William Apess\' Bible-Based Arguments Against Racism

Biblical Argument

William Apess and the Biblical argument against racism

As a Native American who lived through the end of the 18th century and first 39 years of the 19th century, William Apess was subjected to extreme levels of racial prejudice. Indeed, the years during which Apess was most prolific as an author corresponded with the Presidential term of Andrew Jackson, a figure whose political platform included the mistreatment (and eradication) of Native Americans. As the son of a former slave and a member of the Pequot Native American tribe, Apess was exposed to significant racial injustice. However, he was also an Evangelical Christian, and used his extensive knowledge of the Bible as a platform through which to argue against racism. He also advocated for Native Americans to receive a formal education, and his own writing testifies to the power that education can have in influencing popular belief. Drawing from Apess's 1833 essay "An Indian's Looking-Glass for the White Man" and 1831 memoir "A Son of the Forest," this essay delineates Apess's Biblical arguments against racism.

In "A Son of the Forest," Apess provides a comprehensive description of the injustice that was inflicted upon him by the white race. Additionally, he describes the immoral conduct exhibited by members of his own Native American family as a result of harmful cultural influences instigated by the white race, such as alcohol. Writing about the violent, alcoholic behavior of his own grandmother (who broke his arm in a drunken rage when the author was four years old), Apess states that "this cruel and unnatural conduct was the effect of some cause. I attribute it in great measure to the whites" (7). It should be noted that Apess does not exonerate his grandmother from blame. However, by stating that the violence "was the effect of some cause," Apess's statement implies that people (including Native Americans) are inherently virtuous and therefore should not be targeted as objects of discrimination. By arguing that the Native Americans are not inherently immoral, Apess implicitly suggests that Native Americans descended from Adam and Eve, a claim that he earlier makes explicit through stating that "We are in fact but one family; we are all the descendents of one great progenitor -- Adam" (4).

In "An Indian's Looking Glass for the White Man," Apess invokes more explicit references to the Bible in arguing against the racism that was rampant against Native Americans. Apess's foremost argument against racism lies in the fact that God repeatedly emphasizes the importance of loving one's neighbors, and that racism fundamentally contradicts this Biblical dictum. Apess proves that Native Americans are justifiably the neighbors of white men because they, not the whites, are in fact the indigenous peoples of North America. This fact is significant in that it denotes how a neighbor should not be determined through the superficiality of race. Apess argues, after all, that it is illogical for the white race to not consider other races as neighbors since the vast majority of the world population is non-white: "If black or red skins, or any other skin of color is disgraceful to God, it appears that he has disgraced himself a great deal -- for he has made fifteen colored people to one white, and placed them here upon this earth" (tamu-commerce.edu). Rather than the Native Americans being the ones who violate the Bible, it is the white race that abuses the Bible.

Although the white race assents to virtuous conduct they consistently inflict abuse upon a race to which they should treat as neighbors. Apess recalls the Biblical passage (from the Gospel of John) that "By this shall all men know that they are my disciples, if ye have love on to another" (John xiii: 35). By discriminating against Native Americans the white race violates one of the most fundamental adages of the Bible. He notes that "females are left without protection, and are seduced by white men, and are finally left to be common prostitutes for them, and to be destroyed by that burning, fiery curse…rum" (tamu-commerce.edu). Since God prohibits racism and judges people on the basis of their conduct rather than their race, the white race is actually the transgressor.