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Pathos
Definition of Satire
Satire is the use of humor, irony, sarcasm, or ridicule to criticize something or someone. Public figures, such as politicians, are often the subject of satire, but satirists can take... read full definition
Satire is the use of humor, irony, sarcasm, or ridicule to criticize something or someone. Public figures, such as politicians, are often the subject of... read full definition
Satire is the use of humor, irony, sarcasm, or ridicule to criticize something or someone. Public figures, such as politicians... read full definition
Chapter Twelve: Fear of Insurrection
Explanation and Analysis—All Ye Are Brethren:
The book frequently satirizes white enslavers' hypocritical version of Christianity. In Chapter 12, after Nat Turner's Rebellion, Jacobs describes how the Black church is demolished and enslaved people made to attend white churches:
The slaves begged the privilege of again meeting at their little church in the woods, with their burying ground around it. […] Their request was denied, and the church was demolished. They were permitted to attend the white churches […]. There, when every body else had partaken of the communion, and the benediction had been pronounced, the minister said, “Come down, now, my colored friends.” They obeyed the summons, and partook of the bread and wine, in commemoration of the meek and lowly Jesus, who said, “God is your Father, and all ye are brethren.”
Jacobs often uses bits of scripture to satirize hypocritical white Christians, and this example is no exception. The white Christians don't seem to grasp the message of their own faith. They say "God is your Father, and all ye are brethren," but they do not treat Black people as brethren. Putting these words into action would require the white minister to recognize that enslaved people are equal humans who should be treated as such. Instead, the white minister's job in the wake of Nat Turner's Rebellion is to convince enslaved people that God means them to be enslaved. It is deeply ironic that the minister welcomes the enslaved people as "brethren" when white people have just demolished their church. Respecting people's religious freedom is supposed to be a fundamental part of what makes a good friend and neighbor in the United States. Enslavers do not want enslaved people to have religious freedom because Nat Turner's freedom to interpret Christianity through his own framework allowed him to lead a violent revolt based on the idea that slavery was a biblical apocalypse. Their only defense against a similar event involves misinterpreting scripture—something Jacobs points out because it makes clear that enslavers do not hold a defensible position.
In this and other moments like it, Jacobs exposes enslavers and white Christians more broadly as people who use Christianity as a tool of oppression instead of living by its teachings. Later on, Linda encounters Reverend Durham of the Bethel Church in Philadelphia. He provides a contrast to Reverend Pike and other white Christians the book satirizes. Instead of using religion to hurt people, he uses his position in the church to help people. This contrast drives home the fact that Jacobs does not have a problem with Christianity itself so much as the way it is practiced in much of the South.
Related Themes:
