Reconstruction - Part 1 (Happy 150th Lincoln Inauguration Day)

After the presidential victory of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, six southern states seceded from the United States before he took office in March of 1861. The state to lead the charge was South Carolina. South Carolina officially adopted a declaration of their reasons just a month after the election stating that the threat to their institution of slavery was their primary reason:

"...an increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the institution of slavery, has led to a disregard of [the Government's] obligations [to] the Constitution... [Lincoln] has declared that that 'Government cannot endure permanently half slave, half free,' and that the public mind must rest in the belief that slavery is in the course of ultimate extinction... On the 4th day of March next, [Lincoln] will take possession of the Government. [He] has announced... that a war must be waged against slavery until it shall cease throughout the United States... The slaveholding States will [then] no longer have the power of self-government, or self-protection, and the Federal Government will have become their enemy." SOURCE - http://sunsite.utk.edu/civil-war/reasons.html

The Civil War was very bloody. The casualties by the War reached to an estimated 620,000 American lives. That is more then the casualties of any other American war, from the Revolution to Afganistan.

The first African slaves on record to be transported to an American colony came in 1619 to Virginia. This, however, was preceded by Spanish colonies (on modern-day American soil) by as early as 1520. By the time Lincoln wrote his Emancipation Proclamation (enacted on January 1, 1863) it is estimated that 3.5 million African slaves were living in the South. That number was equal to over sixty percent of the free population in the South at the time.

And so from 1520 - 1863, generation upon generation of African-Americans grew up only knowing a life of slavery. If you were born in a closet and were not let out you would think that that closet was the entire world. Similarly, slaves lived lives in which they were told they were less then human. That they were property. That they were not free. But in 1863, all of a sudden these slaves were given their freedom.

Jesus compared the human condition to slavery (John 8:34)... The difficulties that followed the Civil War during the Reconstruction are similar, in one sense, to those that Christians face.

Once you, Christian, were a slave to sin, and now you have been set free (Romans 6:17-18). In a very real sense it took most African Americans more then a hundred years to fully realize their identity as free Americans. This is evidence that it could very well take the Christian an entire life to fully realize and embody their freedom in Christ. By Christ's great bloody Emancipation Proclamation on the cross, 'It is finished!' the Christian became fully and finally free from sin... In one sense similar to the African American during Reconstruction, Christians are now charged to be filled with diligent cherishing and preserving of this freedom that Christ attained for us.

African-Americans were free from slavery after 1863. But how did that really effect their lives after that point? Even though a living document declared their freedom in America, was it a real truth that they were able to embody in their lives afterwards. Even though Christ on the cross obtained for us a tangible freedom for us from sin have we come to embody that status? Trying to put myself 'inside the shoes' of the slaves, I feel that former slaves must have had to remind themselves of their freedom everyday. I think Christians must also do the same (in a basic sense this is what we mean by 'Preaching the Gospel to yourself daily'.

Think about those encounters the former slaves had with the white people of their city after that time. What would have happened when they came face to face with their former slave-owners? They were free, but how could one not help but cower in fear in the presence of a former slave owner? Christians will also come face to face with their old oppressors after they received the status as free sons of God. What is your old oppressor? I am sure it still feels like you are in slavery... How will you not cower in fear? 2 Timothy 1:7 says the Spirit of God is in the Christian. Remember that! The same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead has the same power to raise you from your death. Trust Him! I know it is hard... Even when you cannot feel Him trust Him! He gave His life for you, He won't let you go now... This is how we grow in faith...

Disclaimer - I am not trying to water-down the brutality of slavery in America and I am not trying to take away anything from the African-American people. I am only struggling to understand how a people who were once enslaved and now are free can struggle to fully become free in a holistic sense (in mindset, culture, livelihood, spirit, etc). In one sense, people everywhere are also slaves, slaves to their passions and desires. The Bible promises the Christian that they have a Savior that will save them from that enslavement.

More on Romans 8:15 and a few more connections a Christian can take from the Civil War and the subsequent Reconstruction period afterwards on a post next week...