Conflict of Slavery and Religion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Conflict of Slavery and Religion - Essay Example Slavery is, in fact, one unique human / inhuman(e) universe in which meaning-making is perpetually created and-recreated in order to maintain a status quo of control on master’s side and dependence and exploitation on slave’s side. If the case against slavery should not be one negotiated based on â€Å"humane† reasons, suffice it to dispel slavery as an antithesis to religion based on raison d’à ªtre grounds alone. That is, no one man can truly claim he is a man (small letter) of God unless he not only subjects himself to God’s – and only God’s – will. Therefore, a man subjugating a fellow man by means of enslavement and exploitation is only one who claims a divine status. In essence, all claims of anti-slavery abolitionists coalesce around one fundamental creed that is; all men are God’s children. Probably, one outspoken and specially gifted orator who voiced religion vs. slavery case most eloquently during Antebellum i s Fredrick Douglass. In his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Douglass employs a set of rhetorical as well as narrative strategies by which he not only dispels slavery as an antithesis to religion but also reclaims slavery discourse as an African American meaning-making universe par excellence.