century, pro-slavery advocates in the United States continued to use this misleading biblical justification, as well as Aristotle’s theory of natural order and New World racial prejudices, to defend their support of slavery (LDHI, 2020).

If something is right, someone should convince you of that fact, not force you. However, the Catholic Church viewed all other religious practices as barbaric. There was never a debate — the papacy ordered a mandate instead of trying to convert through kindness, respect, and virtue. So, when many people feel surprised that many modern Christians, Catholics, and Evangelicals are showing disdain for Black people and the LGBT community, I cannot help but feel this is a result of white-washed history. Historians documented their race-based oppression thoroughly.

When a country indulges in revisionist history, it is easy to turn a war criminal into a Saint and a family farmer into a savage. White men used the Bible as a sword against all non-Christian people. This ideology came directly from one of the great philosophers — Aristotle.

Aristotle argued that the master and slave relationship was natural and that some are marked out for subjection, others for rule (LDHI, 2020).

Thus, assertion that slavery was humane became part of early European thought. The Church embodied this ideology and turned it into policy. Catholics spread their faith through acts of war, not discourse. When Portugal, Spain, France, Britain, and other European nations enslaved Africans, they did so with the blessing of the Church. Pro-slavery relied on the selection of key verses from the bible.

The Dum Diversas got the ball rolling

The Papal Bull of 1455 justified the expansion of (black) African slavery within early Iberian colonies, and the acquisition of more African captives and territory (LDHI, 2020).

On June 18, 1452, Pope Nicholas V issued the papal bull, Dum Diversas. Through this proclamation, he declared that Catholic nations should condemn any enemy of Christ to eternal slavery. African and Indigenous people were not guilty of hating Christ because they did not know about this religion. They formed great nations thousands of years prior, without the help of the Catholic Church. Yet, white people viewed them as savages because they did not think like them. They assumed that anyone who was not Catholic lacked morals, and thus, they could do whatever they wanted to them. Pope Nicholas V’s Dum Diversas got the ball rolling, justifying cruelty and subjugation.

African-Americans became Christians by force

White people have a long history of hurting Black people by saying the pain was for their own good — that started with the Church. In the United States, slave owners prohibited African slaves from reading for generations. Then, when their brains felt starved for content, European colonists issued the “Slave Bible.” African Americans’ descendants learned about Christianity through indoctrination, not any natural connection with this Roman-based religion.

The Slave Bible used selections to ensure Africans knew their place at the bottom of the social hierarchy. This version left out many parts, and its sole purpose was to create a submissive Black populous. In America, African slaves studied the Bible because it was the only book they had, not because it reflected their ideology or real spiritual character. They read excerpts that insisted Black people should listen to their earthly masters as long as they were Christian.

The Slave Bible doesn’t include Moses leading the Israelites to freedom, but it does include Joseph’s enslavement in Egypt. In the U.S., some sermons aimed at enslaved people portrayed Joseph as someone who “accepts his lot in life, keeps his faith in God and in the end is rewarded for it,’ Schmidt says. The Slave Bible may have wanted to impart a similar lesson to its audience (Little, 2018).

Converting became a survival strategy. Once in America, colonists stripped African people of their original tribal names, languages, and culture. They replaced this with Christian indoctrination. It should not surprise anyone that most African Americans today consider themselves Christian. Pope Nicholas V’s mandate is alive and kicking in the hearts of many Americans.

Colonizers wiped the slate clean, replacing traditional African spirituality with Catholicism. Modern Black people choose to practice Christianity, but colonists forced their ancestors into adopting these practices. Their ties to the Church relate directly to the oppressive conditions initiated by Pope Nicholas V.

Personal Story

At age five, I had my doubts about the Catholic Church. My father told me to kneel and pray, and I listened. I felt that I was speaking to myself, and when I tried to ask adults questions about this, they often dismissed me as mischievous instead of curious. As I grew older, I began to question the teachings of the Church. I felt willing to accept some of the great stories that motivated people to become righteous but did not feel the need to adapt it as my religion wholeheartedly.

As I grew, I felt emboldened to ask my father a question. “Dad, how can we practice a religion that was beaten into our ancestors?” He smiled, “I see your point.” After that, he never tried to convince me, and I always respected his faith, never bringing it up again. That day, we came to an understanding. I could not accept a religion used to enslave our ancestors, and anyone who loved me would have to understand that.

Religious Freedom

I understand the cry of Africans for an authentic liberation,’ he said at another point,’ far from all racism and all that leads to political, economic or cultural exploitation’ — Pope Nicholas V. (Dionne, 1985).

Everyone should have the right to practice their religion freely, without chastisement or ridicule. However, we should not attempt to separate the inseparable. Racism and Catholicism are joined at the hip ever since Pope Nichols V signed that edict, condemning my African ancestors. The disgraceful slave trade is the direct result of white-supremacist-driven religious domination.

European colonists founded America on the principle of religious freedom while depriving that freedom to African people. Black lives and values did not matter to the Catholic Church. Despite Pope John Paul II’s apology for slavery, European nations still avoid accountability like the plague. They deprived religious freedom to millions of African people and their descendants. Can America ever heal without acknowledging the failure to supply Africans with religious freedom?

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References:

Dionne, E. J., Jr. (1985). Pope Nicolas V and the Portuguese Slave Trade · African Laborers for a New Empire: Iberia, Slavery, and the Atlantic World · Lowcountry Digital History Initiative. Retrieved December 23, 2020, from https://ldhi.library.cofc.edu/exhibits/show/african_laborers_for_a_new_emp/pope_nicolas_v_and_the_portugu

LDHI (Ed.). (, 2020). European Christianity and Slavery · African Passages, Lowcountry Adaptations · Lowcountry Digital History Initiative. Retrieved December 23, 2020, from https://ldhi.library.cofc.edu/exhibits/show/africanpassageslowcountryadapt/introductionatlanticworld/europnea_christianity_and_slav

Little, B. (2018, December 11). Why Bibles Given to Slaves Omitted Most of the Old Testament. Retrieved December 23, 2020, from https://www.history.com/news/slave-bible-redacted-old-testament

Muhammad P.M.(2019). The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade: European Slaving Corporations, the Papacy, and the Issue of Reparations. Willamette Journal of International Law & Dispute Resolution, 26(1/2), 173–248.

The author Allison Gaines is the founder of Justice Can’t Wait: