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prohibits man-stealing (Ex. 21:16; 1 Tim. 1:10), Christians could not consistently participate at any point in a process that resulted from the man-stealing. "He who kidnaps a man and sells him,  or if he is found in his hand, shall surely be put to death" (Ex. 21:16).  Before discussing whether slave-owning in itself constitutes an indirect support of this capital offense, we should first ask if believers in the South engaged in direct opposition to this evil. Here, the answer is clearly in the affirmative. R.L. Dabney, in his Defense of Virginia and the South, begins his chapter on the slave trade with these words: "This iniquitous traffick . . ." The duty of southern Christians was clear — they had to oppose the slave trade. They did so, fervently and zealously. Dabney's vehement attack on the slave trade was representative of many others.

Were they hypocrites in this opposition because they raised the cry against the slave trade while indirectly supporting that trade by owning slaves? Not at all. The Bible defines hypocrisy. Remember that in ancient Rome the acquisition of slaves was not according to the law of God either. A Christian slave owner in that system, like Philemon, was duty-bound to oppose those features of that society, and at the same time was required to treat his slaves in a gracious and thoughtful manner. He was not required to release his individual slaves because of the general societal disobedience. He was not even required to release his slaves if they came into the Christian faith (1 Tim. 6:1-4). At the same time he should have acknowledged that his believing slaves were now Christ's freemen, and they should take any opportunity for freedom provided for them (1 Cot. 7:20).

Secondly, we must also remember that the consequences and ramifications of the African slave trade went far beyond the situation described in Exodus 21. In that situation, when the kidnapper was discovered, he would be tried and executed, and the one kidnapped would be restored to his home. The issues were simple and clear. With the slave trade, the vast majority of the slaves had already been enslaved in Africa by other blacks. They were then taken down to the coast and sold to the traders. The traders transported them, usually under wicked conditions, to those places where a market did exist for their labor, but where the civil leaders had repeatedly and consistently tried to stop the slave traders.5 One of those places, Virginia , had attempted on no less than twenty-eight occasions to arrest the slave trade, but was stopped by higher (non-Southern) authorities. If the slaves were not sold in the South, they were taken on to Haiti and Brazil , where the condition and treatment of slaves was simply horrendous.6 The restoration of these slaves to their former condition was a physical impossibility. Now, under these conditions, was it a sin for a Christian to purchase such a slave, knowing that he would take him home and treat him the way the Bible requires? If he did not do so, nothing would be done to improve the slave's condition, and much could happen that would make it worse. The slaves were not stolen cars; they were human beings — and the many Christians who treated them lawfully were in no way disobedient.

The requirements for godly treatment of slaves by individual masters is clearly laid out in the Bible. The requirements for a godly prohibition of man-stealing on the part of the civil magistrate is also required in the Bible. On both counts, southern Christians distinguished themselves in carefully seeking to implement both requirements. Their personal treatment of slaves is indicated in the rest of this booklet. Their political agitation for a godly abolition of the slave trade was equally notable. Virginia was the first commonwealth in the world to outlaw the practice, and this after many previous unsuccessful attempts. Dabney said it well. " Virginia has the honour of being the first Commonwealth on earth to declare against the