Slavery Ordained of God

In Short

Published in 1857, Slavery Ordained of God is a proslavery theological treatise by Frederick Augustus Ross, a Southern Presbyterian clergyman from Tennessee and Alabama. Composed of public speeches and open letters written to Northern clergymen like Albert Barnes, the book argues that human servitude is not inherently sinful but a divine instrument meant to govern a fallen world. Ross maintains that God explicitly sanctioned slaveholding in the Bible and created men unequal. He insists that Northern abolitionism threatens both Christian orthodoxy and the American Union, while Southern slavery elevates African captives and preserves national harmony.

The Story

Frederick Augustus Ross constructs his argument through a series of formal addresses and public epistles, taking direct aim at Northern abolitionists and moderate clergymen. He begins by presenting his fundamental premise: God, not human philosophy, determines right and wrong. Ross fiercely rejects the notion that moral laws exist as eternal truths independent of the Creator. Because God establishes moral authority through his explicitly revealed word, Ross argues that human relationships of authority—including husbands over wives, parents over children, and masters over slaves—are directly ordained by Providence to manage fallen humanity.

Progressing through his defense, Ross appeals directly to Scripture to prove that slavery is permitted under both the Old and New Testaments. He highlights Old Testament passages where Hebrew fathers sold daughters into servitude and bondservants were bought from surrounding nations, arguing that God explicitly allowed patriarchs like Abraham to hold and purchase slaves. Turning to the New Testament, Ross points to the Apostle Paul sending the escaped slave Onesimus back to Philemon. He contends that the Golden Rule does not demand universal emancipation; rather, it instructs believers to perform their moral duties within their assigned social ranks.

Ross then addresses the political crisis dividing the nation. He scolds Northern Christians for adopting what he calls the "infidel" philosophy of Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, arguing that all men are demonstrably not created equal in body or mind. According to Ross, trying to enforce absolute equality leads straight to anarchy. He claims that God intervened in American history to halt early Southern moves toward emancipation, using events like the annexation of Texas, the Mexican War, and the failure of British emancipation in Jamaica to expand and preserve the slave system for a greater divine purpose.

In his concluding sections, Ross issues a stark warning to both regions. He urges Northern men to abandon abolitionist agitation, stop aiding fugitive slaves, and respect the constitutional and biblical rights of slaveholders. Simultaneously, he instructs Southern masters to accept that while slavery is a temporary, degraded condition, it serves as a benevolent stewardship to civilize and Christianize Africans until God chooses to bring it to an end.

How It Unfolds

The divine hierarchy established Ross introduces his core thesis in an 1853 Presbyterian speech, declaring that slavery is an institution ordained by God to govern fallen humanity, elevate the African captive, and preserve the American Union against northern radicalism.

The theological foundation laid Delivering a major address in New York in 1856, Ross argues that morality springs entirely from God’s command rather than abstract natural rights, asserting that individual liberty divorced from divine order leads straight to Red Republicanism and atheism.

Scriptural precedents summoned In open letters to Northern minister Albert Barnes, Ross examines the books of Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus, pointing to Abraham’s household and Mosaic law to argue that God explicitly sanctioned buying and owning human beings as property.

The Golden Rule reinterpreted Ross attacks the abolitionist reading of the Gospels, claiming that Jesus and Paul commanded submission to authority and that the Golden Rule requires slaves to return to their masters rather than demand an immediate, unscriptural freedom.

Providence and American destiny invoked Reflecting on recent political history, Ross asserts that God used Northern political choices, the Mexican War, and the failure of British emancipation in Jamaica to protect Southern slavery and force the South to defend true biblical liberty.

The People

Frederick Augustus Ross The author and main speaker, a Southern Presbyterian pastor who presents himself as a devoted lover of the Union and the Bible. He wants to dismantle Northern abolitionist theology, prove that slaveholding is entirely scriptural, and persuade Southern masters to view their authority as a divine stewardship rather than a perpetual right.

Rev. Albert Barnes A prominent Northern New School Presbyterian minister who serves as Ross's primary intellectual opponent. Targeted in open letters, Barnes represents Northern Christians who argue that slavery violates the spirit of the Gospel, the Golden Rule, and the foundational claims of the Declaration of Independence.

The Northern Abolitionist Represented as a collective figure led by thinkers like Garrison and Phillips, this figure seeks immediate emancipation. Ross views the abolitionist as a well-meaning but dangerous fanatic who distorts Scripture, relies on secular Enlightenment ideas of equal rights, and threatens to tear the Union apart.

The Southern Master The slaveholding reader whom Ross seeks to instruct. This figure struggles to balance economic interests with religious duty, and Ross urges him to reject theories of polygenism, treat his slaves as a religious household, and acknowledge that servitude will eventually pass away in God's timing.

In Its Own Voice

"Let the Northern philanthropist learn from the Bible that the relation of master and slave is not sin per se."

Ross delivers this line during his 1853 address to the Presbyterian General Assembly in Buffalo, framing his core thesis that scripture never defines slaveholding itself as a sin.

"I have made men unequal and given them alienable rights, that I might INSTITUTE HUMAN GOVERNMENT and reveal HUMAN CHARACTER."

Ross imagines God speaking directly to the reader to challenge secular notions of human rights, arguing that human inequality is a deliberate, merciful design to make society functional.

"Thus I sanction slavery everywhere in the New Testament."

In his open letter to Albert Barnes, Ross invokes the authority of the Apostle Paul, claiming the New Testament explicitly upholds servile labor and commands slaves to return to their masters.

What It's Really About

Slavery Ordained of God is an aggressive defense of antebellum Southern social hierarchy wrapped in conservative Christian theology. Beyond its immediate defense of chattel slavery, the book is a systematic attack on Enlightenment theories of human rights and natural equality. Ross argues that true morality rests entirely on divine decree rather than human reason. By framing master-slave, husband-wife, and parent-child relationships as part of the same divine hierarchy, he attempts to convince his readers that destroying slavery will ultimately destroy all social authority, family structures, and Christian governance across the United States.

Why Read It Today

Slavery Ordained of God offers modern readers an unvarnished look at the theological arguments used to defend human bondage on the eve of the American Civil War. It is not an easy or pleasant read; Ross writes with sharp polemical combativeness, and modern readers will find his explicit defenses of racial hierarchy, paternalism, and biblical subjugation deeply jarring. The prose reflects nineteenth-century religious debate, filled with lengthy biblical citations, direct pulpit rhetoric, and intricate theological feuds.

For historians and students of American religion, however, the book is a vital primary document. It clearly illustrates how religious texts were weaponized to justify systemic oppression and how deeply the slavery debate fractured American churches. What stays with the reader is the chilling confidence with which Ross claims God's personal endorsement for his views, serving as a stark reminder of how scripture and nationalism were combined to defend the institution of slavery.

<ElicitationsGroup message="To explore this text further:"> <Elicitation label="Analyze the historical context of Presbyterian schisms over slavery" query="Can you explain the historical background of the 19th-century Presbyterian Church schisms over slavery that Frederick Augustus Ross participated in?"/> <Elicitation label="Compare Southern biblical proslavery arguments with Northern abolitionist theology" query="Compare the main biblical arguments used by Southern proslavery writers like Ross with the counter-arguments used by Northern abolitionist theologians."/> </ElicitationsGroup>