Enlightened Free Thinking Nubian Kings And Queens

Legislation was passed in several colonies, beginning in 1667 in Virginia, stipulating that baptism would not change slaves’ legal status.  This led to an increase in missionary activities to slaves because conversion did not imply emancipation. Short lived do to slave revolts. Slave owners regarded the substantial time required for religious instruction as uneconomical Slave owners argued that slaves were intellectually incapable of understanding the subtleties of Christian doctrine Slave owners were uncomfortable with the concept of spiritual equality between master and slave Spiritual equality would call into question the enslavement of fellow Christians Slave owners feared that conversion would make slaves more difficult to control and perhaps precipitate insurrection Some missionaries attempted to counter this fear by arguing that conversion would make slaves more docile and industrious. This was short lived after the enslaved revolts.

In the 1840s, the self-educated Abraham Lincoln represented slave owner Robert Matson, who wanted to once again enslave a free, mixed-race woman. Lincoln lost the case, and Jane Bryant and her children were declared officially free. They later settled in Liberia. In 1842, Lincoln married Mary Todd. Her family in Kentucky enslaved Black men and women. While serving as an elected representative in the Illinois legislature, Lincoln supported Zachary Taylor, a slave owner, in Taylor’s 1848 bid for the presidency. •One of Lincoln’s most representative public statements on the question of race relations was given in a speech in Springfield, Illinois, on June 26, 1857. In this address, he explained why he opposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which would have admitted Kansas into the Union as a slave state: ”There is a natural disgust in the minds of nearly all white people to the idea of indiscriminate amalgamation of the white and black races … A separation of the races is the only perfect ...