Whitefield was a plantation owner and slaveholder and viewed the work of slaves as essential for funding his orphanage's operations.[29][30] John Wesley denounced slavery as "the sum of all villainies" and detailed its abuses.[31][32] However, defenses of slavery were common among 18th-century Protestants, especially missionaries who used the institution to emphasize God's providence.[33] Whitefield was at first conflicted about slaves. He believed that they were human and was angered that they were treated as "subordinate creatures".[34] Nevertheless, Whitefield and his friend James Habersham played an important role in the reintroduction of slavery to Georgia.[35] Slavery had been outlawed in the young colony of Georgia in 1735. In 1747, Whitefield attributed the financial woes of his Bethesda Orphanage to Georgia's prohibition of black people in the colony.[33] He argued that "the constitution of that colony [Georgia] is very bad, and it is impossible for the inhabitants to subsist" while blacks were banned.[29]
Between 1748 and 1750, Whitefield campaigned for the legalisation of African-American emigration into the colony because the trustees of Georgia had banned slavery. Whitefield argued that the colony would never be prosperous unless slaves were allowed to farm the land.[36] Whitefield wanted slavery legalized for the prosperity of the colony as well as for the financial viability of the Bethesda Orphanage. "Had Negroes been allowed" to live in Georgia, he said, "I should now have had a sufficiency to support a great many orphans without expending above half the sum that has been laid out."[29] Whitefield's push for the legalization of slave emigration in to Georgia "cannot be explained solely on the basics of economics". It was also his hope for their adoption and for their eternal salvation.[37]
Black slaves were permitted to live in Georgia in 1751.[36] Whitefield saw the "legalization of (black residency) as part personal victory and part divine will".[38] Whitefield argued a scriptural justification for black residency as slaves. He increased the number of the black children at his orphanage, using his preaching to raise money to house them. Whitefield became "perhaps the most energetic, and conspicuous, evangelical defender and practitioner of the rights of black people".[4] By propagating such "a theological defense for" black residency, Whitefield helped slaveholders prosper.[37] Upon his death, Whitefield left everything in the orphanage to the Countess of Huntingdon. This included 4,000 acres of land and 49 black slaves.[4]
Campaign against cruel treatment of slaves
In 1740, during his second visit to America, Whitefield published "an open letter to the planters of South Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland" chastising them for their cruelty to their slaves. He wrote, "I think God has a Quarrel with you for your Abuse of and Cruelty to the poor Negroes."[39] Furthermore, Whitefield wrote: "Your dogs are caressed and fondled at your tables; but your slaves who are frequently styled dogs or beasts, have not an equal privilege."[29] However, Whitefield "stopped short of rendering a moral judgment on slavery itself as an institution".[37]
Whitefield is remembered as one of the first to preach to slaves.[30] Some have claimed that the Bethesda Orphanage "set an example of humane treatment" of black people.[40] Phillis Wheatley (1753–1784), who was a slave, wrote a poem "On the Death of the Rev. Mr. George Whitefield" in 1770. The first line calls Whitefield a "happy saint".[41]
