The Slave Bible

Besides being a computer nerd, I'm also a news junkie.  When I'm home, my TV is on CNN or NBC News (not so much since Trump became President!).  One night NBC News showed a segment called "The Slave Bible",  which piqued my interest, so I actually stopped playing World of Warcraft  so I can watch the segment.

During the era of Slavery, the Slave Bible was a heavily redacted version of the Holy Bible, specifically designed for slaves to prevent slaves from rebelling. According to the segment, about 90% of the Old Testament and 50% of the New Testament were removed to create the Slave Bible.  So basically, any scripture referring to freedom or fairness were removed. Slaves never heard of the story of Moses defying Pharaoh and leading his people out of Egypt or passage stating "we are neither slave of free; we are one in Christ Jesus".  All they knew was "Servants obey your masters", Noah's curse upon Ham, and the like.

While watching the segment, I immediately thought, "Now that makes sense!". There always was a thought in the back of my head wondered how slave owners were able to indoctrinate slave using the Holy Bible. Because they were not using the TRUE Holy Bible! In church, we're taught God's word is true and never add anything to it or take anything from it. So, since much was taken out of the Holy Bible,  what the slave were taught were not God's word at all, but man's word!

At the end of the segment, the reporter stated the Slave Bible didn't work because Caribbean slaves continually rebelled until Emancipation. I took issue with that statement. In the case of Caribbean slaves, that is true, but not the case of American slaves.  Not only using the Slave Bible kept slaves subservient, but also the overall cruelty, mistreatment, threats and acts of violence, helped keep slave revolts to a minimum. Other than the revolt led by Nat Turner, I never heard or read about any other slave revolts in America ( I may have to Google that). I'm sure there were some revolts, but they were few and far between. I would conclude that American slaves, more often than not, chose escape over rebellion. Main reason being they didn't have any weapons (at least nothing comparable to a firearm) they could use against their slave masters (and the slave masters made sure of that!).  Simply put, slaves were outgunned and slave masters had no qualms of  killing "disruptive" or as they say, "uppity"  slaves.

Overall, I enjoyed the segment. I felt I gained knowledge and have a better understanding of Slavery. I'm even curious to know if any of these Slave bibles are floating on the free market and/or what became of all those copies!