"The Invention of Wings," by Sue Monk Kidd is a Pre-Civil war book written about two girls in the south. The story follows the lives of Sarah Grimke and Handful (Hetty) through the years of childhood all the way to adulthood. Sarah is a Southern girl growing up in South Carolina. She is an upper class white women living on her family plantation. Handful is an African American slave growing up on the Grimke family plantation. This book does a great job of showing the awful and horrible things that slavery can do to people. Not only to the slaves, but also the people and institutions involved with slavery. One institution that was enslaved in this book was the church, more importantly the St. Philip's Episcopal Church mentioned in the book. .
The Church had to justify that slavery was gods will and slaves should be obedient to their masters. Revered Hall quoted, "Slaves, be obedient to them that are your masters, with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart, as unto Christ."" The Reverend went on to say, "Slaves, I admonish you to be content with your lot, for it is the will of God! Your obedience is mandated by scripture. It is commanded by God through Moses. It is approved by Christ through his apostles, and upheld by the church. Take heed, then, and may God in his mercy grant that you will be humbled this day and return to your masters as faithful servants. ".
These teachings of St. Philip's Episcopal church show that this southern church is trying to justify that slavery is right and right in the eyes of God. The church tried to Christianize the slaves that were going to church, but they were not teaching the slaves to read the bible. The church was enslaved because it had to justify why slavery was legal and to do this they had to make up and even interpret the bible in a way that makes it seem fair and legal to keep slavery alive. .
The next person in the book that is enslaved in this era is one of the main characters Sarah Grimke.