Justifying Slavery through Christianity

            According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, there are over 50 different ways that the word “right” can be defined in the English language. While reading The Known World by Edward P. Jones I chose to focus only on the use of the word “right” in the context that it meant either “morally or socially correct or acceptable” or “being in accordance with what is just, good, or proper.” Thus within this frame of reference the word “right” in Jones’s novel plays the role of justifying slavery through Christianity.

            The Bible and the tenets of Christianity are important aspects in the lives of the slaves as well as the lives of their masters. While the slaves typically use Christianity to give their lives meaning and more or less as a way to make life tolerable with the idea that a better place is awaiting them after they die, the slave owners use Christianity in the completely opposite way. In particular, Caldonia and her mother Maude twist verses from the Bible in order to justify owning slaves, which they call their “legacy.” After Caldonia becomes a widow when Henry dies, she begins to deeply contemplate Henry’s treatment of their slaves.

Yes, he sometimes had to ration the food he gave them. But that was not his fault—had God sent down more food, Henry would certainly have given it to them… Yes, he had to have some slaves beaten, but those were the ones who would not do what was right and proper. Spare the rod, the Bible warned. Her husband had done the best he could, and on Judgment Day his slaves would stand before God and testify to that fact (181).

Since Proverbs 13:24 merely says to “spare the rod,” Caldonia uses this criteria to justify Henry’s physical abuse of their slaves. She believes it was the slaves’ fault for not doing what was “right,” and Henry did “spare the rod” by only whipping them when they did “wrong.” With Christianity, what is right and what is wrong is subjectively determined by whether or not one believes that he or she can get away with it on Judgment Day.

            Just like the difference between slaves and slave owners, the difference between right and wrong in The Known World is not as black and white as it might seem. Slave owners use religion to rationalize the ownership and abusive treatment of their slaves, so that they feel that what they are doing is “right.”