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Priesthood Blacks Slavery - Mormon Doctrine Studies - Posted: 28th Aug, 2008 - 4:50am
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Priesthood: Blacks & Slavery
Priesthood: Blacks & Slavery
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| PRIESTHOOD VIEWS ON SLAVERY AND THE BLACKS An Address delivered by Gov. Brigham Young to the joint session of the Utah Legislature Salt Lake City February 5, 1852 Brigham Young September 1997 Preface On February 5, 1852, Governor Brigham Young gave a very significant address before the Joint Session of the Legislature in Salt Lake City. The content applied to both government and church, and the message was presented not as opinions or possibilities, but "in the name of Jesus Christ" by a prophet of God. Brigham Young clearly explained (1) the correct nature of slavery, (2) the political and religious status of the Negro race, (3) the importance of obedience to God's laws, and (4) the strict order of the Holy Priesthood. Presented in this pamphlet are two accounts of this 1852 address: one as reported by George D. Watt and included in the Brigham Young Papers, and the other as recorded by Wilford Woodruff in his extensive journals. [1] PRIESTHOOD VIEWS ON SLAVERY AND THE BLACKS Brigham Young George D. Watt, professional stenographer, recorded most of the sermons in the Journal of Discourses, as well as many other civic and religious addresses and sermons. This particular one delivered by Brigham Young became even more significant after 1978. The principle of slavery I understand, at least I have self-confidence enough and confidence enough in God to believe I do. I believe still further that a great many others understand it as I do. A great portion of this community have been instructed and have applied their minds to it, and as far as they have, they agree precisely in the principles of slavery. My remarks in the first place will be upon the cause of the introduction of slavery. Long ago mama Eve, our good old mother Eve, partook of the forbidden fruit and this made a slave of her. Adam hated very much to have her taken out of the garden of Eden, and now our old daddy says, I believe I will eat of the fruit and become a slave, too. This was the first introduction of slavery upon this earth; and there has not been a son or daughter of Adam from that day to this but what were slaves in the true sense of the word. That slavery will continue until there is a people raised up upon the face of the earth who will contend for righteous principles, who will not only believe in, but [2] operate with every power and faculty given to them to help to establish the Kingdom of God, to overcome the devil, and drive him from the earth; then will this curse be removed. This was the starting point of slavery. Again, after Adam and Eve had partook of the curse, we find they had two sons, Cain and Abel, but which was the oldest I cannot positively say; but this I know: Cain was given more to evil practices than Abel, but whether he was the oldest or not matters not to me. Adam was commanded to sacrifice and offer up his offerings to God that placed him into the garden of Eden. Through the faith and obedience of Abel to his Heavenly Father, Cain become jealous of him, and he laid a plan to obtain all his flocks; for through his perfect obedience to Father he obtained more blessings than Cain; consequently he took it into his heart to put Abel [out] of his mortal existence. After the deed was done, the Lord inquired for Abel and made Cain own what he had done with him. Now, says the grandfather, I will not destroy the seed of Michael and his wife, and Cain, I will not kill you nor suffer anyone else to kill you, but I will put a mark upon you. What is that mark? You will see it on the countenance of every African you ever did see upon the face of the earth or ever will see. Now I tell you what I know: when the mark was put upon Cain, Abel's children were in all probability young; the Lord told Cain that he should not receive the blessings of the Priesthood, nor his seed, until the last of the posterity of Abel had received the Priesthood, until the redemption of the earth. If there never was a prophet or apostle of Jesus Christ [that] spoke it before, I tell you, this people that are commonly called Negroes are the children of old Cain. I [3] know they are; I know that they cannot bear rule in the Priesthood, for the curse on them was to remain upon them until the residue of the posterity of Michael and his wife receive the blessings the seed of Cain would have received had they not been cursed, and hold the keys of the Priesthood until the times of the restitution shall come, and the curse be wiped off from the earth and from Michael's seed. Then Cain's seed will be had in remembrance and the time come when the curse should be wiped off. Now, then, in the Kingdom of God on the earth, a man who has the African blood in him cannot hold one jot nor tittle of Priesthood. Why? Because they are the true eternal principles the Lord Almighty has ordained, and who can help it? Men cannot, the angels cannot, and all the powers of earth and hell cannot take it off; but thus saith the Eternal I am, what I am, I take it off at my pleasure, and not one particle of power can that posterity of Cain have until the time comes that says he will have it taken away. That time will come when they will have the privilege of all we have the privilege of and more. In the Kingdom of God on the earth the Africans cannot hold one particle of power in government. The subjects, the rightful servants of the residue of the children of Adam, and the residue of the children through the benign influence of the spirit of the Lord have the privilege of seeing to the posterity of Cain; inasmuch as it is the Lord's will they should receive the spirit of God by baptism, and that is the end of their privilege; and there is not power on earth to give them any more power. You talk of the dark skin. I never saw a white man on earth. I have seen persons whose hair came pretty nigh [4] being white, but to talk about white skins, it is something entirely unknown, though some skins are fairer than others. Look at the black eye and the jet black hair we often see upon men and women who are called white; there is no such things as white folks. We are the children of Adam, who receive the blessings, and that is enough for us if we are not quite white. But let me tell you further, let my seed mingle with the seed of Cain, and that brings the curse upon me and upon my generations; we will reap the same rewards with Cain. In the Priesthood I will tell you what it will do. Were the children of God to mingle their seed with the seed of Cain it would not only bring the curse of being deprived of the power of the priesthood upon themselves but they entail it upon their children after them, and they cannot get rid of it. If a man in an unguarded moment should commit such a transgression, if he would walk up and say cut off my head, and kill man, woman and child it would do a great deal towards atoning for the sin. Would this be to curse them? No, it would be a blessing to them; it would do them good that they might be saved with their brethren. A man would shudder should they hear us talk about killing folk, but it is one of the greatest blessings to some to kill them, although the true principles of it are not understood. I will add one thing more. It is not in the power of a man on the face of the earth to take more life than he can give; that is a proper son of Adam. How many times I have heard it said and how many times has it been reiterated in my ears, and in yours, that to take a life, is to take what you cannot give. This is perfect nonsense. What do I do by [5] taking a man's head off after he is condemned by the law? I put an end to the existence of the mortal tabernacle, but the life still remains. The body and the spirit are only separated; this is all that can be done by any mortal man upon the face of the earth. Can I give that life? I can! I can make as good tabernacles as any other man, and if you do not believe it, go and look at my children; therefore, that saying is nonsense. We form the tabernacle for the eternal spirit of life that comes from God. We can only put an end to the existence of that tabernacle, and this is the principle of sacrifice. What was the cause of the ancients drawing up hundreds and thousands of bullocks, and heifers, and lambs, and doves, and almost every other creature around them, of which they took the best and the fattest, and offered them up as sacrifices unto the Lord. Was it not for the remission of the sins of the people? We read also in the New Testament that a man was sacrificed for the sins of the people. If he had not shed that blood which was given to him in the organization of his body or tabernacle, you and I could have had no remission of sins. It is the greatest blessing that could come to some men to shed their blood on the ground, and let it come up before the Lord as an atonement. You nor I cannot take any more life than we can give. Again to the subject before us, as to the men bearing rule--not one of the children of old Cain have one particle of right to bear rule in government affairs from first to last; they have no business there. This privilege was taken from them by their own transgressions, and I cannot help it; and should you or I bear rule, we ought to do it with dignity and honor before God. [6] I am as much opposed to the principle of slavery as any man. In the present acceptation or usage of the term, it is abused. I am opposed to abusing that which God has decreed, to take a blessing, and make a curse of it. It is a great blessing to the seed of Adam to have the seed of Cain for servants, but those they serve should use them with all the heart and feeling, as they would use their own children, and their compassion should reach over them and round about them, and treat them as kindly, and with that humane feeling necessary to be shown to mortal beings of the human species. Under these circumstances their blessings in life are greater in proportion to those who have to provide the bread and dinner for them. We know there is a portion of inhabitants of the earth who dwell in Asia that are Negroes and said to be Jews. The blood of Judah has not only mingled almost with all nations, but also with the blood of Cain, and they have mingled their seeds together. These Negro Jews may keep up all the outer ordinances of the Jewish religion, they may have their sacrifices, and they may perform all the religious ceremonies any people on earth could perform, but let me tell you, that the day they consented to mingle their seed with Canaan, the Priesthood was taken away from Judah, and that portion of Judah's seed will never get any rule or blessings of the Priesthood until Cain gets it. Let this church which is called the Kingdom of God on the earth: we will summons the First Presidency, the Twelve, the High Counsel, the Bishopric, and all the Elders of Israel, suppose we summons them to appear here, and here declare that it is right to mingle our seed with the Black race of Cain, that they shall come in with us and be partakers with us of all the blessings God has given to us. On that very day, and hour we should do so, the priesthood is taken from this Church and Kingdom, [7] and God leaves us to our fate. The moment we consent to mingle with the seed of Cain, the Church must go to destruction; we should receive the curse which has been placed upon the seed of Cain, and never more be numbered with the children of Adam who are heirs to the priesthood until that curse be removed. Therefore, I will not consent for one moment to have an African dictate me or any brethren with regard to church or state government. I may vary in my view from others, and they may think I am foolish in the things I have spoken and think that they know more than I do, but I know [that] I know more than they do. If the Africans cannot bear rule in the church of God, what business have they to bear rule in the state and government affairs of this territory or any others? In the government affairs of states and territories and kingdoms, by right God should govern. He should rule over nations and control kings. If we suffer the Devil to rule over us, we shall not accomplish any good. I want the Lord to rule and be our governor and dictator, and we are the boys to execute [it]. I shall not consent for a moment to give way to a gentile spirit of contention, which is the cause of angry difference to the alienation of every good feeling. It is for you and I to take a course to bind our feelings together in an everlasting bond of union inasmuch as we love the Lord, which we ought to do more than selves. Consequently, I will not consent for a moment to have the children of Cain rule me nor my brethren. No, it is not right. But, say some, is there anything of this kind in the Constitution the U.S. has given us? If you will allow me the privilege [of] telling right out, it is none of their damned business what we do or say here. What we do it is for them to sanction, and then for us to say what we like about it. It is written right out in the Constitution, "that every free white male [8] inhabitant above the age of twenty-one years", etc. My mind is the same today as when we were pouring over that constitution; any light upon the subject is the same, my judgment is the same, only a little more so. Perhaps I have said enough upon this subject. I have given you the true principles and doctrine. No man can vote for me or my brethren in this territory who has not the privilege of acting in church affairs. Every man and woman and child in this territory are citizens; to say the contrary is all nonsense to me. The Indians are citizens, the Africans are citizens, and the Jews that come from Asia, that are almost entirely of the blood of Cain. It is our duty to take care of them and administer to them in all the acts of humanity and kindness. They shall have the right of citizenship, but shall not have the right to dictate in church and state matters. The abolitionists of the East have caressed them and their whole argument is calculated to darken counsel as it was here yesterday. As for our bills passing here, we may lay the foundation for what? For men to come here from Africa or elsewhere by hundreds of thousands. When these men come here from the islands, are they going to hold offices in government? No. It is for men who understand the knowledge of government affairs to hold such offices, and on the other make provisions for them to plow and to reap and enjoy all that human beings can enjoy, and we protect them in it. Do we know how to ameliorate the condition of these people? We do. Suppose that five thousands of them come from the Pacific Islands and ten or fifteen thousands from Japan or from China. Not one of them would know how to vote for a government officer. They, therefore, ought not in the first thing have anything to do in government affairs. [9] What the gentiles are doing, we are consenting to do. What we are trying to do today is to make the Negro equal with us in all our privilege. My voice shall be against [it] all the day long. I shall not consent for one moment. I will call them [to] counsel. I say I will not consent for one moment for you to lay a plan to bring a curse upon this people. It shall not be while I am here. (Reported by George D. Watt and located in the Brigham Young Papers in the LDS Church Historical Dept.; also in Teachings of Brigham Young, Collier, 3:41-48) [10] Wilford Woodruff's Recording of Brigham Young's 1852 Address to the Legislature Wilford Woodruff kept one of the most accurate and important journals in Mormon history. His shorter account of this speech further verifies and even clarifies many of Brigham Young's comments. He remarked that the whole world were slaves. Eve partook of the forbidden fruit and also Adam and it brought slavery upon all their posterity in some way or other and this will continue until we become righteous enough to drive the Devil and Evil from the Earth. Adam had two sons--Cain and Abel. Cain was more given to Evil than Abel. Adam was called to offer sacrifice--also his sons--the sacrifice of Abel was more acceptable than Cain's and Cain took it into his heart to put Abel out of the way, so he killed Abel. The Lord said I will not kill Cain, but I will put a mark upon him, and it is seen in the face of every Negro on the Earth. And it is the decree of God that that mark shall remain upon the seed of Cain (and the curse) until all the seed of Abel should be redeemed; and Cain will not receive the Priesthood or Salvation until all the seed of Abel are redeemed. Any man having one drop of the seed of Cain in him cannot hold the Priesthood and If no other Prophet ever spake it before, I will say it now--in the name of Jesus Christ, I know it is true, and others know it! The Negro cannot hold one particle of government. But the day will come when all the seed of Cain will be redeemed and have all the blessings we have now and a great deal more. But the seed of Abel will be ahead of the seed of Cain to all eternity. Let me consent today to mingle my seed with the [11] seed of Cain--it would bring the same curse upon me and it would upon any man. And if any man mingle his seed with the seed of Cain the only way he could get rid of it or have Salvation would be to come forward and have his head cut off and spill his blood upon the ground--it would also take the life of his children. It is said if a man kills another, that he takes that that he cannot give. If a man's head is cut off, his life is not destroyed, [n]or his spirit that lives--his tabernacle is destroyed. But I can make as good tabernacles as I can destroy--if you do not believe it, look at my children. Much blood was shed in ancient days both of man and beast. The firstlings and best of the flock was sacrificed on the altar and in some instances many men and almost whole nations were sacrificed or put to death because of their sins and wickedness. This was the only way they could be saved at all. If Jesus Christ had not had his blood shed, the blood that he received from his mother Mary, the world would not have been saved. There is not one of the seed of old Cain that is permitted to rule and reign over the seed of Abel and you nor I cannot help it. Those that do bear rule should do it in righteousness. I am opposed to the present system of slavery. The Negro should serve the seed of Abraham--but it should be done right--don't abuse the Negro and treat him cruel. It has been urged here that many of the Jews were black. Wherever the seed of Judah mingled with the seed of Cain they lost their Priesthood and all blessings. As an ensample--let the Presidency, Twelve, Seventies, High Priests, Bishops, and all the Authorities say now, "We will [12] all go and mingle with the seed of Cain and they may have all the privileges they want"--we lift our hands to heaven in support of this--that moment we lose the Priesthood and all blessings and we would not be redeemed until Cain was. I will never admit of it for a moment. Some may think I don't know as much as they do, but I know that I know more than they do! The Lord will watch us all the time. The Devil would like to rule part of the time, but I am determined he shall not rule at all, and Negros shall not rule us. I will not admit of the Devil ruling at all--I will not consent for the seed of Cain to vote for me or my brethren. If you want to know why we did not speak of it in the Constitution, it was because it was none of their business. Any man is a citizen, black, white or red, and if the Jews come here with a part of the Canaanite blood in them, they are citizens and shall have their rights, but not to vote for me or by brethren. Those persons from the Islands and foreign countries know nothing about governing the people. The Canaanite cannot have wisdom to do things as the white man has. We must guard against all evil--I am not going to let this people darn themselves as long as I can help it. (Wilford Woodruff's Journal, Signature Books, ltd. ed., 1983, 4:97-99; also in Teachings of Brigham Young, Collier, 3:48-50) * * * * * * * * * |
Priesthood: Blacks & Slavery (Hover)
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Slavery and Blacks Priesthood
controversial yes,
But maybe their is hope.
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I know that they cannot bear rule in the Priesthood, for the curse on them was to remain upon them until the residue of the posterity of Michael and his wife receive the blessings the seed of Cain would have received had they not been cursed, and hold the keys of the Priesthood until the times of the restitution shall come, and the curse be wiped off from the earth and from Michael's seed. Then Cain's seed will be had in remembrance and the time come when the curse should be wiped off. |
Regardless of the other things that Brigham said, it seems that he foresaw a time that the curse (a certain group not holding the Priesthood) would be "wiped off". I do not hold the Curse to be the color of ones skin but a restriction on the priesthood. The Color may have been at one time a separating factor, for the children of Israel. But if you notice the faithfulness of many of the Saints in Africa, then one can testify that the Curse (again not holding the priesthood) has been lifted and thank God that it has.
Post Date: 28th Aug, 2008 - 4:45am / Post ID: #
Priesthood: Blacks & Slavery Studies Doctrine Mormon
I am going to tick some folks off here. I will say that the blacks I have run across in the church deserve the priesthood and are very blessed. In fact a few have administered to family members when no one else would. They have been great friends. They have bright souls.
But them aside. Have any of you lived in a black neighborhood? I completely agree with Brigham young on this. I am glad the good ones have the priesthood now. I am sure that many will make the highest kingdom and maybe I won't.
They really need to address some issues in their own community. The only problem is they don't listen to their most wise.
Call me a Racist. My black fiends do all the time. Could be, and I don't care. I think it is just because I disagree with them that I am called "Racist". Instead of being so scared like all the "crackers" that are trying to be so PC. In fact they agree with a lot of the stuff. They think that most crackers are punks. Not me, but I tell them that I don't care what they think. And I don't.
They have some real problems and Jesse jackson, muslim leaders, and Obama are just making it worse.
Ready for some criticism, but really don't care.
The "you owe me" mentality wont get any of us to heaven.
Should Black's have the priesthood? I am glad that the ones that should have it have it.
I never have any discussion on the lds mormon blacks on this because I consider them the same. I just argue with the ghetto folks about this. 
Edited: Quasar on 28th Aug, 2008 - 4:50am
Post Date: 28th Aug, 2008 - 4:50am / Post ID: #
Slavery and Blacks Priesthood
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TOPIC: Priesthood: Blacks & Slavery