Religion played an integral role in the attitude of whites towards slavery in the American South. It also played a role in at least some of the slave rebellions that took place during this era.

In the 19th century, Christian clergymen in the South began to defend slavery as an institution ordained by God and justified in the Bible. They pointed out that Abraham kept slaves, the Mosaic Law of the Old Testament took slavery for granted, and even the apostle Paul mentions returning a runaway slave to his master. In the minds of southern slave owners, this showed a God-created Christian hierarchy in which slaves were obligated to obey their benevolent white masters. To reinforce this principle, slave owners used Christianity as a form of social control, stressing obedience as a spiritual principle.

Many slaves, though, used Christian themes of suffering and redemption to secretly make plans for resistance and escape. They found the story of Moses, who led his people to freedom, inspirational. For instance, Denmark Vesey was a former slave who purchased his freedom in 1800. Later, he preached to plantation slaves that they would be freed just as the Israelites had been freed in the Bible. He stockpiled arms and planned a rebellion that would involve killing the slave masters, liberating the city of Charleston, and then escaping to Haiti. However, a few slaves told the authorities of the plot. Vesey and about 35 others were charged with conspiracy, tried, and then hanged.

The most famous slave rebellion in history had religious roots. Nat Turner was a slave and preacher who claimed to have mystical visions and voices that told him God had chosen him to lead the slaves out of bondage. Turner murdered his master and his family and, along with over 75 other slaves, roamed the countryside and killed 51 white people. He managed to evade capture for about six weeks until he was finally apprehended and then hanged.

This is a great question. One of the most striking features of slavery in America is that both masters and slaves loved the Bible. In other words, they read Paul and words of Jesus just the same and they all pledged their allegiance to the God of the Bible.

At this point you might ask how all of this could take place. The answer is that people have a tendency to read literature (the Bible included) in a very selective way. 

So, slaves read the Bible, for example, through the paradigm of the Exodus. God would deliver his people from slavery and overthrow the oppressors. This kind of reading can produce a revolutionary spirit and at times it did. So, religion could be the basis of revolt and give strength to endure. 

For the masters, they could always point to passages in the Bible where there were masters and slaves as a part of society. Orlando Patterson, a great professor at Harvard University calls this the Pauline paradox. I will add a link to his main point.