"Yes, in a wise, prudent, and becoming manner. Perhaps we can do something for the general good of the churches and the benefit of the slaves. . . but it is my opinion that undertaking anything of this kind under the idea of leading to emancipation or representing the holding of Slaves to be a Sin, would destroy the influence of the Association in the community at large." --Rev. Dr. Richard Furman, in response to the question: “Should our Association take slavery and the treatment of slaves into consideration?”
Richard Furman, a Baptist leader from Charleston, S.C., and the first president of the South Carolina State Baptist Convention, was an influential voice in justifying slavery on moral and biblical grounds for Baptists and others throughout South Carolina. Furman University is named in his honor, and he is the father of James Clement Furman, secessionist and Furman's first president.
In Richard Furman's most influential statement on slavery, his t1823 treatise Exposition, he presented a public letter to the Governor of South Carolina on behalf of the South Carolina Baptist Convention. Furman's Exposition offers a scriptural defense of slavery while also making an earnest plea to protect his Christian mission to the slaves....
The central points of the “Exposition” include: