The doctrine of providential design arose in the United States after the Civil War and the end of slavery. It was, perhaps, the most perfect combination of racism and religion ever created in the United States. To understand the full importance of this pernicious doctrine, let us lay out what its beliefs were.
How to Justify Providential Design
It began with a justification of slavery. Slavery, providential design held, was a necessary instrument used by God to bring Africans to the United States and out of barbarism. While slavery may have been harsh, eventually, the enslaved learned Christianity and civilization from their masters. Then, when God decided the proper time was at hand, the Civil War occurred, resulting in the abolition of slavery.
Now that the former slaves were free and Christianized, proponents of providential design held, it was time for African Americans to fulfill their next role in God’s plan. This was to return to Africa, bringing Christianity with them. They could then redeem the rest of Africa from paganism and ignorance. Their destiny was to uplift an entire continent and bring Africa into the light of Christianity.
But don’t take my word for it. Here’s a quote from a Presbyterian Church publication, the Presbyterian Monthly Record, from September of 1881:
“Every candid reader of providence cannot but discover that there was some design in God’s permitting thousands of wild Africans to be brought to this country and enslaved here. However villainous the African slave-trade was, and whatever sin there may have been in their enslavement in this land, there was clearly a providential design in their coming to this country, and that design was to Christianize them. . . . With all the evils of slavery there are some wonderful facts connected with the strange history of the children of Africa in America. . . . Now there are nearly one million of them in the communion of the various Christian churches in the United States, and the whole six millions of them have been largely brought under the influence of the gospel. Now in these facts is there not a further providential design looking towards the ultimate evangelization of Africa? Surely the Christianizing of those multitudes of Africans here looks and must look to the salvation of the vaster multitudes of the “Dark Continent.”
That was the doctrine of providential design. In the late 1800s, this idea had many adherents among Protestants in the US. As I wrote above, it is among the most perfect marriages of religion and racism that I know of. Let’s explore the connections.
Understanding Providential Design
One is obvious. By making slavery part of God’s plan, it absolves individuals from any guilt or responsibility regarding the horrors of slavery. Yes, it was rough, and slaves unwilling. But slavery was necessary to bring about something better in the long run. Masters were doing Africans a favor by purchasing them, working them mercilessly, and profiting from their bodies as long as the transmission of Christianity accompanied enslavement.
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This belief also voids the heroic actions of all the abolitionists. Why celebrate the efforts of Frederick Douglass, David Walker, Harriet Tubman, William Lloyd Garrison, or James Birney? If all that happened was as God willed it, these people were just puppets performing the part allotted to them in a cosmic performance. Likewise, with the soldiers who fought in the Civil War after the Emancipation Proclamation. (Although let us not fall into the trap of believing that all who fought for the Union in the Civil War did so to end slavery. That was certainly not the case. But some did.)
This was, however, not all. As bad as this was, the teachings of providential design were much more insidious. In our next post, we’ll explore just how much more insidious.
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As always, I welcome constructive and polite discussion in the comments section. Thank you!
Many people use religion as an excuse for bad behavior. It’s hard to think a true Christian could believe owning other human beings and treating them like animals was ok. If we all come from the same Creator, we should all be equal in His eyes.
About the only religious denomination that 100% agreed with your statements before the Civil War was the Quakers. The Bible says a lot of things, and like any book, if you read parts of it in isolation without the context of the whole, it can lead to some questionable interpretations. Especially when the book is as long as the Bible and says as many things as it does.