A theologian read slave-making ants as nature sanctioning slavery
Evidence
Manly sees two lessons to be gleaned from the ants. First, they demonstrate a benevolent paternalism, since the smaller ants, who are enslaved by the larger ants, “are scarcely equal to their own protection against any other troop that chose to attack them.” Furthermore, Manly notes the wisdom of their instinctive tactics: the ant slave-master species, which is “wiser than the African kings,” steals eggs and hatches them in its own nest rather than capturing adults. Manly concludes, “So they grow up with an affection for their captors, when otherwise they would have shared in all the instinctive horror, and hatred for the slaveholders which reigns throughout the separate nest of negroes.” He concluded with a message for his northern listeners: “It surely ought to comfort the abolitionists to know that although the ants do hold slaves, the masters are humane and gentle, and the slaves are contented, industrious, and happy.” — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long, 238
Categorization
- STORYSTEM: A slaveholding preacher building an entire argument on entomology — ‘the ants do it too’ — is a gift for a story about how people recruit the natural world to bless their hierarchies.
- XREF: connects to: The leading southern Baptist theologian felt no moral qualm about owning slaves — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long: The Legacy of White…, 105; Theological blessing of slavery severed slaveholders’ natural moral impulses — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long: The Legacy of White…, 251; Racist theological ideas sanctioned and made American slavery acceptable to Christian churches — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning: The…, 20 (+3 more)
Broader Connections
- Racist theological ideas sanctioned and made American slavery acceptable to Christian churches
#complicates(0.78) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 20 - Theology justified slavery and genocide by marking whiteness as Christian
#complicates(0.75) — Andrew L. Whitehead, American Idolatry, 145 - Theological blessing of slavery severed slaveholders’ natural moral impulses
#qualifies(0.72) — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long, 251 - Believing Africans lacked souls let slavery coexist with Christian morality
#complicates(0.72) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 222