The Bible Divided

Gareth Evans-Jones examines the religious responses of the Welsh in the United States to slavery during the period 1838-68: the golden age of the Welsh-language periodical press in America. Using that periodical press as a significant basis, Evans-Jones offers an original discussion on how the Welsh-American nation thought of one of the most complex issues of their adopted country, slavery, in the context of Biblical discourse.

Evans-Jones explores in detail how certain religious ideas and Biblical references and motifs penetrated through the articles, essays, pieces of poetry, and creative prose published in the Welsh periodicals that were produced and circulated in the United States. He provides a in-depth analysis of how these Welsh-American writers engaged with polarizing arguments that the Bible condones slavery, with such aspects as the so-called Curse of Ham and the silence of Jesus on the matter; and, on the other hand, the Bible condemning such a practice, citing arguments based on concepts such as the Jubilee and the Golden Rule. Evans-Jones thus presents a unique insight into the Welsh-American public opinion and religious grappling with slavery in the nineteenth century. This volume thoroughly demonstrates the influence of the Bible on the Welsh-Americans’ thought and day-to-day activity, casting new light on how the existence of slavery was understood by a diasporic people in the country that prided itself in its freedom.