In his article, DeYoung highlights Witherspoon’s positive interactions with free Black men whom he tutored, his advocacy for the humane treatment of enslaved people, his belief that no one should be newly enslaved to support the slave trade (apart from as punishment for a crime), and that he once even baptized a runaway enslaved man.
That man, James Montgomery, was set to fight for his emancipation in court, and DeYoung argues that by baptizing him, Witherspoon provided Montgomery the basis for a strong legal defense: if he were free in Christ, why should he be enslaved to man?
Unfortunately, Montgomery died in prison and never got to make his case.
Summarizing Witherspoon’s view of slavery, DeYoung writes, “In conclusion, Witherspoon allowed that it was not necessary to free men already in a state of slavery because this would ‘make them free to their own ruin.’ Still, ‘it is very doubtful whether any original cause of servitude can be defended, but as legal punishment for the commission of crimes.’”
When DeYoung linked to the article on Twitter, he was met with strong criticism.
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“White rationales for the defense of slave owners, particularly from evangelicals, are astonishing to me,” wrote Texas SBC pastor Dwight McKissic. “A man who owns slaves, & justifies it by them being well fed, clothed, & incapable of living free lives, is a Supremacist-disobedient to Scripture, & undeserving of a statue!”
“Reading this was heartbreaking. There is no defense for antebellum slavery. It must be condemned,” added Derwin Gray, former NFL player and founding pastor of Transformation Church in Indian Land, South Carolina.
In response to the notion that Witherspoon was merely “a man of his times,” Brazilian pastor Marlon Marques wrote, “It’s always good to remember that John Wesley fought hard against slavery in the 18th century. This was in the same period as Edwards and before Witherspoon.”
Jonathan Edwards, a slaveowner, stands alongside John Wesley as being one of the fathers of the modern American evangelical movement. Wesley was active in the abolitionist movement.
“You have written a lot about the nuclear family,” wrote Oklahoma pastor Tyler Campbell. “You realize that antebellum slavery was anti-nuclear-family, right? They actually ripped families apart and sold them away for profit? Perhaps your views would be a bit different if that had been your family history?”
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“Witherspoon was not a black and white character, he had strengths (he opposed ‘man-stealing’ and tutored black men) and failings (he owned slaves),” wrote New Testament scholar Michael F. Bird. “But statues are about values and the question is whether Witherspoon represents the values of Princeton University.”
