Racism, BLM

How the Bible Was Redacted to Justify Slavery

This version of the Bible was cherry-picked for ‘Use of the Negro Slaves’

After the successful Haitian revolution by self-liberated slaves against French colonial rule in Haiti, the slave owners scrambled for help. The slave owners across Europe understood that mere physical oppression would not work — what was also needed was a spiritual justification of slavery.

On the other hand, Missionaries worked hard to spread the word of God via the Bible.

The problem? — There were also a lot of verses in the Bible that abolitionists could use to argue against slavery.

The Solution — A heavily redacted version of Bible called ‘Select Parts of the Holy Bible, for the Use of the Negro Slaves in the British West-India Islands¹’

Because so few people would actually question the authority of the Bible, this was seen as the best channel to spread the false propaganda and legitimacy of slavery.

In an effort to quell the rebellion and justify their acts, the British planters of the Caribbean persuaded the Missionaries to preach the ‘Slave Bible’.

Published in 1807, the Slave Bible was like a regular Bible except that it had redacted almost 90% of the Old Testament, and only half of the New Testament remained.

Out of the 1,189 chapters in a standard Protestant Bible, this Bible contains only 232.

The contents or rather lack of contents of the Slaves Bible has no mention of anything that could remotely inspire a rebellion.

The British missionaries wanted to convert the slaves, but at the same time making sure not to make them self-aware of their rights in the society.

The version cherry-picked verses from the original Bible to reinforce institutionalized slavery and obedience. It details Joseph’s enslavement in Egypt to normalize slavery. He is portrayed as someone who accepts his fate into slavery and is then rewarded for his faith in God.

Another such example is the Ephesians 6:5

“Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear. Serve them sincerely as you would serve Christ.”

On the contrary, the passages where Moses tells Pharoah to “Let my people go” have been removed. Also redacted were the passages which preached equality between groups. One such example of a redacted verse is Galatians 3:28

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

The Ten Commandments are left in, but the Exodus is omitted. Also redacted is how God freed the Hebrew slaves from Egyptian rule.

The missionaries took the utmost care to convert slaves to Christianity but the same time didn’t want to displease the local plantation owners and incite rebellion.

This Bible basically preached the enslaved people to ‘be better slaves’.

Final thoughts

Only three physical copies of this Bible are known to exist, a digital version free for reading however exists here.

Such institutionalized Racism is dangerous to the very foundations of society, especially coming from an authoritative text like the Bible.

Our consciences are resentful today by this kind of selective text manipulation in the Bible. It, however, begs the question —

What sections of the original Bible are we being kept away from today to suit the current social narrative?

Reference

[1] — Select parts of the Holy Bible, for the use of the negro slaves, in the British West-India islands