Fighting slavery like a saint: The story of St. Peter Claver, SJ

How is it possible for someone to condone the enslavement of other human beings? How could anyone justify or tolerate slavery?

While twenty-first century Westerners may find it unthinkable, many cultures throughout history have accepted slavery—that is, the practice of a person being owned by someone else and forced to work for that person—as an institution.

What else could an army in the ancient world do with the soldiers they had defeated? Enslaving them was more profitable than executing them and less dangerous than letting them go free. In cultures without bankruptcy laws, selling oneself or one’s children into slavery was often the only way to pay off debts. Tribes from Africa and the Americas sometimes kidnapped and enslaved members of other tribes to demonstrate their superior strength. Many cultures have also permitted slavery for a much more practical reason: profit.

Racial slavery in North America, for example, arose out of the colonists’ desire to make themselves more profitable to the British Crown. Some of the labor-intensive crops planted in the New World required a lot of cheap labor, and the cheaper the better. By the time of the Civil War, Southern states had become so financially dependent on enslaved labor that they were willing to fight and die rather than give it up.

Something similar had happened a few centuries earlier in the Spanish-controlled regions of the New World. When the Spaniards founded the city of Cartagena (in modern Colombia) in 1533, their profit motive was gold. They needed a lot of it to pay off their war debts. The conquistadores tried enslaving the native Americans to work in their gold mines, but the natives couldn’t handle the difficult conditions. That’s why they decided to import people from Africa to work as slaves in the mines.

Young Saint Peter Claver (1581-1654) had no idea that most of his life’s work would involve caring for African slaves. He was just the son of a Spanish farmer who was intelligent enough to study at the University of Barcelona and was accepted into the Jesuit order. Peter was somewhat timid by nature, and he was probably astonished when his community’s doorkeeper, of all people, prophesied that he would be sent to evangelize in South America. Of course, the future saint Alphonsus Rodriguez (d. 1617) was no ordinary doorkeeper. But when the prediction came true and Peter’s superiors decided to send him to Colombia, he obeyed.

Although a third or sometimes even half of the Africans died while traveling to South America, slave traders could still make a profit from the survivors. Driven by their desire for that profit, the slavers and the rest of society ignored the many condemnations of the slave trade made by popes, as well as by individual priests and bishops.

With frightening regularity, a thousand African slaves arrived in Cartagena each month. These men, women, and children had been chained together and cooped up in the ship’s hold, had endured a long sea voyage in stifling heat, and were living in the stench of blood, refuse, and other human beings. It is not surprising that some Africans immediately jumped into the sea when they got off the boat, drowning themselves to end their suffering. They had been separated from their families, were confused about their new surroundings, and spoke many different dialects, none of which were Spanish.

When Peter arrived in Colombia, he had not yet been ordained. He was first sent to a poor, under-staffed Jesuit community to complete his studies, and there he humbly accepted the lowest duties in the house. He even tried to convince his superiors to let him remain a religious brother, but they simply ordered him to accept ordination as a priest.

Peter was first assigned to assist the priest he was replacing, Father Alfonso de Sandoval. Sandoval admitted that he was completely overcome every time a slave ship arrived. The sights, sounds, and smells of hundreds of screaming, crying, disoriented, hungry, sick, and dying people were overwhelming. But not for Peter, whose heart filled with joy as he saw so many people in need of material, emotional, and spiritual aid. He immediately and famously declared himself a “slave” of these slaves.

During the decades that Peter cared for the Africans who arrived in Colombia, he learned African dialects so he could speak with them, and he found translators to communicate with those speaking dialects that he could not speak. He brought them food and gifts, sometimes taking a small boat to an arriving ship to greet the Africans even before they disembarked. As Peter distributed gifts to those he served, he told his assistants, “We must speak to them with our hands, before we try to speak to them with our lips.”¹ He cared for the sick, sought out those in prison, and comforted the dying. In brief, he tirelessly showed them the love of Jesus Christ by his presence and won their hearts through his kindness.

Of course, as a priest, he also evangelized them. With the help of his translators, whom he trained as catechists, he taught them about God and explained how much God loved them. Peter baptized babies and the dying, as well as those he was able to formally instruct about the Catholic faith. Through his preaching of the Good News, he offered the hope found in Jesus Christ to thousands of hopeless people—300,000 by his own count.

The slavers hated him, and local leaders caused him endless trouble and humiliations. Some wealthy women publicly whined about the indignity of having to attend Mass in the same church with their slaves. When these women complained about being forced to use the same confessional, Fr. Claver very humbly disarmed them by saying, “My confessional was never meant for ladies of quality. It is too narrow for their gowns. It is only suited to poor… women.”²

Peter Claver could not and did not end slavery in Colombia. From a political perspective, he did not even try. Abolition only occurred through a gradual process, involving decrees, rebellions, and an insurrection, officially ending in 1851, fourteen years before abolition occurred in the United States.

Unfortunately, slavery is still alive and well in our own time, although in different forms. A forced labor camp in a communist country is an obvious example. Slavery is common in many countries today in the Middle East. Human trafficking is a widespread form of slavery found even in Western countries. Human trafficking is a vile but not surprising result of the Sexual Revolution, which promotes and encourages the uncontrolled sexual desires of adults. While we can certainly hope that none of the 32,000 unaccompanied minors who have disappeared in our country between 2019 and 2023 are being trafficked for work or sex, it is more likely that at least some are.

What can we learn from Saint Peter Claver about how to fight slavery? Peter recognized that, as a priest, God was calling him to pour himself out to meet the spiritual and material needs of slaves. We may not be called to the same level of heroic sacrifice for this one issue, but we should at least be aware of the warning signs that indicate that a person is being trafficked, particularly if we regularly interact with children or teens. We can also seek out resources inside and outside the Church to be better educated and equipped about this form of modern slavery.

Peter’s most effective weapon in confronting slavery, however, does not require priestly ordination or access to the internet. It was his Christlike compassion. He fought the evils of slavery simply by treating every human being as a child of God and letting his Christlike example gradually work in the hearts and consciences of those around him.

After all, it is only when we allow our hearts to grow hardened that we prefer our own financial comfort over the rights of other human beings. Then we allow evils like slavery to become cultural institutions. We can win the battle to end slavery—and other cultural ills, such as abortion—by beginning all our efforts with the compassion of Jesus Christ, just like Saint Peter Claver.

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