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Taj Taher
LaPorte
Bible as Lit
24 February 2016
Hardened Hearts throughout History
For the people entrenched in the American slave system of the 18th and 19th century,
Exodus was an immense source of hope and inspiration; the similarity of their plight to the
Israelites and Gods deliverance of those he observed oppressed provided American slaves with
optimism for their salvation (Thomas 3). In equating themselves to the Israelite protagonists,
their owners would by default be equitable to the Egyptian antagonists. However, this is no
happy accident but an avenue for powerful criticism, which William and Ellen Craft demonstrate
in Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom when they write the constitution of the Republic has
always guaranteed the slaveholders the right to come into any of the so-called free States, and
take their fugitives back to southern Egypt, (Craft and Craft 43). To truly understand how the
Crafts allusion functions as such a potent condemnation and insult merits a deeper exploration
of the characterization of Egypt in Exodus. Not merely antagonists, the text is devoted to
detailing the Egyptians oppressive practices and staunch opposition to mercy to depict them as
inhumane and malicious. As such, their destruction at the narrative climax appears justified, and
that it comes at the hands of God further stresses their worthlessness.
That the Egyptians own slaves in itself is not enough to villainize them (a number of
Biblical texts feature Gods people engaging in slavery). The manner in which that enslavement
is conducted, however, does. The slavers are described as being ruthless in imposing tasksand
made their [the Israelites] lives bitter with hard serviceThey were ruthless in all the tasks that
they imposed on them, (Ex 1.13-4). The repetition of ruthless underscores the predominance
of the trait in the Egyptians. The fact it is used to describe their character rather than their actions
suggests they intrinsically lack human feeling. Similarly, by not describing the bitterness of the

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Israelites lives as a side-effect of their slavery but instead a premeditated design of the
Egyptians, the text suggests that these oppressors take some sadistic pleasure in their slaves
pain. The readers reaction is meant to be repugnance, an ill-feeling transferred to American
slave-owners by the Crafts through their allusion. In particular for those Southerners raised to
believe they were Gods children, to have this repugnance conferred upon them would be
poignant and provoke self-reflection (or adamant denial) given the incontrovertible parallelism
of their practices to the Egyptians.
The repugnance the Crafts imbue American slave-owners with is made concrete when the
text makes its previous implication of Egypts sadistic qualities explicit by describing their acts
of sadism. This is evidenced when Pharaoh in reaction to Mosess initial plea for liberation
decrees You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricksbut you shall require of
them the same quantity of bricksthe Israeliteswere beaten, and were asked Why did you
not finish the required quantity of bricks, (Ex 5.7-14). It certainly seems like Pharaoh assigns
the task knowing the Israelites will fail, an excuse to execute violence against them. Violence can
be rationalized when deemed necessary for punishing a wrong, but this violence is wholly
unjustified in that respect. Given he indicts them for being lazy but gives them a task they cannot
complete, it becomes apparent Pharaohs desire does not lie in economy, but in self-gratification
and revelry in his slaves pain. Pharaoh and Egypt thus appear to be pure evil, which would cause
no little sense of discomfort for the Southerners William and Ellen Craft insinuate to participate
in similar practices.
The Crafts allusion affronts in full force, however, when Exodus expands the Egyptians
barbarity from the violence administered to enforce slavery to the comparably higher violence of
genocide. When forced labor alone cannot quell the spread of the Israelites, Pharaoh commands
Every boy that is born to the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every girl

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live, (Ex 1.22). The specification of tossing infants into the river may be a narrative device to
allow Mosess survival, but it also entails more suffering on the part of the infant. Murdering
babies is barbaric enough, but ordaining the children drown indicates cruelty without conscience.
One might argue that allowing the females to live shows some degree of humanity in the
Egyptians. However, slavery is an institution of many forms of violence; given the nefarious
light in which the text portrays Egyptians, one could also argue the Hebrew girls are spared for
sensual purposes. While this may not be stated in the text outright, such practices would not be
uncommon for the time. Indeed, such practices would not be uncommon even to those American
slaves hearing Exodus hundreds of years later, making the connection between the American
slave owners and the Egyptians all the stronger. The extent to which Exodus defines the
Egyptians as absolutely barbaric and inhuman through their indifferent infanticide charges the
Crafts criticism of American slave owners with a visceral revulsion.
This discomfort of being identified with the Egyptians would have been deepened all the
more since the Egyptians are never moved to mercy. Human beings have proven their capability
of animalistic violence time and time again, but mercy or the contemplation of mercy at the
very least is a distinguishing trait of humanity belaying an emotive conscience. The text makes
evident the Egyptians are devoid of such humanity, especially in Pharaohs response to the
Israelites when they wail Look how your servants are beaten! You are unjust to your own
people. He said, You are lazy, lazyGo now, and workyou shall still deliver the same
number of bricks, (Ex 5.16-7). The Israelites invocation for Pharaoh to heed their suffering
makes it seem like Pharaoh may have been unaware of it. As previously mentioned, however,
Pharaoh designed it himself. Thus, suggesting the Israelites are responsible for their suffering
because of their laziness instead of taking direct responsibility for his decrees makes it appear
like Pharaoh is toying with the Israelites. He seems to be making mirth of their confusion and

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pain. Had his denial of mercy been predicated by an objective indifference to their plight, the
sense of his disjunction from humanity would still be present; however, far from being unfeeling,
the pleasure Pharaoh derives from this denial of mercy and that his actions were planned to
produce said pleasure distinguishes him as not deficient in humanity but aberrant, abominable, or
something distinctly not-human altogether elevating his immorality from being unwholesome
to frightening.
The extent of this inhumanity is unveiled when Pharaoh denies mercy to his own
subjects. Even after witnessing the suffering of Egypt through famine and natural disasters and
the death of his own son, all because of his insistence upon not letting the Israelites go,
nonetheless the text again describes When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled,
the minds of Pharaoh and his officials were changed toward the people, and they said, What
have we done, letting Israel leave our service?The Lord hardened the heart of Pharoah king of
Egypt and he pursued the Israelites, (Ex 14.5-8). Vengeance is not the motivating factor for
Pharaohs pursuit of the Israelites; if it were, it would imply an emotional capacity for love
towards his people that would humanize him. As it stands, the Israelites escape is an issue of
pride and vanity for Pharoah and his men, which makes them not only appear simply stupid but
in a sense justifies their imminent doom. For the reader, the purge of such people who could be
equally indifferent to the suffering of humans both internal and external to their group would be
cathartic.
This sense of catharsis touches upon a fundamental element of Exodus, the critical
component which also gives the Crafts allusion its most power as a slight against American
slave-owners. The narrative only functions as an inspirational tale of Gods deliverance of his
people when Egypt is rendered abominable to God himself. In the passage mentioned in the
previous paragraph and repeated throughout the narrative is the phrase the Lord hardened the

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heart of Pharaoh, and it is clear when God describes Mosess task to him that Egypts doom has
been established by God beforehand (Ex 3.19). Far from absolving the Egyptians of their brutal
practices because God has technically rendered them agentless in their own actions, this divine
intervention condemns them all the more. When the underlying assumption of the text is that
God is the ultimate protagonist and hero, the Egyptians become all the more morally
reprehensible because God has marked them as villains, making it seem like they are naturally
evil. The Crafts connection of American slave-owners to Egyptians thus becomes truly powerful
since these Christian slave-owners would be implicated as being just as antithetical to God as the
Egyptians. As unflattering as being called inhuman because of the parallel practices of brutal
slavery detailed in Exodus would be, the absolute immorality of American slave-owners
suggested by the Crafts arises from being likened to those villainous in the eyes of the one
American slavers revered the most: the Lord.
The inspiration and sense of triumph the Israelites escape from Egypt in Exodus has
kindled throughout centuries owes its potency and persistence to the texts striking portrayal of
the Egyptian people as a force of malice. Accomplishing this by highlighting their inhumanity in
the brutal injustices of slavery and their lack of mercy, their divine obliteration at the climax
creates just as much cause for celebration as the Israelites victory and further entrenches the
notion of their villainy. For those residents of the region William and Ellen Craft coin Southern
Egypt, even a cursory understanding of Exodus would leave them bitter upon reading the
admonishing association. While the Crafts and their brethren never enjoyed the same level of
retribution as the Israelites in the form of Plagues and Passovers, one hopes their ability to
repurpose the book of their purported civilizers to reveal their barbarity provided at least some
small sense of satisfaction.

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Works Cited
Craft, William, and Ellen Craft. Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom or, The Escape of
William and Ellen Craft from Slavery. 1860. New York: Dover Publications Inc., 2014.
Print.
The New Oxford Annotated Bible. 4th ed. Ed. Michael D. Coogan. New York: Oxford University
Press, 2010. Print.
Rhondda Robinson Thomas. Claiming Exodus: A Cultural History of Afro-Atlantic Identity,
1774-1903. Waco: Baylor University Press, 2012. Project MUSE. Web. 17 Feb. 2016