[Music] um your new book with a very interesting title a sleeve sheep called Jesus H you know when I first saw this book and um I considered us featuring it I said I hope I don't get in trouble with viewers I been considering of course for obvious reasons it is hard yeah a slave ship called Jesus um why this title and what motivated this book I would like you to introduce it to viewers and then we dig in yeah I mean the as far as the title is concerned I was just minding my own business I was just as any educated African should seeking to teach myself about what happened in that trade what was it all about how did it start by trade you mean the slave trade transatlantic slave the transatlantic slave trade how did it start what was going on and it's in a course of research that you come across certain factual details and finding that one of the ships was called Amazing Grace another one was called a slave ship it was called sorry the Jesus of Lubec now that hit me hard given that I was raised in a Christian setting I was struck by the fact that this evil trade this where you ship people uh out of their continents you you you you you wretch them out of their environment you shove them into the boat chain them down you sail them across the oceans onto these plantations where they often work to death systematically and ships can be called the Jesus ofc religious names on the first day of the month of August 2022 a group of the leaders of the global reparations movement met with the Vatican to discuss the Catholic Church's involvement with the transatlantic slave trade and ways in which the church can make amends with the descendants of enslaved Africans the group had detailed on the need for the church to formally address its role with a Papal reparations commission and financial retribution for the lineages of African ancestors who were victims of slavery in the past the global Circle for reparations and healing GC a delegation of reparations leaders arrived in Rome led by cam Howard director of reparations United and included Dr Ron Daniels convener of the national African-American reparations commission n AR Dr Amara enier strategist for the GCR and Nicole Hannah Jones author of The 1619 project je a new origin story they had met with Bishop Paul TIG Secretary of the pontifical Council of culture at the Vatican the group delivered a presentment outlining the harms and offenses of the church regarding the transatlantic slave trade and slavery the presentment also referenced the legacy of those harms and offenses and reparations measures that are needed for Full Repair the effects of the transatlantic slave trade and the harms inflicted on our ancestors continue to cause systemic damage to to this day thus said cam Howard director of reparations United who is co-convenor of the GCR the Catholic church has admitted that it played a role in the transatlantic slave trade and the purpose of our meeting was to provide a road map to allow us to move forward toward True reparatory Justice the focus now will be on continued conversations to move the work forward to ensure repair becomes a reality during the meeting Bishop TIG suggested that the moment is ripe for the presentment to be seriously considered by the church under the guidance of Pope Francis he cited Pope francis's encyclical Fratelli tuti as evidence of the pontiff's commitment to explore issues of Justice equality and Reconciliation Bishop T agreed to share the presentment to leaders within the church and offered suggestions for initiating a process for moving forward with talks when talking about slavery particularly the transatlantic slave trade and its After Effects there are certain institutions that directly benefited and continue to re those benefits Dr Ron Daniels convenor of knar and co-convenor of the GCR had chipped in our goal is to hold those institutions accountable and ensure that they play a major role in helping to repair the communities that have been harmed I am encouraged by the conversation with Bishop Teague and look forward to creating real change for African descendants of enslavement throughout the diaspora this was a serious meeting of deliberation and present at the Vatican meeting were representatives of other GCR organizations and supporters representing the Global African Congress UK black Europe summer school Netherlands Nia Foundation Netherlands first repair us qua aoma Italy and the African future action lab Europe we may never realize how deeply slavery was embedded in the American economy slavery fueled the growth of many of our contemporary institutions including the Catholic Church many Southern Christians felt that slavery in one Baptist Minister's words stands as an institution of God here are some common arguments made by Christians at the time one Abraham the father of faith and all the Patriarchs held slaves without God's disapproval Genesis 21: 9-10 two Canan Ham's son was made a slave to his brothers Genesis 9: 24- 27 three The Ten Commandments mentioned slavery twice showing God's implicit acceptance of it Exodus 20: 10- 17 four slavery was widespread throughout the Roman world and yet Jesus never spoke against it five the Apostle Paul specifically commanded slaves to obey their masters Ephesians the 6: 5 to8 6 Paul returned a runaway slave filimon to his master book of filimon 12 s slavery removes people from a culture that worshiped the devil practiced Witchcraft and sorcery and other evils this one really held grounds then as though Witchcraft and sorcery weren't also practiced by Europeans and the Western World At Large eight under slavery people are treated with kindness as many Northern visitors can attest I wonder who were the northern visitors that could attest to a thing such as kindness in the gross inhumanity of slavery nine slavery is God's means of of protecting and providing for an inferior race Suffering The Curse of ham in Genesis 9:25 or even the punishment of Kane in Genesis 4:12 10 those who support abolition of slavery are in James H thornwell words atheists socialists Communists and red Republicans this could just go on and on taking one's mind into a Labyrinth of confusion and sorrow many of us view the Catholic Church as a northern church but the Catholic Church established its foothold in the South and relied on plantations and slave labor to help Finance the livelihoods of its priests and nuns and to support its schools and religious projects this is the history that we all should know enslaved people have largely been left out of the origin story that is traditionally told about the Catholic church and other religious institutions in 2005 for example Cardinal Avery Dulles wrote a book review in first things claiming that the popes had denounced the trade in African slaves from its very beginnings and yet had never condemned slavery as such retaining a continuity of teaching that always allowed for some attenuated forms of servitude other apologists have taken a more absolute position the church has always been against slavery itself both these lines of argumentation seem to agree on two Central assertions the popes always condemned the trade in African slaves and the church's teaching did not change defending the church either in its reputation or its doctrinal continuity can be praiseworthy but when it comes to the history of the Catholic church and slaveholding this posture of Defense has been deeply damaging it has unnecessarily led to confusion around the church's history with slaveholding and that confusion has helped to prevent the church from Reckoning with a troubling history whose consequences are still present in our world and yet it was once widely known and still is among historians of slavery today that the Catholic Church once embraced slavery in Theory and in practice repeatedly authorized the trade in enslaved Africans and allowed its priests religious and ly to keep people as Enslaved chattle the Jesuits for example by the historian Andrew Deal's count owned over 20,000 enslaved people Circa 1760 the Jesuits and other slaveholding bishops priests and religious were not disciplined for their slave holding because they were not breaking Church teachings slave holding was allowed by the Catholic Church in reacting to the effects of European encroachments into Africa Jomo Kenyata had said when the Europeans came to our lands we had the lands and they had the Bible they taught us to pray with our eyes closed when we opened our eyes they had the land and we had the Bible Dr ysep Ben yinan had also stated Africa took both the hook the line and the Sinker another one from Dr J R Clark I question the intelligence of anyone who believes that everything written in the Bible is true yet another one still from Napoleon bonapart who said religion had stopped the poor from killing the rich in Europe Carl Marx had stated too that religion is the Opium of the masses the list could go on and on and on the transatlantic slave trade was introduced by the coming of the Europeans who came with the Bible in the same manner that Arab Raiders and Traders from the Middle East and North Africa introduced Islam through the trans Saharan slave trade in fact the church was the backbone of the slave trade historians had pointed out in other words most of the slave Traders and slave ship captains were very good Christians for example Sir John Hawkins the first slav ship captain to bring African slaves to the Americas was a religious man who insisted that his crew serve God daily and love one another his ship iron Ally called The Good Ship Jesus left the shores of his native England for Africa in October 1562 Yes you heard right the first British slav ship to reach the Americas was called the good [Music] Jesus what has come to be referred to as the good ship Jesus was in fact the Jesus of Lubec a 700 ton ship purchased by King Henry the we from the htic league a merchant alliance between the cities of Hamburg and Lubec in Germany 20 years after its purchase the ship in disrepair was lent to Sir John Hawkins by Queen Elizabeth John Hawkins had the dubious distinction of becoming the first slave ship captain to bring Africans to the Americas he was granted permission from Queen Elizabeth for his first voyage in 1562 he was allowed to carry Africans to the Americas with their own free consent and he agreed to this condition Hawkins had a reputation for being a religious man who required his crew to serve God daily and to love one another Sir Francis Drake a cousin to Hawkins accompanied Hawkins on this voyage and a subsequent others Drake Too was himself devoutly religious Services were held on board twice a day in this very Voyage off the coast of Africa near Sierra Leon Hawkins captured 300 to 500 slaves mostly by plundering Portuguese ships but also through violence and subterfuge promising Africans free land and riches in the New World world he sold most of the slaves in what is now known as the Dominican Republic he returned home with a profit and ships Laden with Ivory hides and sugar thus had begun the slave trade on his return to England Queen Elizabeth had grown very furious at Hawkins charging that his Endeavor was detestable and would call down Vengeance from Heaven upon the undertakers when Elizabeth became fully aware however of the profits to be made she had joined in partnership with Hawkins and provided him with the Jesus of Lubec a Ka the good ship Jesus a later slaving expedition in 1567 consisting of five ships and the Jesus of Lubec met with resistance from the Spaniards at s Juan dooa in Mexico since the slave trade was illegal Spanish colonists usually required a charade of force from British ships after which they would buy slaves at a discount this time around however the Spaniards attacked the British ships and the Jesus of Lubec cumbersome and difficult to maneuver was sunk and the crew slaughtered Hawkins escaped with Drake on a smaller ship Hawkins his piratic Ambitions dashed returned to England and remained there in the service of the queen he gained distinction for his pivotal role in defeating the Spanish Armada and was knighted in 1588 the British did not initiate but they did dominate the Atlantic slave trade few expressed moral or ethical doubts about slavery the Anglican Church was directly involved in slavery when a Christian voice was raised against the slave trade it was led by Quakers who also played a critical role in the campaign to end the slave trade in fact few people raised their voice against the Atlantic slave trade until the mid 18th century there had been isolated objectors but on the whole the trade developed without any real sense of religious objection it was almost as if the slave trade was morally neutral it is true there had been the occasional Christian denunciation of slave trading most notably from early Puritans and Quakers George Fox had denounced it as early as 1673 but as the trade grew involving ever more people and industries to feed the slave ships and as the material Bounty from the slave colonies flowed back to Britain such criticisms were drowned out by the sound of profitable trade in the century before abolition in 1807 the British had shipped more than 3 million Africans to the plantations the suffering of the Africans on the ships and plantations were undeniable but raised barely a whisper indeed Godly men came to think of the trade as a simple fact of life God-fearing men went about their Godless business George Whitefield an evangelist in America did not approve of slavery but he nonetheless owned slaves the young slave Captain John Newton saw nothing Odd as he put his rebellious Africans in the thumb screws before settling down to pray for a safe and profitable passage to the Americas Newton came to regret his slaving past and is now more famous as a cleric and hymnwriter than a slave trader but his conversion was not so much a sudden Revelation as a gradual dawning of true faith and a rejection of his sinful past and there had been nothing more sinful than his slaving days though at the time neither he nor thousands more thought it Wicked through all this the Church of England was by turns complicit and then transformed by a quirk of inheritance the Anglican spcg founded in 1701 had inherited plantations in 1710 mainly in Barbados from Christopher codrington a former Soldier government official and planter the plantations and their resident slaves were managed like any other absentee Plantation their sugar-based profits flowing back to their owners the Church of England the slaves were branded a common pattern in the islands and there were occasional concerns expressed about their well-being in 1760 the Archbishop of Canterbury wrote I have long worried and lamented that the Negroes in our plantations decrease surely this proceeds from some defect both of humanity and even of good policy but we must take things as they are at present and so it continued until at full emancipation in 1833 the church was compensated to the tune of £ 8,833 for the loss of their slaves on codrington throughout whatever the unease or discomfort there was no sense that slave ownership was irreligious it was a matter of rendering unto Caesar the church was present throughout the lifespan of slavery in the new world contrary to popular opinion Christianity was by no means solely an anti-slavery advocate for the most part there is plenty of evidence to support the Christian Church's struggle for the abolition of the Despicable institution but there is also evidence to defend the contrary because slavery was such a lucrative business many in the church continued to profit from the Despicable institution not withstanding this there were still many who were adamant abolitionists however there are obviously many different forms of religion derived from Catholic and Protestant Roots as well as an infinite number of independent beliefs different Christian sects had different ways of addressing the sensitive topic of African bondage there were differences of opinion both among and Within These denominations when it came to slavery even the Quakers who developed a firm objection to slavery had problems convincing ing all of their members that it was evil some of them even owned slaves some historians argue that if churches had used their power the Atlantic slave trade might have never occurred one of them was Albert Barnes a 19th century abolitionist who suggested that the institution of Christianity alone was powerful enough to have stopped or even prevented slavery from developing in the new world the church he argued was the great opponent of slavery during the Roman Empire as well as during colonialism in the new world although the the latter point is particularly debatable yet Barnes believed that if all of the different denominations pulled together there would be no other power strong enough to combat it slavery would have been non-existent still the fact remains that many slaveholders were Christians and some were even members of the clergy even some missionaries to the Colony owned slaves balom de Lascassas a Catholic priest and missionary who stationed in Hispanola in the early 16th century owned Native American slaves and later swap them in for the more durable and work-friendly African slaves he wrote to Spain suggesting that the slaveholders cease the use of Native Americans as slaves because they were unable to cope with the harsh working conditions and European diseases that were wiping them out the Africans on the other hand were sturdier and better equipped to withstand European disease the Catholic church had a major presence in slavery in the new world according to Richard Miller Catholic countries were the prime movers in the Rev Revival of slavery in the old world and the introduction of it into the new world the Church of Rome did not consider the African slaver human being until 1839 Miller adds that this only occurred after the abolition movement by the American anti-slavery society and the certainty of the handwriting on the wall that someday slavery would be abolished even though there were missionaries in the islands who were devoted to the abolition of slavery there were some that were just as bad as the plantation holders when it came to the treatment of their slaves hi argued that the Baptist missionaries in Barbados petitioned for the emancipation of slaves or at least the Improvement of their living conditions yet they were severely mistreating their own slaves he also reported that the missionaries neglected the slaves religious lessons and did not permit their slaves to learn to read the slaves were not even given their Sabbath to worship this time was allotted to them to care for their own land Robert hle had similar comments on the slaves in morius and Jamaica the slave must work on the Sabbath and has little time for himself the last Jamaica Slave Code allows 26 Saturdays in the year which I have seen disingenuously represented as holidays but as 26 days of Labor even in that climate are totally insufficient to maintain a family he must be compelled to cultivate his provision ground on the Sabbath here it was not only slaves belonging to the missionaries but those belonging to White plantation owners Nancy Prince was disappointed with the condition of the Baptist churches in Jamaica she said that the meeting houses were unruly and seemed more like playhouses than a place of worship she noted that the churches were overcrowded and unorganized she also noted that many of the blacks were underdressed some without shoes according to a 2015 Global black history report the Catholic Church did not oppose the institution of slavery until the practice had already become infamous in most parts of the world in most cases the churches and church leaders did not condemn slavery until the 17th century the five major countries that dominated slavery and the slave trade in the new world were either Catholic or still retained strong Catholic influences including Spain Portugal France and England and the Netherlands persons who considered themselves to be Christian played a major role in upholding and justifying the enslavement of Africans said Dr Jonathan Chisum an assistant professor of History at the University of Houston downtown many European Christian slavers perceived Africans as uncivilized persons they Justified slavery by rationalizing that they were christianizing and civilizing their African captors even went as far as filtering the truths of the Gospel to keep them under control in fear they would eventually awaken to that which they're entitled to as Christians and demand freedom and equality if they knew the truth like it was obedience to their masters therefore without questioning the laws became the indoctrination applied till date many anglo-israel for the enslavement of blacks in this passage Noah cursed Canan and his descendants arguing that ham would be the lowest of slaves among his brothers because he saw the unclothed of his father a further understanding of the passage also revealed that while some have attempted to justify their Prejudice by claiming that God cursed the black race no such curse is recorded in the Bible that often cited verse says nothing whatsoever about skin color also it should be noted that black race evidently descended from a brother of Canan named Kush canan's descendants were evidently light-skinned not black truly nothing in the biblical account identifies ham the descendant of Canan with Africans yet Christian apologists determined that Africans were the descents of ham nevertheless at the beginning of the 16th century the racial interpretation of Noah's curse became commonplace in 2016 Georgetown University in Washington DC offered a public apology after acknowledging that 188 years prior Jesuit priests sold 272 slaves to save the school from Financial ruin this is how the New York Times first reported the story the human cargo was loaded on ships at a bustling WARF in the nation's capital destined for the plantations of the Deep South some slaves pleaded for rosaries as they were rounded up praying for deliverance but on that day in the fall of 1838 no one was spared not the two-month-old baby and her mother not the field hands not the Shoemaker and not Cornelius Hawkins who was about 13 years old when he was forced on board this was no ordinary slave sale the enslaved African-Americans had belonged to the nation's most prominent Jesuit priests and they were sold along with scores of others to help secure the future of the Premier Catholic institution of Higher Learning at the time known today as Georgetown University the Society of Jesus who helped to establish Georgetown University and whose leaders enslaved and mercilessly sold your ancestors stands before you to say that we have greatly sinned Reverend Timothy Cass II SJ president of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States had said during a Liturgy of remembrance Contrition and hope we pray with you today because we have greatly sinned and because we are profoundly sorry during the Early Republic Catholics celebrated the new constitution for its guarantee of religious liberty while simply accepting its guarantee of slaveholding internal Church politics mattered too when the Jesuit order was suppressed in 1773 the plantation system of the order in Maryland was seen as a protection for their identity and solidarity The Universal Church taught that slavery enjoyed the sanction of scripture and natural law throughout the antibellum period many churches in the South committed to sharing their version of the Christian faith with blacks they believed that their version of Christianity would help them to be good slaves and not challenge the slave system one of the reasons the church's past approval of slave holding is so little known among the the general Catholic population today is that the very popes who reversed the church's course on slavery and the slave trade also promoted that same inaccurate narrative that defended the church's reputation and continuity even intentionally or not at the cost of the truth condemning the Atlantic slave trade the shifts began quietly in 1814 Pope Pas I 7 at the request of Great Britain prior to the upcoming Congress of Vienna privately sent letters to the kings of France and Spain asking them to condemn the slave trade at this time in history condemning the trade did not equate to condemning slavery itself the slave trade meant the transatlantic shipping of enslaved persons from the African continent to the new world hence the slave holding US president Thomas Jefferson prior to signing an anti-slave trade bill into law in 1807 saw no contradiction in referring to the trade as those violations of human rights against the unoffending inhabitants of Africa all while continuing to keep black descendants of the trade's immediate victims enslaved Britain itself outlawed the trade in 1807 but slave holding remained legal afterward in parts of its Empire in the same vein P's private letters referred only to the trade not to slavery itself the papacy's condemnation of the trade became a public one in 1839 with Gregory 16's Bull in supro apostol latus though the bull came once again at the request of Great Britain Gregory deserves praise for being the first pope to publicly condemn the Atlantic slave trade after nearly four centuries of its operation the bull was a strong one in many ways blaming the Advent of the trade on Christians who were basely blinded by the lust of sworded greed and yet as with Pas a 7 Gregory did not speak directly on the issue of whether slaveholders in the Americas should free their enslaved people something he easily could have included so when some abolitionists in the United States greeted Gregory's bull as a fully anti-slavery document Catholic Bishops like John England of Charleston SC and Francis Patrick Kenrick of Philadelphia argued that the only thing the bull did was precisely what the United States had already done ban participation in the international slave trade Gregory corrected no one's interpretation and so Catholic slave holding was able to continue in the United States and elsewhere arguably without Disobedience to the church teaching approximately 4 years ago Episcopal Bishop of New York Andrew ml dii reminded a group of clergy of the ugly history of their dicese Not only was slavery deeply embedded in the life and economy of Colonial New York but Episcopal Churches across the state often participated in it Church Founders churchgoers and even churches themselves had enslaved people the Abolitionist sojon of Truth had once been enslaved by a church in the dicese the dases of New York played a significant and genuinely the evil part in American slavery deer said during his November 2019 address we must make where we can repair after his speech at the das's annual convention the clergy unanimously voted to set aside $1.1 million of the das's Endowment for a reparations fund marking the beginning of what the dicese referred to as the year of reparation the year has become years churches across the state have been engaging in a variety of activities to attempt to make amends for this past putting up plaques acknowledging that their wealth was created by enslaved labor staging plays about the role their congregation had in the slave trade and committing parts of their endowments to reparations funds this comes more than a decade after a 2006 resolution by the general convention in which the national leadership of the Episcopal Church which is 90% white called on churches to study how they benefited from slavery since then Episcopal dases in Georgia Texas Maryland and Virginia have begun similar programs other predominantly white denominations including the Presbyterian church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America also passed resolutions in 2004 and 2019 respectively to study the denominations role in slavery and have begun the process of determining how to make reparations that brings us to the end of this video reach out to us in the comment if you learned something and share your thoughts support our works by hitting that like button share with your amilies and friends to keep spreading our eye openening black narrative And subscribe to stay with us for more we're delighted to have you thank you for [Music] watching