Rev. Thornton Stringfellow was the pastor of Stevensburg Baptist Church in Culpeper County, Virginia, and one of the most notorious defenders of slavery in antebellum America. While he also promoted Sunday Schools, and domestic missions, his enduring legacy is far darker: he used Christianity to defend the chains that bound Africans.
Born on March 6, 1788 in Fauquier County and ordained in 1814, Stringfellow spent his entire life preaching in Virginia. To him, the pulpit was not simply a place of worship, it was a platform to defend and enforce slavery. Owning enslaved Africans himself, he drew on his personal experience and scripture to convince his congregations that bondage was divinely approved.
Stringfellow’s arguments were laid out most famously in his 1856 book, Scriptural and Statistical Views in Favor of Slavery. In this tract, which became widely read across the South, he claimed that slavery was not only legal but morally sanctioned by God. The book presented his reasoning in detail: biblical examples of slavery, Jesus’ silence, and the supposed social and spiritual benefits of bondage. For generations of ministers and congregations, it became a manual for defending slavery from the pulpit.
Early Writings
Before publishing his more famous 1856 work, Thornton Stringfellow wrote A Brief Examination of Scripture Testimony on the Institution of Slavery in 1850. In this essay, he argued that slavery was fully compatible with the Bible, tracing its existence from the patriarchs, through the Mosaic law, and into the early Christian era.
Stringfellow argued that because Jesus never condemned slavery and the apostles instructed servants to obey their masters, the institution was implicitly sanctioned in scripture. The pamphlet also directly addressed abolitionist interpretations, insisting that opponents of slavery had misunderstood the Bible.
This early work laid the foundation for his later, more detailed pro-slavery book and illustrates how committed he was to using the bible to justify the enslavement of Africans.
Scriptural and Statistical Views in Favor of Slavery (1856)
Stringfellow’s most widely read tract, Scriptural and Statistical Views in Favor of Slavery, was published in 1856 and cemented his reputation as one of the most influential pro-slavery theologians. In it, he argued that slavery existed with God’s permission and could therefore not be sinful. He portrayed slavery as part of God’s moral order rather than a human crime and provided extensive biblical references to support his claims.
Central to Stringfellow’s book and theology was the argument that Jesus never condemned slavery, and that Christ’s silence constituted approval. He ignored the immense suffering and coercion embedded in the system, claiming that the absence of prohibition from Christ meant divine endorsement.
In Stringfellow’s view, anyone opposing slavery was rejecting scripture and rebelling against God’s will. He portrayed abolitionists not as moral reformers but as extremists attacking Christianity itself. His book painted resistance to slavery as rebellion against divine law, making opposition to bondage a religious offense.
Stringfellow described slavery as a system that improved the lives of Africans. In Scriptural and Statistical Views in Favor of Slavery, he argued that bondage brought discipline, Christianity, and order to people he portrayed as incapable of self-rule. Enslavement, he claimed, was a kindness, a way to save souls through control.
By defending slavery as divinely sanctioned, Stringfellow also defended the instruments that maintained it. Whipping, confinement, slave jails, forced labor, and the sale of enslaved Africans were, in his reasoning, necessary measures rather than abuses. His book made it clear that the moral authority of God sanctioned these actions, cementing the idea that cruelty was justified in the name of order and salvation.
Slavery: Its Origin, Nature, and History (1861)
In 1861, Stringfellow published Slavery: Its Origin, Nature, and History, further expanding his defense of bondage.
This pamphlet examined slavery from historical, social, and religious perspectives, again using scripture to claim that slavery aligned with God’s design. He framed the institution as beneficial for those enslaved, socially necessary, and morally justified. Across all three works, Stringfellow’s writing consistently recast oppression as divine order, turning the Bible and Jesus’ silence into tools to legitimize bondage and defend the enslavement of Africans.
Stringfellow did not confine his pro-slavery ideology to print alone. From the pulpit, he warned that emancipation would destroy society. Free Black people, he argued, would bring disorder, violence, and moral collapse, while slavery preserved peace and stability.
Above all, Stringfellow insisted that ministers should preach openly in favor of slavery. The pulpit, he claimed, was a weapon to silence dissent, maintain obedience, and defend the institution. Religious leaders had a responsibility, in his view, to uphold bondage as part of God’s divine plan.
Thornton Stringfellow’s book and teachings represent one of the clearest examples of faith used to justify oppression. By using scripture, Jesus’ silence, and the authority of the church to defend slavery, he transformed religion into a tool of cruelty. His work influenced countless ministers, gave moral legitimacy to brutality, and reinforced a narrative in which Christianity and African enslavement were compatible.
Stringfellow died on March 6, 1869, at the age of 81, and was buried in the Stevensburg churchyard. His life and writings remain a powerful reminder of how the Christian Bible was used to defend slavery and maintain the oppression of Africans.
Sources:
https://docsouth.unc.edu/church/string/string.html
https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/rbc/rbaapc/28100/28100.pdf
Stringfellow, Rev. Thornton. Slavery: Its Origin, Nature, and History. 1861.
