Battle for the Bible: the impasse over slavery: while abolitionists appealed to the spirit of the Bible, proslavery scholars could cite chapter and verse.(slavery in the view of Bible)

IN OCTOBER 1845, two able theologians debated the Bible's view of slavery in a public event in Cincinnati that went on for eight hours a day through four long days. Jonathan Blanchard spoke for the abolitionist position, Nathan L. Rice for the position that while the Bible pointed toward the eventual, voluntary elimination of slavery, it nowhere called slavery evil as such.

While Rice methodically tied Blanchard in knots over how to interpret the proslavery implications of specific texts, Blanchard returned repeatedly to "the broad principle of common equity and common…