What role did religion play in slavery?

Answer 1

In the Christian religion, this is a very serious topic, because even though The Lord Jesus Christ disapproved of slavery, it was already there in those lands, complete with a horrific system of punishment if a slave "disobeyed" the slavedriver, sometimes mis-called a "master". If s slave said the wrong thing to his "master", he could be tortured for months on end, or just put on the torture of the crucifix to die in agony over the space of many nights and days, with nothing to drink, its' recorded or known that the "cross" was utter agony, non-stop that could mean a slave could hang there for up to seven days and nights.

So, the Lord Jesus Christ gave a teaching, since the slavedrivers were just being so cruel no matter what: HE, Christ, told the slaves to OBEY their "master", so the slaves would not be tortured. HE told the slaves that HE, Christ, was a MASTER (yet, he meant a Master-Teacher, NOT a slavedriver), and that the slaves in their work, should remember their MASTER who would wait in Heaven for the slaves: THEN, the slaves who died would go to Heaven, and the Lord Jesus Christ was their friend. In this way, if the slavedriver calling himself a "master" was being hard on the slaves, the slaves would instead focus on the Christ, waiting in Heaven, and so had HOPE on their side, and learned to think of the Master-teacher Jesus, instead of near-endless worries, concerns and anxieties all the time, so their burden was lesser that way. It's implied in The Bible that the slavedrivers, when they died, if they were cruel, would go to hell, for a very long time.

I found all this hard to cope with, often, when reading or learning the Bible, yet, not so long ago: it became CLEAR, I became convinced of the above as a truthfulness, instead of thinking: "why did it seem that slavery was being tolerated?". Truthfully, it was NOT approved of, yet the slavedrivers had their free will, abused others, were stubborn and still kept slaves no matter what happened, and so would later be under retribution, not by God, but by Spiritual Law, when their souls entered the Afterlife. The slaves often were under conditions call Spiritual Compensation, often: HEAVEN, with a sympathetic friend: The Lord Jesus Christ. OK?

All the above did not cut much ice with 'Christians' who were involved with the West African slave trade - they were in it for the money and didn't care for the welfare of the slaves.

Now let's hear from members of other religions.

Answer 2

A very shameful role. People[ some preachers ] promoted the idea that Blacks were animals, therefore no souls, so it left people who should have known better feel free to treat slaves as animals or property.