The History of the Negro Church Part 5

An important factor in the growth of the Negro Church was that the Negroes found the white churches of their choice less friendly and finally saw them withdrawn from the churches in the North to perpetuate slavery. In the South, the slaves and free Negroes had to accept whatever religious privileges were allowed them; but when the national bodies grew lukewarm on abolition, receded from the advanced position which they had taken in the defense of the Negro, and persistently compromised on the question to placate their southern adherents to maintain intact their national organizations, Negroes forgot the stigma attached to their radical religious bodies and united freely with their brethren who during the first years of their independence found it difficult to secure a following.

In 1808 the general conference of the Methodists provided that the annual conferences should form their own regulations relative to buying and selling slaves, thus making it possible for the body of preachers to act efficiently in one direction against slavery, even should the general conference choose wholly to refrain. This rule was abrogated in 1820, however, and the only important changes made thereafter with reference to the Negroes were some rules adopted in 1824, one of which provided that all preachers should prudently "enforce upon their members," the necessity of teaching their slaves to read the word of G.o.d, and to allow them time to attend upon the public wors.h.i.+p of G.o.d on our regular days of divine service. Another rule provided that Negro preachers and official members should have all the privileges which are usual to others in the district and quarterly conferences, where the usages of the country did not forbid it, and that the presiding elder might hold for them a separate district conference, when the number of Negro local preachers would justify it. The annual conferences might employ Negro preachers to travel and preach, where their services were judged necessary, provided that no one should be so employed without having been recommended according to the form of discipline.

The Presbyterians had tried to evade the Negro question but it was again brought up in view of the cruelty practiced in the traffic of slaves during the first decade of the nineteenth century. The General a.s.sembly was forced to take some action again in 1815. It then referred to its previous resolutions on the subject and expressed regret that slavery of Africans existed, hoping too that such measures might be taken as would secure religious education at least to the rising generation of slaves as a preparation for their emanc.i.p.ation at some time in the future. As to the transfer of slaves necessary in the economy of the slave States the General a.s.sembly regarded this as unavoidable; but it denounced the buying and selling of slaves by way of traffic and all undue cruelty among them as inconsistent with the spirit of the Gospel, recommending it to the presbyteries and sessions in their care to make use of all measures to prevent such shameful conduct. In 1818 there came before this General a.s.sembly a resolution to the effect that a person who should sell as a slave a member of the church, who should be at the time in good standing in the church and unwilling to be sold, acted inconsistently with the spirit of Christianity and ought to be debarred from the communion of the church.

After considerable discussion, the subject was submitted to a committee to prepare a report for the adoption of the General a.s.sembly, embracing the object of the above resolution and also expressing the opinion of the a.s.sembly as to slavery. This report, unanimously adopted, carried, among other things, a declaration that the voluntary enslaving of one portion of the human race by another is a gross violation of the most precious rights of human nature, utterly inconsistent with the law of G.o.d which requires us to love our neighbors as ourselves, and totally irreconcilable with the spirit and principles of the gospel of Christ, which enjoins that all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even unto them.[8]

In another part of this report, however, the a.s.sembly seemed to undo what it had done; for it exhorted others to forbear harsh censures, and uncharitable reflections on their brethren, who unhappily live among slaves whom they cannot immediately set free, but who, at the same time, are really using all their influence, and all their endeavors, to bring them into a state of freedom, as soon as a door for it can be safely opened. It also encouraged the members of the Society to patronize the American Colonization Society with a view to sending the Negroes to Africa and thus deliver themselves and their country from the calamity of slavery. The General a.s.sembly recommended the encouragement of religious instruction of the slaves in the principles of the Christian religion, granting them liberty to attend on the preaching of the gospel, when they have opportunity, by favoring the instruction of them in the Sabbath schools wherever those schools should be formed and by giving them all other proper advantages for acquiring the knowledge of their duty both to G.o.d and man. The General a.s.sembly further recommended that it was inc.u.mbent on all Christians to communicate religious instruction to those who are under their authority, so that the doing of this "in the case before us so far from operating as some have apprehended that it might, as an incitement to insurrection, would, on the contrary, operate as a most powerful means for the prevention of those evils."

In this straddling position these churches tried to discountenance as far as possible all cruelty of whatever kind in the treatment of slaves, especially the cruelty of separating husband and wife, parents and children, and that which consisted in selling slaves to those who would either themselves deprive these unhappy people of the blessings of the gospel or who would transfer them to places where the gospel was not proclaimed, or where it was forbidden to slaves to attend upon its instruction. During the thirties most of these churches were taking the position of evading the question, but the abolition members therein kept the problem before them. Postponement of the discussion thereafter became the order of the day. One decade later many took the position a.s.sumed by the Presbyterian Church in 1845 when, as a result of various memorials on slavery, the a.s.sembly, deploring the division of the church on slavery, pa.s.sed a resolution that the church could not legislate where Christ has not legislated, that as Christ and the Apostles admitted slaveholders as members of the church, they could not be expected to do otherwise. Some disclaimed, however, any desire to deny that slavery is an evil, or to countenance the idea that masters may regard their slaves as real property and not as human beings. They merely intended to say that since Christ and his Apostles did not make the holding of slaves a bar to communion, the church organizations as the court of Christ had no authority to do so. The apostles of Christ sought to ameliorate the condition of the slaves, not by denouncing and excommunicating their masters but by teaching both masters and slaves the glorious doctrines of the gospel and enjoining upon each a discharge of their relative duties. These sects rejoiced rather that the ministers and churches of the slaveholding States were awakening to a deeper sense of their obligations to extend to the slave population generally the means of grace, for many slaveholders not professedly religious favored this object. They deplored the agitation which tended to separate the northern from the southern portion of the church, "a result which every good citizen must deplore as tending to the disunion of our beloved country and which every enlightened Christian will oppose as bringing about a ruinous and unnecessary schism between brethren who maintain a common faith."

The schism, however, was impending; for the southern members of the churches boldly defended slavery as justified by the scriptures, while many northerners differed from them. Ministers and laymen wrote works setting forth these doctrines while pseudo-scientists and philosophers undertook to justify the enslavement of the Negroes on the ground of racial inferiority. Southerners who would not go to the extent of justifying the inst.i.tution on these untenable grounds merely deprecated it as an evil for which they were not responsible and of which they could not rid themselves. Richard Fuller, a southern Baptist of unusual influence in shaping the policy of that sect in his section, expressed this thought in the words: "I am willing to appear in any controversy which can even by implication place me in a false light and odious att.i.tude representing me as a eulogist and abettor of slavery, and not as simply the apologist of an inst.i.tution transmitted to us by former generations--the existence of which I lament--for the commencement of which I am not at all responsible--for the extinction of which I am willing to make greater sacrifices than any abolitionist has made or would make, if the cause of true humanity would be thus advanced."

The outbreaks soon followed, however, in spite of efforts to heal the breach. There came from the Alabama State Baptist Convention a memorial with respect to the discrimination of the Foreign Mission Board against slaveholders in making its appointments. The reply of the Board was conciliatory but was to the effect that a slaveholder could not be consistently appointed as a missionary for the reason that such action would involve an approval of slavery. This and other Baptist conventions thereafter severed their connection with the national body, and in 1845 organized the Southern Baptist Convention. That same year occurred the secession of the Southern Methodists. That denomination had for years struggled with this question and had undertaken to maintain the position that slavery is an evil to be deplored and that ministers and bishops at least should abstain therefrom. When, in 1845, the Methodists undertook to discipline one of its bishops, James O. Andrew, charging him with holding slaves, the southern delegates stood by him and withdrew to organize the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. In 1857, the Presbyterians who had all but compromised sufficiently to hold their national body intact gave an expression of opinion on the Fugitive Slave Law which so offended its southern members that they withdrew and formed the nucleus around which the Southern Presbyterian Church was established in 1861.

In spite of the reactionary tendencies of the white churches, however, no such thing as the independence of the Negro had ever been possible in the South and could not be so after the radical aspect which this movement a.s.sumed in the North. In slave States, the majority of Negroes became a decidedly neglected ma.s.s during the reaction, although many of them were nominally members of churches. When because of the insurrectionary movement led by certain blacks like Gabriel Prosser, Denmark Vesey and Nat Turner, it became unpopular to teach Negroes to read and the educated white persons were not willing to supply this lack of religious workers among the blacks, there was no longer hope for ordinary religious instruction. This reaction was unusually disastrous to the Negro preacher when it was noised abroad that Nat Turner was a minister. The rumor attached to Negro ministers throughout the South the stigma of using preaching as a means to incite their race to servile insurrection.

Some of the legislation enacted by the States after this great upheaval will indicate the extent to which this fear controlled the minds of the southern people. In 1832 Virginia pa.s.sed a law to silence Negro preachers, making it impossible for them thus to function except in compliance with very rigid regulations and in the presence of certain discreet white men. In 1833, Alabama made it unlawful for slaves or free Negroes to preach unless before five respectable slaveholders and when authorized by some neighboring religious society. Georgia enacted a law in 1834 providing that neither free Negroes nor slaves might preach or exhort an a.s.sembly of more than seven unless licensed by justices on the certificate of three ordained ministers. Other Southern States soon followed the example of these, pa.s.sing more drastic laws prohibiting the a.s.sembly of Negroes after the early hours of the night, and providing for the expulsion of all free Negroes from such commonwealths, so as to reduce the danger of mischief from the spread of information by this more enlightened cla.s.s.

Thus circ.u.mscribed, the Negroes in the South had to follow their masters in religious matters. They continued to join the Methodist and Baptist churches, but const.i.tuted a part of a mixed members.h.i.+p wors.h.i.+ping under the same roof. The masters had long since learned that coincidence of religious belief on the part of the slave and the owner was a necessity in the economy of the slaveholding States. No master would look with favor upon seeing his slave proselyted or influenced by a minister whom he would not tolerate as his own spiritual adviser. Later there was not much commingling of the two races in the same meetings. White ministers preached to the Negroes in their special meetings or provided some Negro exhorter of power to supply that need, but only when such Negro minister's character had been thoroughly investigated and approved in accordance with the law and public opinion. Where there were not so very many Negroes in the churches, they were segregated in the gallery or certain pews, which they entered by a side door, as provided in the Court of the Gentiles in the Temple of Jehovah; but if there were many Negroes and very few whites in these congregations, they usually provided separate buildings or used the same edifices at different hours. The argument in favor of this segregation was that G.o.d in making the races different intended that they should be kept separate and distinct.

Where there was allowed much liberty in seating, very often grave problems arose. Such was the case in Charleston, South Carolina, in the Bethel Church in 1833 on an occasion when Dr. Capers was to preach. As more whites came than could be seated and the Negroes refused to vacate their customary seats, a number of uncouth young white men forcibly ejected them therefrom. Because one of the preachers a few days thereafter sharply criticized this action of the uncouth element they became unusually indignant, registering a protest against such censure.

An effort was made to settle the matter by reconciliation, but when that failed, nine of the young men were expelled only to be followed by 150 others to form a new organization, which established connection with the Methodist Protestant Church.

This sort of segregation was common to all of the denominations alike.

The Presbytery of Charleston, finding the church in that city unusually crowded in 1850, built a structure for the wors.h.i.+p of the Negro members.h.i.+p, costing $7,700. The edifice was of the shape of a T to provide seats for the whites in the transepts. It had connected with it all of the facilities for religious instruction in the other churches with the exception that teaching was oral. The Episcopalians in that city, however, found it more difficult to carry out such a policy in relieving the congestion of the Negro pews in St. Michael's and St.

Phillip's. These communicants decided to build what was to be called the Calvary Church for the accommodation of the blacks who were then occupying temporary quarters in Temperance Hall. Because of certain radical action of the burial societies among the Negro communicants, however, the owner of Temperance Hall refused further to accommodate the Negroes and the Calvary Church was demolished while it was in the process of construction.

The Negroes seemed to have retained several separate places of wors.h.i.+p in the State of Virginia, as in the case of Georgia. Among the churches established for Negroes at a very early period was that of Williamsburg, Virginia, organized exclusively for Negroes in 1776 and admitted as such to the Dover Baptist a.s.sociation in 1791. Upon pet.i.tioning the state legislature in 1823, however, the Negroes were refused the permit to build a Baptist church in Richmond, although the one used by the whites was not sufficiently s.p.a.cious to permit their attendance. In 1841, however, when the Baptist church was finally compelled to build a new structure to accommodate its increasing members.h.i.+p, they turned over to the Negroes for their special place of wors.h.i.+p the old building in which they organized what is known as the first African Baptist Church under the pastorate of the Rev. Robert Ryland, a white man, who served during the same period as president of Richmond College. When this became unusually crowded the Ebenezer Baptist Church was organized by the overflow members.h.i.+p in 1855 and was controlled very much in the same way. There were flouris.h.i.+ng Negro Methodist and Baptist churches in other parts during the forties, fifties, and sixties, conducted very much on the order of the First African Baptist Church in Richmond, or like the Anthony Street Church in Mobile, Alabama, in charge of the Rev.

Keidor Hawthorne. In other centers in Virginia, however, the Negroes were proceeding almost independently. There was then a representative Baptist congregation in Portsmouth under the direction of the noted builder and organizer, E. G. Corpew. Rev. Mr. Morris, another pioneer in the work, was at this time leading forward the Court Street Baptist Church in Lynchburg. In 1837 and 1838 Sampson White was reported as a successful minister in charge of the Gillfield Baptist Church of Petersburg, which as early as 1803 undertook to erect its first structure. Sampson White then went to Norfolk for a short stay in this inviting field, and in 1839 came to Was.h.i.+ngton and organized the Nineteenth Street Baptist Church.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SAMPSON WHITE

A Baptist preacher in Virginia, the District of Columbia, and New York almost a century ago.]

In the District of Columbia, where, as in Maryland, the restrictions on Negroes were not so rigid as in some other parts of the South, the Negroes had numerous churches of the Baptist and Methodist faith, and under the leaders.h.i.+p of John F. Cooke established, in 1843, the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church.

Baltimore was no exception to this rule. As the slave and free members.h.i.+p freely mingled in that city they had, as early as 1835, ten congregations, and by 1847 thirteen, ten of which were Methodist. The work of the Baptists had been largely promoted by M. C. Clayton, the preacher of versatile genius, who founded the First African Church in that city in 1836, and by Noah Davis, a leader and organizer of much ability.

[Ill.u.s.tration: REV. M. C. CLAYTON

A Baptist preacher of power in Baltimore before the Civil War.]

This favorable condition, however, obtained in the South only in those communities where the authorities winked at the violation of the law by free Negroes and where slaves enjoyed unusual privileges because their masters were a law unto themselves. In 1828 the Alabama Baptist a.s.sociation conditionally purchased a slave named Caesar at the cost of $625 and sent him to preach the gospel and live among his people. He was then made the companion of the famous white evangelist, James McLemore, of much note in Alabama. Caesar was respected alike for piety and his ability as a preacher. Not infrequently he addressed audiences composed entirely of whites. Another slave of Alabama, Doc Phillips, was a Baptist preacher of a commanding influence among his people. The Tuskegee a.s.sociation of that State undertook to purchase him that he might be appointed a missionary, but he declined to be severed from his master, who allowed him whatever time he might desire for preaching. So was this true of George Bentley of Giles County, Tennessee, a slave of unusual note, having attained distinction as a preacher of power, well versed in polemic theology. Out of a debate on baptism lasting more than four days he emerged victor over a white minister in that county challenging him to a discussion of the principles of baptism. He numbered among his communicants the best white people of the community, who paid him a salary of more than $600. He, like Doc Phillips, refused to have his congregation purchase his freedom, as he did not care to be separated from his kind master.

Here and there in the South, however, there developed certain Negro preachers better known to fame. A striking example of this cla.s.s was Lott Cary, who was born a slave in Virginia. When quite young he was hired out and thereby came under the influences which caused him to be a man given to profane and intemperate habits, although his parents were of the higher cla.s.s of slaves. In 1807, however, he was awakened by hearing a sermon from the third chapter of John on the interview of Nicodemus with our Saviour, from the words: "Notwithstanding what I say unto you, you must be born again." So powerful was the preaching and so telling was the effect on the mind of this slave that he immediately secured a copy of the New Testament and almost miraculously learned to read by studying that chapter. Upon developing into a strong spiritual man, he was made superintendent of all the laborers in the tobacco warehouse in which he was working in Richmond. Not long thereafter he received permission to serve as an exhorter in the First African Baptist Church of that city, the members.h.i.+p of which, then being about 2,000, required the services of a number of a.s.sistant pastors.

[Ill.u.s.tration: REV. LOTT CARY

A missionary to Africa.]

Lott Cary reached a new stage in his development in the fall of 1813, when Luther Rice, who had just returned from the East, appeared in that city preaching rousing sermons urging the Baptists to enter upon and to support the work of missions in foreign fields. In November of that year the Richmond Foreign Missionary Society was organized and delegates were sent to Philadelphia the following spring to partic.i.p.ate in the organization of the Baptist Triennial Convention. As this new body had for one of its objects mission work in foreign fields, the national interest aroused therein excited also a deep interest among the Negro members of the churches in Richmond. Two years later, therefore, the Richmond African Baptist Missionary Society, with Lott Carey as the moving spirit, was formed with the sole object of sending the gospel into Africa. This society was composed of the Negro members of the First African Baptist Church and of other churches throughout the city. It held annual meetings and with their small donations acc.u.mulated as much as $700 during the first four years.

As no one volunteered to go abroad to extend this mission work, Lott Cary himself determined to go to Africa, accompanied by Collin Teague.

They were, therefore, duly appointed by the Board of the Baptist Triennial Convention as missionaries to Liberia. In 1821 Cary and Teague with many others sailed from Norfolk for the land of their fathers beyond the Atlantic. Before leaving Richmond, Cary and wife, Teague and wife with their son Hillary, who later became editor of the _Liberian Herald_, and Joseph Sanford and his wife, formed what is called the First Baptist Church of Monrovia. This congregation was later designated as the mother of the Providence Baptist a.s.sociation in Liberia.

Upon arriving in Liberia, Lott Cary addressed himself with much energy to the task of reconstruction and organization in this foreign field. He easily became a leader among the communicants of that denomination and preached for years among them as a man representative of the power of the gospel unto the salvation of the heathen. Wielding such influence in the religious field, he easily convinced others of the necessity for availing themselves of his services in another line. He was, therefore, made governor of one of the provinces of Liberia. After administering the affairs of this province a short period he fell a victim to the diseases which swept away so many others who gave their lives as a sacrifice in this foreign land.

His fate, too, was not unlike that of Harrison Ellis of Alabama. In that rapidly developing slaveholding commonwealth where men gave little attention to things spiritual, even for the whites themselves, Harrison Ellis rose to great eminence as a power in the church. Born a slave, he was, of course, denied the opportunities for mental development. He was, however, a man of such strong character and so efficient in his work as a blacksmith, a trade in which he excelled, that it was possible for him to secure privileges denied so many others of his race. He soon mastered the rudiments of education, and building upon this foundation, began to acquire knowledge of Latin. Having a deep impression as to the worth of Christianity and the influence of the gospel as a factor in the uplift of his people, he thought of preparing himself for the ministry.

The study of Latin then was to some extent neglected for a more thorough study of Greek with a view to reading the New Testament. Some attention was thereafter given to Hebrew to get a better grasp of the linguistic setting of the Old Testament. He thereafter took up the principles of theology.

A man of such unusual attainments in spite of the various difficulties with which he had to struggle in earning a livelihood and securing instruction, Ellis naturally impressed the people of his community.

Coming under the influence of the Presbyterians, he was encouraged by them to make an effort for the exercise of his gifts as a minister. As a man of such a well developed mind could not find in this country adequate opportunity for service in this field, he was urged to go to Liberia. The Presbyterian synod of Alabama, therefore, examined him with a view to testing his efficiency. In this examination he proved himself a good Latin and Hebrew scholar and showed still greater proficiency in Greek. His attainments in theology were highly satisfactory. Giving an account of the rise of this prodigy the _Eufala s.h.i.+eld_, an organ of that State, referred to him as a man "courteous in manners, polite in conversation and missionary in demeanor." Impressed with his usefulness, the Presbyterians of Alabama finally purchased him and his family, in 1847, at a cost of $2,500, that they might go to Liberia and work among their own people.

In Liberia, Harrison Ellis took up his post under very favorable auspices. He quickly impressed those with whom he came in contact, attracted to him a sufficient number of persons to const.i.tute a respectable following, easily held his own among other intelligent Negroes, and finally became one of the most influential men in the colony. Soon thereafter, however, like so many others, who in that land of their fathers gave their lives as a sacrifice for their many persecuted brethren in the western world, he finally proved inadequate to the demands of that climate and pa.s.sed away, admired by those who knew him and mourned by his coworkers and friends.

These few Negro ministers, however, could not reach the ma.s.ses of their race. In their undeveloped state the rural Negroes depended upon the crumbs that fell from the white ministers' tables. The religious experience of such Negroes, therefore, was more nominal than rational.

Many of them obtained their first religious impressions in some camp meeting during a special effort in behalf of the lost. These meetings were looked forward to with a great deal of antic.i.p.ation and persons, knowing of the good supposedly derived therefrom, came from afar and remained about the place, thus giving to such convocations the well-known name of camp meetings. As these a.s.semblages were social as well as religious and sometimes partook of a festive nature, the Negroes easily became attracted to this more liberal method of promoting the cause of Christ.

The Negroes in these meetings appealed especially to the white ministers because of their quick response to the appeal to come out of darkness into light. While an Episcopal clergyman with his ritual and prayer book had difficulty in interesting the Negroes, they flocked in large numbers to the spontaneous exercises of the Methodists and Baptists, who, being decidedly evangelical in their preaching, had a sort of hypnotizing effect upon the Negroes, causing them to be seized with certain emotional jerks and outward expressions of an inward movement of the spirit which made them lose control of themselves. The program of the day was a delivery of sermons at intervals, interspersed here and there by appeals to sinners to come forward to be prayed for at the anxious seat, while various members, having unusual influence over the unconverted and in touch with G.o.d, whispered in their ears the way to find salvation and life.

Among the Baptists, the soul-stirring reunion was known as a protracted meeting, which differed very little from that of the Methodist camp meeting. The preacher came forward, declaring the dawn of a new day and the shower of blessings that every one could receive. The burden of his message was that he had come to set forth those things which had been hitherto kept from the wise and prudent but lately revealed unto fools.

Seeing that they were made a special object of the philanthropy of these new workers, the Negroes became seized with hysteria because of this new boon; and the interest in the work pa.s.sing from one to another, spread almost like a contagion, moving communities to seek salvation. Persons pa.s.sing as sinners were made to feel that they were wretches in the sight of G.o.d and that direful punishments awaited them as the lot of the wicked. Their state was awful to behold, and their opportunities were swiftly pa.s.sing away. That moment was the accepted time; for their delay would mean d.a.m.nation. Persons fell helpless before the altar of the church and had to be carried out to be ministered unto, and when they emerged from their semi-conscious state they came forward singing the song of the redeemed who had been washed white in the blood of the Lamb.

Statistics show, however, that such a conversion of people who were given no opportunity for mental development amounted to very little in the edification of their souls. Not long after these exciting camp meetings and protracted efforts had pa.s.sed over many of these persons, who had been most vociferous in their praise of G.o.d for cleansing them of their many sins, readily fell thereafter by the wayside in engaging in what is known as pleasurable evils. Baptists and Methodists during this period insisted that dancing was an evil, but how could the plantation Negro resist the temptation when he heard the clapping of the hands and the tune of the banjo? It became fas.h.i.+onable, therefore, for a person to be converted several seasons, sometimes once every four or five consecutive summers before his feet could be completely taken out of the mire and the clay and placed upon the solid rock where the wind might blow and the storm might rise, but none should frighten them from the sh.o.r.e.

Because this wild religious excitement meant very little in the uplift of the slaves, there were throughout the South members of other than Methodist and Baptist churches who still adhered to the idea of the literary instruction of the blacks. Although there were soon laws on the statute books to the contrary in practically all of the Southern States, the wives and children of ministers taught their few slaves to read the Bible, and when this was unpopular or prohibited, they made use of the catechism in requiring the Negroes to memorize the principles of religion and to learn formal prayers. There were some masters who went to the extent of opening private schools for their slaves.

The more the Negroes were instructed by these rather intellectual denominations, however, the less they, as a group, seemed inclined to join their fortunes with those persons who were disposed to lay a foundation for an intensive spiritual development. When the Methodists and Baptists had had a chance to proselyte the Negroes, the Episcopalians and the like were almost relieved of the necessity for any effort among them. From the report of Alston's Parish in South Carolina, in which there were 13,000 slaves, for example, 3,200 were Methodists and 1,500 Baptists, while only 300 belonged to the Episcopal Church. In St. Peter's Parish of that State the Methodists had 1,335 of 6,600 in 1845. In the Parish of St. Helena the Baptists reported 2,132 communicants, the Methodists 314, and the Episcopalians only 52. The Episcopalians discounted the religious benefit derived by attendance upon the Methodist and Baptist evangelical meetings, feeling that because of their social and festive nature the Negroes lost more in worldly pleasures thereby than they gained in spiritual uplift. Many of them believed that it would have been much better for the slaves, had their masters kept them at home. They did not think very well of the influence of the Negro preachers, contending that they often did harm.

Where there was an improvement in Negro character many insisted that it was due to the religious and moral training given by their masters, and still more largely by their mistresses. For this reason it was strongly urged upon masters to manifest more interest in the morals of their bondmen, as it would not only make them better men spiritually but would increase their economic efficiency.

From the Negroes' point of view, however, religious experience did not result from instruction in books. Persons known to be illiterate had strange visions and prophesied with such success as to move mult.i.tudes.

Slaves prohibited from attending meetings violated the law and braved the dangerous network of the patrols enforcing the police regulations.

When converted they made no secret of their new experience and boldly shouted before their masters, praising the Lord. That they should, contrary to instructions, frequent the places of these emotional upheavals was considered crime enough, but to appear before their owners themselves, telling them about what the Lord had done for their souls and at the same time warning these aristocratic "Christians" to repent of their sins and flee from the wrath to come, was more than the ruling cla.s.s could endure. These Negro converts were cruelly told to hush up because they "were getting above themselves," and if they refused to obey, many of them were whipped until they stood in puddles of blood drawn by the lashes inflicted upon their bodies, while others, stricken down with heavy blows or subjected to mortal torture, went to their death rather than cease to bear witness for Jesus.

CHAPTER VII

RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION REVIVED

Because such religious instruction as the Negroes received after the enactment and the enforcement of the reactionary legislation of the South failed to secure to them that mental development necessary to understand the Christian doctrine and to connect it with the practical problems of life, northern friends of the Negroes forced a change in their religious instruction by exposing the unchristian policy of preventing a people from learning of G.o.d through the only source of revelation, the Bible. Abolitionists like William Jay and many northern ministers who did not consider themselves anti-slavery, fearlessly branded as sinners the so-called southern Christians who were thus preventing the coming of the kingdom of G.o.d. Southerners eloquently retorted on the defensive, of course, but believed in their hearts that the deplorable situation should be remedied. Much effort was made thereafter to render more thorough the oral instruction of slaves, but without very much success. Nearer the middle of the nineteenth century, however, there appeared among the clergy and sympathetic whites in the South some inclination to disregard the custom and laws of that section that the necessary foundation for the instruction of the Negroes in the Christian doctrine might be given.

In this work the evangelical denominations partic.i.p.ated more freely than others. From the Episcopal Church to which most of the richest slaveholders belonged, not very much help came because that church never considered slavery a sin and never made it a matter of discipline. That the bodies of the Negroes were made miserable in this world and that their souls might be d.a.m.ned were of little concern to some persons, who were not especially interested in monopolizing heaven even for poor whites. The gospel, moreover, as some saw it, had little to do with the settlement of differences between the races in this world, since it was rather concerned with the adjustment of affairs in the kingdom to come.

There were among the Episcopalians, however, some striking exceptions to this rule. Among these should be mentioned Bishop Polk of Louisiana. In 1854, he informed Frederick L. Olmsted, who was then traveling through that country, that he had confirmed thirty black persons near the station a.s.signed to the Legree estate, where the conditions set forth in _Uncle Tom's Cabin_, he contended, did not obtain. Bishop Polk owned 400 slaves himself but endeavored to bring them up in a religious manner, baptizing all of their children and teaching them the catechism. "All without exception," says Olmsted, "attend the church service, and the chanting is creditably performed by them in the opinion of their owner.

Ninety of them are communicants, marriages are celebrated according to the church ritual, and the state of morals is satisfactory. Twenty infants had been baptized by the Bishop just before his departure from home, and he had left his whole estate, his keys and the like, in the sole charge of one of his slaves, without the slightest apprehension of loss or damage." Referring further to the slaveholding of this minister of the gospel, Olmsted remarked that "in considering the position of this Christian prelate as a slaveholder, the English reader must bear in mind that by the laws of Louisiana emanc.i.p.ation had been rendered all but impracticable, and that if practicable it would not necessarily be in all cases an act of mercy or of justice."