AREA RELIGIOUS VIEWS
ON SLAVERY

Dutch Reformed churches dotted the landscape, but other denominations were also present in the area, such as the Separate Baptists, the Moravians, the Lutherans, and the Society of Friends, or Quakers.  Over time, all of these religious groups developed views on slavery.

The Quakers were among the most prominent slave traders during the early days of the colony; paradoxically, they were also among the first denominations to protest slavery.

During the period of the Great Awakening (1730s and 1740s), Baptist preachers also opposed slavery on religious grounds.  That we had Baptists in our immediate area is attested to by a comment in Captain Van Etten's journal:  "we came by the Sepperates Meeting house, where we found the Enemy had Lodged not long since, they Leaving a Bed of Fern even in the pulpit."

Our area Moravians had a somewhat different take on the matter, with Moravian Bishop August Spangenburg using scripture to argue that the Bible does not specifically condemn slavery.  In the meeting minutes record from 1742, the Bethlehem congregation decided to purchase enslaved individuals from St. Thomas as a way to bolster their population of workers, ensure a higher quality of work, and reduce the cost of developing and building Bethlehem.

As to the Dutch Reformed Church, they attached no particular stigma to the ownership of slaves.  As we know, Nicholas Dupui, founder of the Smithfield DRC, was a slave owner, as were many of the other church congregants.

In time, the religious views of these denominations became a moot point as Pennsylvania law in 1780 ended slavery via gradual emancipation:

That all Persons, as well Negroes, and Mulattos, as others, who shall be born within this State, from and after the Passing of this Act, shall not be deemed and considered as Servants for Life or Slaves; and that all Servitude for Life or Slavery of Children in Consequence of the Slavery of their Mothers, in the Case of all Children born within this State from and after the passing of this Act as aforesaid, shall be, and hereby is, utterly taken away, extinguished and for ever abolished.