Charleston, South Carolina – mid April, 2010

“What was your church’s position on abolition?” I asked a tall, regal looking elderly lady who was showing us her lovely, historic church.

She looked puzzled. “You mean the abolition of slavery?” I nodded. “I don’t know. No one’s asked me that before. I’ll have to think about it.”

My wife Mary and I had been touring on our trip south to Florida. During our three days in Charleston we visited mansions and walked the old city. Guides informed us that in pre Civil War days Charleston rivalled New York, Boston and Philadelphia in wealth. From a protected deep water harbour merchants shipped ‘Carolina Gold’ around the world. ‘Carolina Gold’ was a prized strain of rice grown on the plantations nearby. The Emperor of China had a standing order for a shipment. Charleston’s maritime connection made it a centre of the international slave trade and after that was banned it became a centre of the interstate slave trade.

The people living on the west coast of Africa had been cultivating rice for generations, and it was their knowledge that allowed Charleston to prosper through the rice trade. Plantation owners selected these people for their knowledge. It was hard, uncomfortable work made hazardous by the risk of malaria and poisonous snakes. While they worked the rice plantations their brothers and sisters built the homes and churches in Charleston, staffed the trades positions and served as household slaves.

In a visit to the site of a former slave market, now a museum about slavery, we learned about the history of the slave trade and heard recorded stories from former slaves. On a wall we examined a bill listing the prices for Africans and African Americans for sale, listing their ages, sexes, and skills much as a car dealer does with his products today. On our way out I thanked the attendants just for being there. The horror of the oppression and violence numbed me while the courage and determination of the slaves to retain dignity and humanity filled me with awe.

Looking back at these three days it seems that past and present, far away and near at hand, and spiritual and economic realms all converged. While the guides told their stories the Blue Angels, the U.S. Navy aerobatic team screamed low overhead, obliterating the guide’s commentary momentarily. After the Civil War the rice plantations failed because they had no unpaid work force. Charleston fell into decline until the 20^th century when the American navy located a large base there followed by the air force with its base. On the waterfront our guide pointed to Fort Sumter on an island in the harbour, site of the opening battle of the Civil War.  “And there’s Patriots’ Point” she said, indicating a World War Two aircraft carrier.

When we entered the Huguenot church I needed spiritual replenishment and thought I might find it there. The Huguenots, French Protestants, had been persecuted for centuries yet during World War Two the Huguenot community in south central France had protected five thousand Jewish children from the Holocaust. I wondered whether this church might have been a stop on the Underground Railway.

Our guide had continued to describe the features of her church, highlighting the box pews which families purchased yearly. Then she turned to me “There’s your answer” she said, pointing at ornately carved wooden scrolls bearing the names of past church elders.  “They had to be wealthy to afford those” and added “which means they owned slaves and businesses using slaves.”

In the weeks that have passed I’ve been grappling with this experience. Slavery and the attendant oppressive laws and practices violated the heart of Jesus’ teaching of “love of neighbour”. How could a professed Christian support such a vile system as slavery? What does it mean that they did in fact operate such a system? Perhaps the most important question is “How does this experience speak to us today?”  

To be continued…..