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(Part 6 of 7)
CONCLUSIONS
Unfortunately, Leland's Writings do not
provide a clear rationale for his reversal regarding his views of
slavery. However, I do want to suggest four angles from which to
address his evolving views of slavery. First, Leland's primary
emphasis on religious liberty may have led him to place more emphasis
on the liberty of the mind than physical liberty. In this scenario,
1802 may have been a defining moment, as he placed personal slavery
and religious enslavement side by side. (45) In support of this
possibility is the fact that in the three decades that followed,
Leland had little to say about slavery, and much to say about
religious liberty. Furthermore, his 1839 statement reflected a greater
concern about the conscience of the slave owner than the physical
bondage of the slave. Perhaps against the backdrop of championing
religious liberty, the physical plight of the slave grew
intellectually distant in Leland's mind. As such, this would have been
an ironic consequence of his insistence upon religious liberty. Daly's
argument that biblical morality, predicated on individualism,
contributed to the proslavery position offered support for this
position. (46) Likewise, C. C. Goen, in Broken Churches, Broken
Nation, argued that American churches' focus on individualism led to a
failure of leadership regarding the issue of slavery. (47)
A second possibility lies in political
expediency born out of Leland's increasing political activity. Upon
returning to New England after his sojourn in Virginia, Leland became
increasingly involved in Jeffersonian politics, considering himself to
be a champion of the people. His Writings contained much political
commentary, especially from 1800 onward. Leland held political office
and in one instance spoke before Congress at the request of Jefferson,
an occasion during which he preached on the wisdom of Jefferson as
being greater than that of Solomon. (48)
In short, Leland's heavy involvement in
politics during the early nineteenth century, and his strong
Jeffersonian views in particular, may well have led him to view the
slavery issue from a standpoint of political expediency, rather than
from a religious perspective. A reasonable conclusion is that Leland's
late-1830s statements on slavery somewhat represented the growing
political crisis resulting from the abolitionist movement and economic
depression. Essig's assertion that the southern evangelical conversion
to proslavery sentiment grew out of evangelical inroads into temporal
structures offered insight into the influence of politics on the
slavery issue in the latter part of Leland's life. (49) In addition,
Creed's brief analysis of Leland's changing political views regarding
slavery lends support to this view. (50) Finally, Daly's emphasis on a
biblical morality informed by a free market economy adds impetus to
this view.
A third possibility involves the internal
nature of the changing views of slavery among the larger white Baptist
population. By the time of Leland's death in 1841, Baptists in America
were on the road to separation over the issue of slavery, as Baptists
in the South, whether barometers or shapers of southern culture,
increasingly insisted that slavery was not only acceptable, but was
the very will of God, a position staked out by Richard Furman as early
as 1822. (51) Leland's defaulting to the southern position on the
slavery issue in 1839 may have been in part a desire to avoid further
division among Baptists by supporting the status quo. (52)
A fourth angle is a logical extension of the
previous possibility of Leland's concern about internal Baptist
division, and was suggested by Smith's assertion that underlying white
supremacy characterized late eighteenth--and early nineteenth-century
evangelicals and created the context for religious proslavery
sentiment. (53) Despite Leland's early strident declarations for the
manumission of slaves, and occasional references to himself as a
"friend" of slaves, his writings harbor a belief in racial inequality.
As minister and politician, he lived in a white man's world, both in
the South and North. Leland's Writings give no indication of a desire
to change or overcome such a world.
In the final analysis, we may not know for
certain the reason or reasons why Leland, a Baptist who never owned
slaves, abandoned his early, strident antislavery views near the end
of his life. However, his commitment to religious liberty informed by
individualism, the demands of political expediency fostered by his
strong affiliation with Jeffersonian politics, southern Baptist
accommodation and/or reflection of southern culture, and inherent
captivity to a philosophy of white supremacy offer possible insights
into Leland's evolving views of slavery.
Although chiefly remembered as a tireless
champion of religious liberty, Leland's early views of slavery offer
insight into southern Baptist and evangelical opposition to slavery in
the late eighteenth century. In addition, his defense of slavery in
his later years is indicative of growing militant support of slavery
among Baptists and evangelicals in the South. Ultimately, Leland's
evolving views of slavery served to reflect the changing views of
Baptists in the South.
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Endnotes |
