Although many scholars therefore view Ham as an eponym which is used to represent Egypt in the Table of Nations,[2] a number of Christians throughout history, including Origen[3] and the Cave of Treasures,[4] have argued for the alternate proposition that Ham represents all black people, his name symbolising their dark skin colour;[5] pro-slavery advocates, from Eutychius of Alexandria[6] and John Philoponus,[7] to American pro-slavery apologists,[8][9] have therefore occasionally interpreted the narrative as a condemnation of all black people to slavery.
More mainstream forms of first-century Judaism did not exhibit such qualms about slavery, and ever since the second-century expulsion of Jews from Judea, wealthy Jews have owned non-Jewish slaves, wherever it was legal to do so;[20] nevertheless, manumissions were approved by Jewish religious officials on the slightest of pretexts, and court cases concerning manumission were nearly always decided in favor of freedom, whenever there was uncertainty towards the facts.
David Brion Davis writes that the "variations in early Christian opinion on servitude fit comfortably within a framework of thought that would exclude any attempt to abolish slavery as an institution".
"[70] In 1452 Pope Nicholas V issued the papal bull Dum Diversas, which granted Afonso V of Portugal the right to reduce any "Saracens, pagans and any other unbelievers" to hereditary slavery.
[71] In the 15th and 16th centuries other popes denounced slavery as a great crime, including Pius II,[62] Paul III,[72] and Eugene IV.
[62] In addition, the Dominican friars who arrived in the Spanish settlement of Santo Domingo in 1510 strongly denounced the enslavement of the local Indians.
Along with other priests, they opposed the mistreatment of the Indians and denounced it as unjust and illegal in an audience with the Spanish king as well as in the subsequent royal commission.
[74] As a response to this position, the Spanish monarchy's subsequent Requerimiento provided a religious justification for the enslavement of the local populations, on the pretext that they refused to convert to Roman Catholicism and therefore denied the authority of the pope.
[77][78] George Whitefield, who is famed for his sparking of the so-called Great Awakening of American evangelicalism, overturned a province-wide ban against slavery,[79] and went on to own several hundred slaves himself.
The seventh-century Saint Eloi used his vast wealth to purchase British and Saxon slaves in groups of 50 to 100 in order to set them free.
An unquestionable obstacle to the acceptance of Christianity among slaves was their desire to continue to adhere to the religious beliefs and rituals of their African ancestors as much as possible.
In the New World, fusions of African spirituality and Christianity led to distinctly new practices within slave populations, including Louisiana Voodoo or Vodun in Haiti.
The songs, dances, and ecstatic experiences of traditional tribal religions were Christianized and practiced by slaves in what is called the "Ring Shout.
[108] In the Quran and for its many commentators, states Ennaji, there is a fundamental distinction between free Muslims and slaves, a basic constituent of its social organization, an irreparable dichotomy introduced by the existence of believers and infidels.
[110][111] Chouki El Hamel has argued that the Quran recommends gradual abolition of slavery,[112] and that some hadith are consistent with that message while others contradict it.
[127] Under Islamic law, in "what might be called civil matters", a slave was "a chattel with no legal powers or rights whatsoever", states Lewis.
[129] According to Ron Shaham and other scholars, the various jurisprudence systems on Sharia such as Maliki, Hanafi, Shafi'i, Hanbali and others differ in their interpretation of the Islamic law on slaves.
[114] In the seventeenth century Celebes Island, a policy that prohibiting slavery of Muslims who are not hereditary slaves was issued by the Sultan of Bone, La Maddaremmeng.
Apart from freeing slaves, La Maddaremeng also destroyed Idols and prohibited traditional ancestral beliefs that contradicted the teaching of Islam.
His puritanical activities faced opposition coming from the people, the aristocrats, the neighboring kings, and even his own mother, We Tenrisoloreng Datu Pattiro.
[138] Bahá'u'lláh, founder of the Baháʼí Faith, commended Queen Victoria for abolishing the slave trade in a letter written to Her Majesty between 1868 and 1872.
Twenty-first century scholarship has found that the Báb credited one of the slaves of his elders as having raised him and compares him favorably with his own father.
[154] Towards the end of the Vedic period (600 BCE), a new system of varnas had appeared, with people called shudras replacing the erstwhile dasas.
[162] The Arthashastra laid down norms for the state to resettle shudra cultivators into new villages and providing them with land, grain, cattle and money.
[168] Slavery existed in ancient India and, according to Scott Levi, it was likely an established institution that was "widespread by the lifetime of the Buddha and perhaps even as far back as the Vedic period.
[175] Words related to dasa are found in early Buddhist texts, such as dāso na pabbājetabbo, which Davids and Stede translate as "the slave cannot become a Bhikkhu".
[176] This restriction on who could become a Buddhist monk is found in Vinaya Pitakam i.93, Digha Nikaya, Majjhima Nikāya, Tibetan Bhiksukarmavakya and Upasampadajnapti.
[178] The term dāsa and dāsyu in Vedic and other ancient Indian literature has been interpreted by as "servant" or "slave", but others have contested such meaning.
[147] Early Buddhist texts in Pali, according to R. S. Sharma, mention dāsa and kammakaras, and they show that those who failed to pay their debts were enslaved, and Buddhism did not allow debtors and slaves to join their monasteries.
He not only advocated human equality, by rejecting class inequalities and caste hierarchy, but also practically promoted it through the institution of Pangat and Sangat.