1. Gonzalez describes the period of slavery as a time of confusion and rebellion within different denominations of the church. Due to a wide spread disagreement on slavery many denominations broke from each other and only the Catholic Church came out unscathed. Simply, people disagreed on whether or not it was ok to own slaves  from a biblical standpoint. Some denominations of Christianity banned slavery like the American Methodists who banned slaveholding among its members. Many Methodists in fact took a stand against slavery. However, Methodists and Baptists alike were trying to attract more numbers to grow their congregations. They both changed their stances on slavery. Some denominations were confused on how to act, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church declared slavery as going against God’s will and yet didn’t want slavery to be abolished. This seemed to be a contradiction. How could a congregation say that slavery went against God and yet they didn’t want to see it be abolished in the U.S.  Soon in the South preachers were telling their congregations that slavery was necessary due to it helping the U.S. agriculturally and that slaveholders were freeing blacks from their uneducated and barbaric homes countries. The Methodist Church split due to this dispute. Then the Civil War began.  During this time both preachers in the North and South defended their sides using biblical scriptures. After the war ended resentment was still alive and well. Then Jim Crowe laws started springing and blacks became separate but not equal. This gave rise to the Black Baptists. After the Civil War black churches started to spring up everywhere and this led to the church becoming a pivotal part of the black communities. Ultimately there was a lot of dispute and confusion within the church on whether or not people should own slaves. This dispute led to many churches splitting up, and forming new communities. After the slaves were set free the Church became an integral part within black communities. Although Jim Crow laws were in effect the church gave people a place to come and worship freely.
2. In Truth’s speech she defends the right of women saying that she has worked, toiled, eaten, and has drunk as much as any man. She is as good as any man because she has plowed the fields by herself, nobody has been there to help her. She gave birth to 13 children and no man was there to help her. Nobody treats her with respect except for Jesus Christ. The only man that has treated her with and kind of respect was Jesus and then she goes on to say that women are just as equal to man because Christ came from God and Mary. There was no man involved. Joseph was not involved in the conception. She finally points out that if Eve was strong willed enough to turn the world upside down then any women is strong enough to correct the wrongs in this world. She brings out the point that women are just as capable as men, that Christ came from God and Mary, and finally that women are powerful you just need to look at Eve to find that truth.
3. Douglas makes the comparison that the United States is like Judah. America has taken slaves and they will be punished for it. He says that the people of the United States take pleasure in slavery. That Americans rejoiced in the fact that they are becoming wealthy off of the work of slaves. He is saying that the people of the United States cannot forget the cries of Jerusalem when they were in captivity. The cries to God asking to be rid of the chains that they possessed. The black slaves in the United States just like the salves in Jerusalem are yearning to be free of their chains. How could the United States act just as Jerusalem’s captors did? Douglas then uses the Declaration of Independence to argue for man’s ownership of their own body. That within the Declaration of Independence man has a right to their own body, they have a right to be free, they have a right to seek their own future. Douglas argues that there isn’t a man alive that could not know that slavery is a wrong practice, and that it is flat out going against the will of God. Douglas even goes as far to say “What, to the American slave, is your 4^th of July?” He is saying that Americans hail the 4^th of July as Independence day, a day where they were free from the rule of British oppression and yet to the American slave it is just another date. It has no bearing for them because although they are in America they are not free from their oppressors. To the American slave the 4^th of July is a faux holiday and is only an example of America’s arrogance. Looking at the verses Isa 59:1 says that the Lord will save all people. The Lord’s arm extends to all people who are being punished and those people will be saved. Genesis 1:3 shows the omnipotence of God. Lev 25:10 states that jubilee in the past has set slaves free and annulled all debt. :13 again shows Jubilee and :18 says to obey God’s laws in order to live in peace and harmony. Isa 58:6 God is saying that he has set people free, he has lifted the chains of injustice, freed people from their injustices, and broken off the yoke of slavery in the past and Douglas is alluding that America should do the same. Isa 61:1-2 Isaiah is saying that God has sent him to free the people from captivity, bind up the brokenhearted, and release the prisoners from darkness. Douglas is alluding that is Isaiah one of the greatest prophets set slaves free then truly the U.S. must recognize and respect the precedent set by Isaiah. Luke 4:18-19 is from Christ’s stand point saying that like Isaiah Christ has come to set people free, proclaim that the Lord is God, proclaim the Gospel, and free the prisoners from their sin. Douglas alludes to this because Jesus the Son of God set slaves free and freed them from their bonds. If the Son of God did this, then the U.S. must then recognize that slavery is wrong. All of these versus are strategically used to show that God has freed slaves in the past, lifted their burdens, and let slaves become free men. Douglas urges that the U.S. should do the same. He urges the U.S. to mirror both God and Christ’s judgement to free people from slavery.

As the founding of the new American nation approached, many believed that it should be free from the sinful institution of slavery. In 1776, the Quakers expelled anyone who owned slaves. Other denominations held similar views, but they did not stick until later in the 19^th century, as such thoughts were quelled in favor of presenting Britain with a united front. By the middle of the 1800s, anti-slavery sentiments were boiling to the top of Christian American thoughts again. In 1844, the Methodist church split over the Bishop of Georgia owning slaves, and the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was formed. The Southern Baptist Convention was created after similar circumstances. The Presbyterian church split during the Civil War in 1861. Christians on both side of the war preached in favor of their side. Following the Union victory, the white Southern population was held subservient to the North, and anger stemming from this was redirected towards the resident black population. The Ku Klux Klan was born from this resentment and was supported by many white southern Christians.

Feeling alienated from their former congregations, many freed slaves broke away and formed their own denominations. Churches such as the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church were formed, as were the African Methodist Episcopal and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion in the North. Following the reconstruction, these churches formed an indispensable core of black society, as the black population was restricted from other prestigious positions. Most black leaders of the era were also ministers to their congregations.

Sojourner Truth was a former slave and activist. In her speech ‘Ain’t I a woman?’, she speaks for women’s rights by using herself as an example. She needs no special treatment. She is as strong as a man and can work as hard. She also counters a man’s argument – a that Jesus was not a woman therefore women deserve less rights – by explaining that Jesus was made from God and from a woman. The Son of God had nothing to do with men.

Frederick Douglass calls out the entire nation in a speech the day after the 4^th of July, 1852. He says, “This Fourth July is yours, not mine” (Douglass 1). Douglass says that the nation was founded on liberty and independence, but that those things are not extended to him. The principles the founders envisioned were not being upheld by the current generations. He references the fall of Judah, which was allowed to be conquered by Babylon because they did not follow God’s will. This is a not-so-subtle call to look upon America’s actions and change for the betterment of all society. At the end of his speech, Douglass references several biblical passages, hoping for the end of tyranny and oppression, the end of violence, and pledges to keep fighting for that day.

As North American colonists took on the fight for independence from Britain, it was crucial to present a united front. Therefore, while many held views in opposition to the prevalent practice of slavery, the issue was kept quiet and took a back seat to independence efforts. Some Christian denominations were actively against slavery and took active measures to eliminate it from the church, however, as time went on, many of those same denominations relaxed their stance in order to draw wealthy white Southerners to their congregations. What perhaps began as appeasement soon turned into approval, and sermons could be heard on Sunday morning in favor of slavery as “an institution sanctioned by God,” (Gonzalez, 333). An familiar attitude of white Protestant superiority sprung up, claiming that slavery was even beneficial to blacks as it had allowed them the opportunity to be evangelized and saved from their previous pagan nation. It is interesting to note a common thread amongst white Christians who claimed that the aggressive American conquest of the Mexican land in the southwest was actually a door opened by God so the Mexicans could be saved through evangelism (Gonzalez 331).

Certainly some denominations held to an anti-slavery stance, notably the Quakers and some Methodists and Baptists (who ended up splitting due to the controversial issue). Denominational splits were not surprising against a backdrop of the national split that was taking place over the same matter. Civil war, reconstruction, and the Supreme Court approval of segregation added complexity and tension to racial divide. Blacks began to set up their own churches separate from the whites, and while most white American Christians founded their core beliefs on the idea of liberty and individual rights, these principles were withheld from a significant portion of the population. Excluded and oppressed in practice by those who yet confessed beliefs in the same God, blacks found solidarity and a sense of dignity within their churches. Voices from this community began to speak out against the contradiction and hypocrisy that was evident in the church and nation regarding human rights.

Sojourner Truth’s compelling speech, “Ain’t I a Woman?” was delivered in 1851 at a women’s rights conference. Her perspective as a black, former-slave, Christian woman demonstrated the absurdity of inequality in race and gender. Truth argues for blacks and black women in particular, by recalling her own strength, abilities and humanity in ploughing, planting, bearing children, and grieving the loss of those children to the horror of continued slavery. Truth then simply picked apart common so-called Biblical arguments for the inferiority of women. So what if Jesus was a man? He came from God and woman, and “man had nothing to do with him,” Truth argues. Moreover, if Eve (from the Genesis story of the fall of creation) could single-handedly “turn the wold upside down,” then surely all the women fighting for their rights now could together make the world right again. While Truth says intellect has nothing to do with rights, she certainly makes her case through reason, exposing the holes in Christian arguments that result in oppression, by laying out plainly the rationality and superiority of Christian love and care.

A year later, Frederick Douglass delivered a speech entitled, “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro,” and compellingly argued the injustices birthed in the midst of a new, liberated nation. This criticism calls to mind that of John Wesley who had criticized the colonists for “claiming freedom for themselves at the same time that they denied it to their slaves,” (Gonzalez, 322). With eloquence, Douglass alludes to the destruction of the kingdom of Judah when he quotes Psalm 137. The illustration depicts a captive people, far from home, tormented and distraught – clearly meant to parallel the suffering Israelites in Babylon with the American slavery blacks had endured. Douglass calls America’s “boasted liberty, an unholy license” and “shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery,” (Douglass, 3). By using language from the Declaration of Independence he paints a stark contrast to the reality of the nation, and challenges the oppressive (or empty) use of religion and sermons as fraud and impiety. Despite all of this, Douglass ends his speech on a hopeful note, declaring that the light of knowledge, unity and liberty are drawing where no abuse can hide. By drawing upon multiple biblical passages, the notion of jubilee demonstrates Douglass’ hope for the future. God’s arm is not too short to save (Isaiah 59:1), his voice commands action (Genesis 1:3), there shall be liberty for every person (Leviticus 25:10) and injustice and oppression will be undone (Isaiah 58:6).