First, can we just say that "Thornton Stringfellow" sounds like he should be in a Dickens novel?

Okay, moving on.

First, Thornton Stringfellow was one of many people spilling ink trying to prove that the Bible was a pro-slavery document. He was pretty irked at abolitionists taking the moral high ground, so he was determined to pull them off it by using the Bible to defend slavery. In this piece, he makes four main points:

• God seemed okay with slavery during the Patriarchal Age (Noah-Moses) and even singled out slaveholders for special favors. If God, didn't like it, God should have said something, says Stringfellow.
• The covenant God made with Israel through Moses includes rules about slavery.
• Jesus talks about slavery and doesn't seem too worried about it.
• Slavery is good for Africans. They totally couldn't make it without white people "taking care of them." Lucky them.

Abolitionists just don't know how to read the Bible, says Stringfellow. If they did, all this would be clear and he wouldn't have to waste his time schooling them.