The Cross and the Chains

They told Africans the cross meant love. But for millions, it arrived wrapped

in chains. Long before ships crowded the Atlantic, the Catholic Church was already shaping

the moral cover for slavery. In the 1400s, papal decrees gave European kings permission

to invade Africa, seize land, and enslave its people—as long as it was done in the

name of spreading Christianity. This wasn’t rumor. It was written. Blessed.

Authorized. African men, women, and children were captured,

baptized, renamed, and shipped across oceans. Priests prayed over

slave ships. Crosses hung on decks where bodies were stacked below. Enslavers were told