Slavery—Will It Be Revived?

E. G. White Letter of Counsel to Elder Tait

The same day, November 20, Ellen White addressed a letter to Elder Tait, presenting her carefully prepared answer to the questions which had been placed before her, restating what she had said during the interview and presenting it as her statement of counsel. (See Exhibit B) This letter in its entirety was published in November, 1896 by Elder O. A. Olsen, president of the General Conference, in a pamphlet, Special Testimonies for Ministers and Workers, Series A, No. 6. SWR 7.3

James Edson White in turn, in 1898, published this in The Southern Work, 97-108 a collection of E. G. White counsels published as an inspiration and guide to those who would work in the South. SWR 7.4

This document reveals the concern entertained by Mrs. White that injudicious action on the part of Seventh-day Adventists could lead to a situation where “the colored people everywhere would be placed in a position of surveillance and under cruel treatment to the white people that would be no less than slavery.” (Exhibit B, page 1) SWR 7.5

She counseled: “If the colored people are in any way educated to work on Sunday, there will be unsparing, merciless oppression brought upon them” (Exhibit B, page 2). This is as close as she came to making mention of the revival of slavery in the document which she sent out as representing the counsel which should go into the hands of our workers who were meeting the situation. Please turn and read the entire contents of Exhibit B to gain the full perspective. SWR 7.6

Copies of the stenographic report of the November 20 interview (Exhibit A) undoubtedly passed into the hands of some of the members of the Union Conference Committee who were present, and a copy found its way into the material which Elder A. W. Spalding assembled for his personal study and the study of Brethren Paulson, Sutherland and Magan about 1915 as a group of counsels from Sister White which would have a bearing on the work in the South. SWR 7.7

This rather large grouping of materials, some published and some not published, has in recent months been mimeographed in an unauthorized edition. Its circulation gives rise to some of the questions now being received at the White Estate Office on the point of the revival of slavery. SWR 8.1