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 God 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 God. 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 participated 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 damned 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 assigned 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 emancipation 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."
Taking up again the religious instruction of the slaves, Olmsted found
"that there were widely different practices in that State." He observed
that there were some other slaveholders who, like Bishop Polk,
encouraged and even obliged their slaves to engage in religious
exercises. Yet among the wealthier slave owners, and especially in that
section of the country where the blacks outnumbered the whites, there
was generally a visible and often an avowed distrust of the effect of
religious exercises upon slaves and even the preaching of white
clergymen to them was permitted by many only with reluctance. The
prevailing impression among northern people with regard to the important
influence of slavery in promoting the spread of religion among the
blacks, he contended, was erroneous. Northern clergymen supposed as a
general thing that there was a regular daily instruction of the slaves
in the truths of Christianity. "So far as this is from being the case,"
said Olmsted, "although family prayers were held in several of the fifty
planters' houses in Mississippi and Alabama in which I passed a night, I
never in a single instance saw a field hand attend or join in the
devotions of the family."
There should be mentioned also in this connection the services of Bishop
Meade of the Protestant Episcopal Church of Virginia. Early in his
career he addressed himself to the neglected condition of the Negroes,
preaching rousing sermons, telling them their duty toward their own
group. He was interested in the colonization movement and hoped to
secure the release of certain recaptured Africans to encourage the
manumission of others who might be given a chance to establish a nation
for their race in Africa. Although thereafter he did not emphasize the
emancipation of the slaves very much because of the reactionary
influences at work in the country, he did advocate the thorough
education of those slaves who were to be colonized abroad. As an impetus
in this direction he republished the sermons of the Rev. Thomas Bacon,
who answered every argument presented against the religious instruction
of Negroes. He especially besought the ministers of the gospel to take
into serious consideration a matter of which "they also will have to
give an account." "Did not Christ," said he, "die for these poor
creatures as well as for any others, and has he not given charge to the
minister to gather his sheep into the fold?"
The Presbyterians, much more liberal in their attitude toward the blacks
than the Episcopalians, manifested an unfailing interest in the
condition of these people far down. Although the church as a national
body receded from its early position of attacking slavery and thereafter
compromised with the institution, there was among these people in the
various parts of the country a continuous effort to promote the
religious instruction of the Negroes. Early manifesting interest in the
preparation of Negroes for colonization in Africa, the Presbyterians
planned to bring out of the South Negroes liberated for expatriation
that they might be first trained in a school for this purpose
established at Parsippanny, New Jersey. As this failed, this church
finally established for this purpose, in 1854, Ashmun Institute, now
Lincoln University.
In the very heart of the South, however, the Presbyterians did not fail
to aid the instruction of Negroes wherever public opinion permitted it,
although they had to confine themselves largely to verbal instruction.
In the mountains of Virginia, North Carolina, and Kentucky, where the
Scotch-Irish element dominated, there was no diminution of ardor in the
religious instruction of the Negroes. Expressions of interest came also
from the Presbyterian synods of Georgia and Alabama, while those in the
mountains openly advocated literary instruction as a preparation for
thorough indoctrination. In the States of Maryland, Tennessee, and
Kentucky, they were not handicapped by laws prohibiting the education of
the Negroes. They, therefore, spoke out more boldly for the
establishment of schools, and especially Sabbath schools, which paid as
much attention to the teaching of reading as it did to the actual
instruction in the Bible.
Among the Presbyterians in the South the most efficient worker was the
Rev. C. C. Jones, who toiled among the Negroes in Georgia. Taking the
situation as it was rather than complaining because it was not
different, Jones addressed himself to the task of trying to convince the
slave owners as to the advisability of religious instruction. He
believed that if the circumstances of the Negroes were changed, they
would equal if not excel the rest of the human family in religion,
intellect, purity of morals and ardor of piety. He feared that white men
would cherish a contempt for the Negroes which would cause them to sink
lower in the scale of morality and religion. He, therefore, advocated
the attendance of both races upon the same services that they might
learn by contact from their masters. The independent church organization
for which the Negroes contended, he believed, would rather give them an
opportunity to deteriorate.
By a logical array of facts, moreover, he tried to prove that Negroes
who had been instructed in the doctrines of Christianity had less
tendency toward servile insurrection than those who had been left in
heathenism. Even the Southampton insurrection started by Nat Turner, he
believed, was due to the fact that, being unable to understand the real
scheme of things, he had misguided the slaves by his false prophecy.
Those Negroes who had been well instructed in the principles of
Christianity had never been found guilty of any such crimes.
In this effort Jones had a very difficult task; for the tendency during
that day was rather toward segregation in the church. Most southern men
had no idea of elevating the Negroes to the status of white men, not
even in matters of religion. The whites believed that the domestic
element of the system of slavery itself afforded adequate means for
their improvement and the natural safe and effective means of their
elevation. In other words, their instruction must be decidedly different
from that of white men, in regard to whom the term education had widely
different significations. The best the Negro could hope for would be an
imitation of the white man to call into action that peculiar capacity
for copying the mental and moral habits of the superior race.
Jones's work did not differ materially from that of the Rev. Josiah Law
of Georgia, who was almost as successful in grappling with the same
problem. These workers, however, soon found that there was a strenuous
objection even to the verbal instruction of Negroes for fear that the
oral exercise would inspire a desire for literary training, which was
out of harmony with the status of the Negro in a slaveholding
commonwealth. Thinking that it might lead to such a state of affairs,
most masters in some parts of the South opposed all instruction of
Negroes during the thirties and forties.
Thereafter appeared occasional evidences of further interest in the
religious instruction and the evangelization of the slaves and free
people of color, however, in spite of this opposition. Much interest was
manifested in this work by the Presbyterians of Charleston; Union,
Georgia; Concord, South Alabama; and Mississippi. In 1825 the General
Assembly went on record to the effect that "no more honored name could
be conferred on a minister of Jesus than that of Apostle to the American
slaves, and no service can be more pleasing to the God of Heaven, or
more useful to our beloved country, than that which this title
designates."
The minutes quoted from the report of the Presbytery of Georgia in 1839
said: "We are happy to say, in regard to the religious instruction of
the Negroes, that this important part of our service has received a new
impulse during the last year. This business receives considerable
attention in many parts of our bounds. Plantations are open to all our
ministers and fields presented among this people which it is impossible
for them to occupy. Sabbath schools, for their exclusive benefit, exist
in some of our churches, and we are happy to believe that there is an
increasing interest felt on this subject. Within our bounds there is one
minister whose whole ministry is devoted exclusively to this people, and
most, if not all, the several pastors and stated supplies preach as
often as once a week to this class of our population. In Liberty County
there is at this time very considerable attention to religion among the
blacks, not less than fifty being under serious impressions. A beloved
brother in Augusta and another in the vicinity of Natchez are following
the noble example by devoting their whole time to this interesting
work."
The Presbytery of Georgia remarked in referring to one of their number
who devoted his whole time to this work: "During the year he has been
blessed with a revival in one part of his field of labor. Fourteen
professed conversion, and were added to the church. Another brother, in
another part of our bounds, reports the conversion and reception into
the church to which he ministers, of eight colored persons." And the
Presbytery of Hopewell spoke of their churches generally as cheerfully
yielding the half of their pastor's services to this department of
labor. It also expressed a belief that several churches "will soon be
erected for the exclusive accommodation of the Negroes, and that the
field will be occupied as missionary ground by at least one who is
deeply interested in the work."
The Presbytery of South Alabama said in 1847: "Perhaps without a
solitary exception our ministers are devoting a considerable part of
their labors to the benefit of the colored population. It is a field
which we all hope to cultivate; and to some the great Head of the Church
is intimating an abundant harvest." "Most of our pastors," said the
Presbytery of Charleston, "devote a part of the time to the exclusive
service of the blacks and in some instances with the most pleasing
success. A scheme is now in agitation for the full consent of the
Presbytery for establishing an African Church in the city of
Charleston."
In 1854 the report of the General Assembly on the instruction of the
Negroes in the slave States said that instead of abating, the interest
in the religious welfare of the Negroes was increasing. In their houses
of worship provision at once special and liberal was made for the
accommodation of the people of color so that they might enjoy the
privileges of the sanctuary in common with the whites. "Besides this,
nearly all of our ministers hold a service in the afternoon of the
Sabbath, in which all exercises are particularly adapted to their
capacities and wants. In some instances ministers are engaged in their
exclusive service ... not ministers of inferior ability, but such as
would be an ornament and a blessing to the intelligent, cultivated
congregations of the land. In a still larger number of instances the
pastor of a church composed of the two classes, inasmuch as the blacks
formed the more numerous portion, devotes to them the greater share of
his labors, and finds among them the most pleasing tokens of God's
smiles upon his work. Besides the preaching of the word to which they
have free access, in many cases a regular system of catechetical
instruction for their benefit is pursued, either on the Sabbath at the
house of worship or during the week on the plantations where they
reside.... The position taken by our Church with reference to the much
agitated subject of slavery secures to us the unlimited opportunities of
access to master and slave, and lays us under heavy responsibilities
before God and the world not to neglect our duty to either."
Among the Methodists who directed their attentions to mission work among
Negroes no one was more prominent than Bishop William Capers of South
Carolina. He had no idea of preparing Negroes for manumission, but
looked to the edification of their souls as a preparation for the life
to come, justifying the relation of slave and the master by the Bible in
keeping with most ministers of his time. He emphasized, on the other
hand, the necessity of the masters' being kind to their bondmen and
especially in providing for their spiritual needs. After preaching a
number of sermons to this effect, he devised a scheme for adapting the
teaching of the Christian truth to the mental condition of the slaves.
He planned to have the old Negroes instructed by preachers and the
children through catechists by the memory method, while their minds were
in a plastic state, always remembering, however, that any minister who
did not believe in the southern religion of the relation of master and
slave as sanctioned by his sort of Christianity should not enter upon
this work. With the support of a number of leading men in that
commonwealth Bishop Capers established two missions in 1829 and two
additional ones in 1833. Thereafter one or two others were added every
year until 1847, when there were seventeen engaging the attention of
twenty-five preachers. When Bishop Capers died in 1855 he saw his work,
according to his plan, very well done. The Methodists then had 26
missions manned by 32 preachers, having in their churches 11,546
communicants. The cost of this religious instruction had, during the
Bishop's time, increased from $300 to $25,000 a year.
The work of the Baptists here and there was almost as effective, but
because of their lack of a national body to concentrate the effort of
the various local churches, such good results did not always follow. In
certain communities, however, especially in the State of Virginia, there
were obtained unusually desirable results. This was the case in the
cities of Portsmouth, Norfolk, and Petersburg; and still better success
was achieved in Richmond through the well organized work of the First
African Baptist Church, which, under the direction of the Rev. Robert
Ryland, President of Richmond College, served not only to benefit the
Negroes of that community, but also to inspire other white churches to
make similar provisions for the instruction of the blacks.
Lott Cary himself speaks of religious instruction in this church at an
early period. He said: "I was, during the years 1815, 1816, 1817 and
1818, engaged for the benefit of the leading colored members of the
church" (referring to the First Baptist Church) "in a gratuitous school
at the old Baptist meeting house ... at first in connection with Rev.
David Roper ... and subsequently with Rev. John Bryce, co-pastor of the
church."
The work of this church, however, was largely in the hands of the
whites. The local government was changed from the democratic to
something more Presbyterial than Congregational, because of the belief
that the Negroes were not prepared for democracy. The government was
vested in the pastor and thirty deacons exercising general supervision
over the church and constituting the source of authority in the church.
The instruction, of course, was at first confined to the catechism and
to the memorizing of hymns and special passages of the Bible. Ryland
himself compiled a catechism for the colored people and hoped to add to
it such books as _Pilgrim's Progress_, _The African Preacher_, _The Life
of Samuel Pierce_ and _The Church Member's Guide_.
Ryland did not share the distrust of the Negroes who might learn to
read. Unlike most of the ministers after this reactionary period, he
advocated the thorough instruction of the slaves. He said: "They will
make more useful servants, if in a state of bondage, and more safe and
reliable residents, if free, by having their minds imbued with rational
views of Christianity. How can we expect them to develop the great
principles of the gospel in a well ordered life while they are dependent
on desultory oral instruction for their entire knowledge? I am fully
aware that some will think that I am approaching delicate ground, and
yet with the most considerate feelings and with the admission that grave
abuses might follow, I am constrained to believe, nevertheless, that
greater benefit will accrue both to themselves and to society by
increasing their facilities to understand the gospel whose maxim is 'On
earth peace, good will toward man.' I am a Southern man by birth,
education and habits. I deplore the ultraism and recklessness of the
North on this subject and in the least on account of _increased
restrictions_ which have been thus occasioned to the colored people. But
I would respectfully ask Southern Christians if they are not in danger
of neglecting _known, imperative duty_, because others are not disposed
to mind their own business. Let us not be led from the path of _real
benevolence_ either by the abolitionists of the North or by the morbid
sensitiveness of the South."
Exactly how much Ryland accomplished at the First African Baptist Church
is not known. Referring to his communicants, Ryland recorded that their
general appearance was that of serious, intelligent worship. It is
certain that many Negroes, who became impressed with Christianity and
endeavored to embrace it, looked upon it as an opportunity and a
privilege to belong to this church, and inasmuch as he emphasized
consistent Christian conduct, it certainly forced a number of them to
live more righteously than they would have, if these rules had not been
rigidly enforced. The attitude here might be criticised in that the
church was accepting merely those who were known to be persons of good
conduct and did not seemingly go out to stir up and reform those who
made no pretense to be Christians. When a person made a profession of
faith and wanted to join this church he was required to present a
certificate of good conduct.[9]
In this work Ryland had the cooperation of Joseph Abrams, a Negro who
had been licensed to preach and ordained but had been prohibited from
the exercise of his gifts by the hostile legislation proscribing Negro
preachers after Nat Turner's insurrection. During the days prior to this
reaction Abrams had been a preacher of much success among the Negroes of
the First Baptist Church. Afterward he could take no more conspicuous
part in the Sunday exercises than to pray a long prayer, into which he
sometimes worked a short sermon. "As he enjoyed, however, the confidence
of the citizens," says a writer in the _American Baptist Memorial_ of
1853, "he was tolerated in preaching funerals at private houses, and was
sparingly invited to close the worship in the church by words of
exhortation." "He was heard with far more interest than I was," said
Ryland, "and on this account I should have often requested him to speak
but for the fear of involving him and the church in legal trouble."
Abrams died in 1854. From the same pulpit which he had once occupied,
his former pastor, John Bryce, delivered to a large crowd of grieving
persons within and as many more without one of the most eloquent
eulogies in keeping with the life of the man. A long procession of
hundreds of persons followed him to his grave, over which the people
erected a beautiful monument in the form of an imposing obelisk.
So emphatically was duty of religious instruction urged in certain parts
of the South, that not only sympathetic clergymen and their children but
men high in official positions championed the cause of literary
instruction for the Negroes that they might learn the principles of
religion. One important case in evidence is that of J. B. O'Neal of
South Carolina. Discussing this matter in detail, O'Neal observed that
the extension of the instruction of the Negroes to the extent of
learning to read the Bible would hardly do any harm. He did not believe
that the Christianization of the Negroes in a slave commonwealth would
tend to lift them above their masters and destroy the "legitimate
distinction" in the community. General Coxe of Fluvanna County,
Virginia, had all of his slaves taught to read the Bible in spite of the
law and public opinion to the contrary, and so did a farmer whom
Frederick Law Olmsted visited in Mississippi. Other instances here and
there may be mentioned. Exactly how many other persons of the
aristocratic folk of the South had the same attitude is difficult to
determine; for the white people of that day, like those of the present
time, often conceded privately that the Negroes should enjoy their
rights, but were unwilling to suffer the stigma of being called the
champions of their cause.
With this new impetus given religious instruction in many parts,
however, it was very difficult to overcome the desire for the more
thorough evangelization of the Negroes. There was not only a
manifestation of interest here and there in the South; but during the
forties and fifties there followed considerable improvement, especially
through such local organizations as those in Liberty and MacIntosh
counties in Georgia and in the Presbyterian synods of Kentucky, Alabama,
North Carolina, and Tennessee. A few Negroes, who prior to the reaction
had learned to read and write and had a rudimentary knowledge of the
Bible, were sometimes employed in the more liberal portions of the South
to teach the aged and the young to say prayers, repeat a little of the
catechism, and to memorize hymns. Here their instruction depended
entirely upon the memory. What could not be thus done for them was
neglected. Literature especially adapted to this end prepared by
churchmen safeguarding the interests of the slaveholding South was
preferably used. Some of these works were Dr. Capers' _Short Catechism
for the Use of Colored Members on Trial in the Methodist Episcopal
Church in South Carolina_, _A Catechism to be Used by Teachers in the
Religious Instruction of Persons of Color in the Episcopal Church of
South Carolina_, John Mines' _Catechism_, Dr. C. C. Jones' _Catechism of
Scripture, Doctrine and Practice Designed for the Original Instruction
of Colored People_, Dr. Robert Ryland's _The Scripture Catechism for
Colored People_, and E. T. Winkler's _Notes and Questions for the Oral
Instruction of Colored People with Appropriate Texts and Hymns_.