DR. RAPHALL'S BIBLE VIEW OF SLAVERY", IN THE NEW YORK TRIBUNE, 18 JANUARY 1861

New York, 1861. Folio, 8pp. Archival repair at page 7. Light toning, blank edge chipping, Very Good.

The story on page 8 is headed, "Dr. Raphall's Bible View of Slavery." It begins, "The room of the Historical Society was about two-thirds filled last evening with an audience curious to hear a Pro-Slavery Jewish Rabbi expound to them the principles of Christianity, and attempt to prove from the Sacred Word that the Savior sanctioned Slavery. . . Dr. Raphall is a stoutly built, almost portly man, with a round face and white whisker. He looked through very large glasses, and wore the close cap peculiar to his persuasion. His discourse was a repetition of the one delivered on Fast Day." His Fast Day discourse, delivered two weeks earlier, brought him a storm of notoriety for its endorsement of Slavery.
Morris Jacob Raphall (1798-1868) was a rabbi and author born in Stockholm, Sweden. From 1849 until his death, he resided in the United States. His Bible View exposed an "arrogant" abolitionist fallacy: scripture does NOT denounce slaveholding as a sin. The Sectional Crisis has its origin in "the difference of opinion respecting slave-holding, which the one section denounces as sinful-- aye, as the most heinous of sins-- while the other section upholds it as perfectly lawful." Tracing the history of slavery, Raphall says, "next to the domestic relations of husband and wife, parents and children, the oldest relation of society with which we are acquainted is that of master and slave." Citing Noah's "bitter curse against Ham's descendants," he asserts that the Bible places slavery "under the same protection as any other species of lawful property."
The paper reports the exciting news of secession, compromise efforts, rumors of impending war, and Congressional debates [including the prominent participation of Judah P. Benjamin, U.S. Senator from Louisiana].