Did Jonathan Edwards own slaves?
The founder of Evangelicalism had some dirty secrets
Published in
8 min readApr 23, 2022
In 1997, a historian at Yale University published a startling paper. In the archives of Jonathan Edwards, the pastor often called the ‘father’ of Evangelical Christianity, he’d found a letter defending slavery.
Kenneth P. Minkema’s paper, “Jonathan Edwards on Slavery and the Slave Trade,” revealed a secret the religion had kept for centuries—and one they’re not too eager to discuss.
Jonathan Edwards lived from 1703 to 1758.
His famous sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” set the tone for the faith going forward. His fiery preaching stimulated the ‘Great Awakening’ that rescued conservative Christianity in America.
He’s been a personal inspiration to many Evangelicals pastors, and has been discussed often by modern church leaders like John Piper, as in Piper’s 2006 book God’s Passion for His Glory: Living the Vision of Jonathan Edwards.
I check a shelf full of biographies of Edwards. There is nothing about his slave-owning, his views on race, or even about slavery at all.
