Created in His image, Whether Slave or Free

Created in His image, Whether Slave or Free<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
J. Michael Sharman
 
          Pocahontas' widower, John Rolfe, was the first person to chronicle the presence of Africans in the British colonies.
In a report he wrote in 1619 to the Virginia Company's treasurer, Sir Edwin Sandys, he noted that a Dutch ship had arrived in August at <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Point Comfort, Virginia with "not anything but 20 and odd Negroes…"
The ship was without any food, so Jamestown's Governor Yeardley traded some "victualle" for them "at the best and easiest rates they could."[1]
Before 1640, Africans in Virginia probably did not become slaves for life, but rather became indentured servants like the whites who voluntarily indentured themselves to pay their passage.[2] Still, the English should have known better.
The Old Testament had the clear command that: "Anyone who kidnaps another and either sells him or still has him when he is caught must be put to death." (Ex. 21:16) The New Testament brought with it the command of equality: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:28)
The essential reason for these Biblical mandates is found, as are most of life's core principles, in Genesis: "So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." (Gen. 1:27)
Therefore, to kidnap a man, or to enslave a man, is to kidnap or to enslave the created image of God.
In 1644, Samuel Rutherford, a "sometime Professor of Divinity in the University of St. Andrews"[3], wrote a book called Lex Rex, or The Law of the Prince, in which he asserted that even the King must obey the law because only God has absolute authority.
When Charles II became King, Lex Rex was publicly burned by the King's hangman and Rutherford was summonsed to appear before Parliament under charges of treason. Rutherford was on his deathbed and replied by saying that when his proposed trial date would arrive, he would already be dead, having been summonsed by that One Who has absolute authority, and "I will be where few kings and great folks come."[4]
Sir William Blackstone in 1765-1769 wrote the legal text used by essentially all of America's Revolution-era founding fathers. Blackstone wrote that 'the law of nature' was the will of God, the original constitution of the universe intended to bind mankind forever in every circumstance, situation, condition, and location.[5]
Mark Twain absolutely believed in a fallen Man, but it is very questionable whether he also believed personally in a risen Lord.[6] However, in his post-Civil War book "The Tragedy of Puddin'head Wilson" [1893], Twain spun a moral tale around the story of  two babies with the same basic appearance being switched at birth, one who was born legally black but of predominantly white blood, and the other who was of full white blood. Twain used his tale of similar-but-switched-identities to point out the perversity of a social caste system in which those labeled black were sentenced to a life of labor and contempt, while those labeled white were granted a life of unmerited ease and enforced respect.
It is starkly apparent to us today that our forefathers should not have allowed their economic pressures to cause them to ignore the Biblical rules of objective natural law. They should have seen it would inevitably lead to the tragic folly and twisted society of Puddin'head Wilson.
Our own generation is confronted with the moral choice of whether the economic needs or personal inconveniences of parents should permit them to take a baby's life while it still in the womb.
Every baby, slave or free, was created in God's own image, whether they were created in 17th century Africa or 21st century America.
America now knows better, but will she still fail to do better?
 
 


[1] Works Project Administration "The Negro in Virginia," John F. Blair Publisher, 1994; http://www.lva.lib.va.us/whatwehave/gov/wpalhabout.htm

[2] http://www.nps.gov/archive/colo/Jthanout/AFRICANS.html

[3] From the title page for, "Lex, Rex, or The Law and the Prince; A dispute for The Just Prerogative of King and People" (for a complete on-line version of the book, see http://www.constitution.org/sr/lexrex.htm )

[4]"Samuel Rutherford's Lasting Legacy" http://chi.gospelcom.net/GLIMPSEF/Glimpses/glmps095.shtml

[5] Amos, Gary T., Conclusion to "A Guide to Understanding the Commentaries of Sir William Blackstone",

[6] A review of  Mark Twain's writings leaves one with the impression that Twain probably would have thought that everyone in the world would likely end up with a sad fate, no matter what. (See, for example, "The Indignity Put Upon the Remains of George Holland By the Rev. Mr. Sabine", [1871],; and "The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg", [1899].)
 

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