LIFT Conference 2026 – Talk 1 – God The Redeemer

Slavery, everyone's favorite topic of conversation.

It is generally considered repulsive and abhorrent.

And when we think of slavery, I imagine that you probably think of the horrific transatlantic slave trade.

Uh, over a period of about 250 years, 10 to 15 million Africans were taken as slaves to serve on sugar and tobacco plantations in the Americas.

Uh, it was part of a trade that brought goods from Europe to be exchanged for slaves in Africa who were then sold in America to then bring sugar and coffee into Europe.

Uh, many of these Africans who were taken as slaves were captured from inland villages.

They were then marched to the ports with about 15% dying along the way.

Uh, they were then packed cruelly into boats, hundreds upon hundreds in inhumane conditions.

Uh, some couldn't even sit upright.

Uh, apparently on some of the boats there wasn't enough oxygen to even light a candle below decks.

Uh, maybe another 20% died on the journey.

David Livingstone was a Scottish missionary doctor in Africa, where he witnessed some of the evil of the slave trade firsthand.

And this is one of the ways he describes it from his personal diary.

He says, "When endeavoring to give some account of the slave trade of East Africa, it was necessary to keep far within the truth in order that not to be thought guilty of exaggeration.

But in sober seriousness, the subject does not admit of exaggeration.

To overdraw its evils is a simple impossibility.

The sights I have seen, though common incidents of the traffic, are so nauseous that I always strive to drive them from memory." And the enslavement in Africa was just the tip of the iceberg among all the evils of this slave trade.

So when this is our primary association when we think and hear about slavery, it is right that we feel horrified and repulsed.