Forret, Jeff.

"Slaves, Sex and Sin: Adultery, Forced Seperation and Baptist Church Discipline
in Middle Georgia." Slavery & Abolition 33, no. 3 (September 2012): 337-358.

In his article Slaves, Sex and Sin: Adultery, Forced Separation and Baptist Church

Discipline in Middle Georgia, Jeff Forret, an associate professor in the history

department at Lamar university, provides us an unbiased look at slave life in Middle

Georgia Baptist churches during the antebellum period. The author takes a specific

interest in recorded adultery committed by slaves in the church. He seeks to find out

why there is a drastic difference between recorded adultery committed by slave church

members versus white church members. The information yielded from his research

would be beneficial to someone with slave ancestors looking to further understand

slave life in Middle Georgia. The research would also be insightful to anyone interested

in pre-civil war church history in regards to slavery. Pastors could also use the

information to see how their predecessors would bend and manipulate teachings to fit

popular culture.

Foremost, the author found there was a pretty big difference between recorded

adultery with enslaved churchgoers versus free, white churchgoers. Now the difference

was not necessarily do to bias towards white church members, or increased strictness

on slaves. The author found that white people were twice as likely to be punished for

non-sexual sins, while adultery charges against blacks typically outnumbered those

against whites. Therefore racial bias would not prove an accurate reason for the
imbalance of recorded adultery in slaves versus white people. The author researches

other reasons that may cause this split.

It is uncertain who accused the enslaved in many cases. Many times the accuser

would be anonymous, though there are times when both master and fellow slaves are

reported as the accuser. Now there are many reasons a slave or master would bring

adultery charges against a slave. Maybe a certain slave was causing unrest on the

plantation so the slave owner would bring an adultery charge before the church as a

form of punishment. A slave could also bring a charge against another slave say if there

were competition between the two, maybe for a woman’s affection or a master’s favor.

Although it is assumed most cases are brought forth simply for religious reasons–

justice for acts committed. Now assuming most reported cases of adultery between

slaves are true, certainly there must be a reason for the increase in adultery.

The author assumes the most probably reason for adultery for slaves during this

period was the problem of marriage and remarriage. Slaves were often forced to marry

a slave not of their choosing. Which may have resulted in slaves sleeping with actual

lovers instead of their prescribed husbands and wives. Also, it is considered adulterous

to sleep or marry another person without permission from the church while a person’s

spouse is still living. This proved to be an issue for slave because of they were constantly

being sold and removed from their spouses. Slaves also were not allowed to split up

with their spouse to their own will because they were property of their masters.
Without the option to divorce without consent of their masters and the church it made

it difficult for slaves to remain “faithful” in the eyes of the church.

In conclusion, the author finds slaves did not have more adulterous charges

against them because of hyper sexuality. Nor were there more reported adultery

charges against blacks because of racial bias. The charges are in part due to the slave

trade and he consistent removal and destruction of slave households. Slaves were

constantly being traded away from their families or forced to migrate with their slave

owners. These conditions made it very difficult to hold normal marriages in the eyes of

the church. Also, with few freedoms, slaves were forced into relationships they did not

want part in. It could be said that slaves committed adultery more do to the conditions

slaveholders put them in and the limitations the church put around overcoming these

situations.