Harriet Jacobs Quotes
There is a great difference between Christianity and religion at the south. If a man goes to the communion table, and pays money into the treasury of the church, no matter if it be the price of blood, he is called religious.
Jacobs, Harriet A. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Published for the Author, 1861, p. 115.
Jefferson was not anti-Christian as some accuse him. He was a great admirer of Jesus’ life and philosophy. He did object to the non-ethical aspects of Christianity—the rituals, miracles, dogma, hierarchy, and organized churches. See {611664} . Jefferson even went so far as to compile his own version of the Bible—New Testament sometimes called the “Jefferson Bible”—where he translated the material and then extracted the ethical principles leaving out everything else.
This is a very important quotation because it reflects the attitude of many of the leading American expansionists and imperialists of the period—ie that American imperialism would uplift peoples around the world. This was an extension of the religious motive of many of the British imperialists who referred to the “3 Cs”: Commerce, Civilization & Christianity. Seelye himself was a missionary of the Protestant Dutch Reformed Church.
Harriet Jacobs was an African-American writer, whose autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, published in 1861 under the pseudonym Linda Brent, is now considered an "American classic". Born into slavery in Edenton, North Carolina, she was sexually harassed by her enslaver. When he threatened to sell her children if she did not submit to his desire, she hid in a tiny crawl space under the roof of her grandmother's house, so low she could not stand up in it. After staying there for seven years, she finally managed to escape to the free North, where she was reunited with her children Joseph and Louisa Matilda and her brother John S. Jacobs. She found work as a nanny and got into contact with abolitionist and feminist reformers. Even in New York, her freedom was in danger until her employer was able to pay off her legal owner.
