We Are Them: The Golden Rule As a Theological Impetus in the Anti-Slavery & Abolitionist Movement

Abstract

In a sermon before the Connecticut Anti-Slavery Society, Jonathan Edwards Jr. first thoroughly explicated and applied the golden rule to support the anti-slavery position. As its name implies, the golden rule summarizes the Gospels and the Old Testament in one simple phrase. Thus, it becomes an overriding interpretive text for the Bible and Christianity. Edwards refers to it as a “maxim.” Edwards’ explanation of the golden rule led to an equalizing of language; furthermore, his applications engaged the imagination to see other people as equals. This approach was quite radical in his day. Once the golden rule brought African Americans to the status of neighbors, slavery became a sin; once slavery became a sin, it had to be purged from both individuals and the nation at large.