What “Of One Blood” Really Means for Our Shared History
When people look back at the tragedy of the transatlantic slave trade, it can be hard to truly understand how something so huge and so cruel happened. One way to make sense of it is to consider what the Bible says in Acts 17:26: that God “made from one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth.” In plain terms, this verse is saying that everyone on earth comes from the same original family—no matter where we come from, what we look like, or what languages we speak, we all share the same roots.
Think about it this way: The Bible teaches that humanity started with just one person, Adam, and from there, all people—regardless of race or background—are connected. There’s no real, deep-down difference in our “blood” or worth. This means that no one group has the right to say they are better than another or to treat others as less than human. In fact, the reason, according to some Jewish teachings, that only one person was created at first was so that no family or nation could claim to be more important than another.
Now, when we look at the start of the transatlantic slave trade, we see something very different from what Acts 17:26 describes. Starting in the late 1400s, European traders began capturing and buying Africans to work as enslaved laborers in places like the Caribbean and the Americas. Over the next few centuries, millions of people were taken from their homes, split from their families, and forced to work in brutal conditions—all because some people saw them as “less than” others.
By the 1600s and 1700s, the trade in enslaved Africans had grown into a massive business. The Portuguese, Dutch, British, Spanish, and French all took part, buying and selling human beings as if they were property. This wasn’t just a matter of individuals making bad choices; it was whole nations and companies, even royalty, treating people as commodities. For example, Britain had a contract to supply the Spanish colonies with nearly 5,000 enslaved Africans every year for 30 years, and the British queen even held stock in the company profiting from this trade.
The effects were devastating. Entire regions in Africa lost generations of young men and women. Communities were torn apart, and the fear of being captured made it hard for societies to grow and thrive. Meanwhile, in the Americas, enslaved people suffered unspeakable abuses and had virtually no rights, all while building the wealth of their captors.
The message in Acts 17:26 stands in direct contrast to the thinking that made the slave trade possible. It reminds us that we are all one family, with no one group above another. The idea that some people could be bought and sold, simply because of their background or skin color, goes against the basic truth that we all come from the same “blood”—that is, we all share the same humanity.
So, what does this mean for us today? By understanding that the evils of slavery happened because people ignored our shared humanity, we are challenged to see every person as equally valuable. Acts 17:26 is not just a religious idea; it’s a call to treat everyone with dignity, respect, and justice. The story of the transatlantic slave trade is a powerful reminder of what happens when people forget that we are—literally and spiritually—one human family.
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