<aside> ✝️ The bible provided slave traders and investors in slavery with a seemingly moral justification for their unethical practices. Their defense was that slavery and was allowed in the bible, and therefore allowed for them as well.
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The following gablestone can be found in the Bethaniënstraat. It refers to the biblical story Acts 8, verse 37-30. This story is about the baptism of an Ethiopian chamberlain/eunuch. Even though the Ethiopian described in the bible was not enslaved, the creator depicted the Ethiopian with a "slave collar". Images like these amplified the association people had between the enslaved and the Africans.
Bethaniënstraat 9, Image free to use
Bethaniënstraat 9, Image free to use
There were some preachers of the reformed church ℹ️ who used verses from the Old Testament to justify slavery:
Leviticus 25:44-46 (NIV)44 “‘Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves. 45 You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you and members of their clans born in your country, and they will become your property. 46 You can bequeath them to your children as inherited property and can make them slaves for life, but you must not rule over your fellow Israelites ruthlessly.
Ironically, the very same bible is now used by some christians to explain why trans-Atlantic, or any form of slavery was not allowed by Christianity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uBqkZ-m3XI
This is The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary's view on slavery in the bible. The baptist church is a branch of protestantism, which is said to originate in Amsterdam in 1609.
It is worth looking into the bible verses mentioned at 1:21 yourself: Exodus 21, In which God presents the rules of slavery according to Mosaic law to Moses.
Exodus 21 indeed says that kidnapping and selling people is illegal:
Exodus 21:16 (ESV)Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found in possession of him, shall be put to death.
However, the same chapter says buying slaves is allowed, but only for 6 years (some translations might say "servant" instead of "slave").
Exodus 21:2 (ESV)When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing.
After which it continues to say you are allowed to beat the enslaved people you own, but not to death.
Exodus 21:20-21 (ESV)20 “When a man strikes his slave, male or female, with a rod and the slave dies under his hand, he shall be avenged. 21 But if the slave survives a day or two, he is not to be avenged, for the slave is his money.
Not all christians share the same beliefs as this preacher does, and not all christians stand behind each and every bible verse. The difference between christians' views on slavery throughout history shows how diverse the interpretations of a document like the bible are, or how creative people can be in their moral justifications (but I encourage you to make this decision for yourself).