Slavery: Morally Right Or Wrong?

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What moral and legal position should the national government take on the question of slavery? Is it the government’s responsibility to decide whether slavery should be considered a legal matter or should it be left to each individual to decide if it is morally right or wrong to own a slave? These are questions that were argued about during the time that George Bourne was an active member of his community. George Bourne was a preacher who moved from England to Maryland in 1804. Six years later, he moved to Virginia and was the pastor of a Presbyterian church. After witnessing how slaves were treated on plantations he became angry at the idea of slavery. His ideas led him to be removed from his church. He later moved to New York and …show more content…
Some people during this time, used the bible to justify slavery. Bourne stated many instances from the bible that argued against slavery. One being that slavery, “is a direct violation or breach of the eighth commandment--it being impossible for one person to enslave another, without first "coveting," or eagerly desiring what he knows is not morally and justly his own.” (Bourne 39) He believed that someone who wanted to own another person was committing the same sin as coveting something that does not belong to him. Another argument from Bourne was that it was strange that any American accept slavery because of, “all its influences on the moral and political destinies of this great and mighty nation.” (Bourne 5) He thought it was ridiculous that our country and constitution go against everything we were founded on and allow one human to own another. He also had strong feelings that our country’s laws should not allow slavery because, “By our common law definitions, human slavery is compounded of the crimes of kidnapping, assault and battery, and false imprisonment.” (Bourne 9) Slavery is actually a form all these crimes and should be punished. In one book written by Bourne, he even predicted the end of our nation if we didn’t stop slavery when he said, “It is most true that God will eventually deliver the slaves. He will do so by our own national destruction, unless we seasonably repent and reform from
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