The religious condition of the South Carolina freedmen presents many
peculiar and interesting features. Whether, like the negroes in the 'old
North State,' they celebrated their new birth into freedom by services
of praise and thanksgiving at the altar, I have been unable to learn;
but certain it is, that the wonderful tranquillity of their sudden
transition from bondage, and the good use which they have made of their
liberty, are owing in great measure to their deep religious earnestness.
This earnestness, it is evident, is not the result of conviction or
enlightenment, so much as of the strong emotional nature of the blacks,
intensified by sympathy, and kept alive to religious feeling by their
frequent meetings for prayer and praise. Yet, to the careful observer,
the blind and often superstitious worship of these people, which, as is
now so plainly seen, was fostered by slavery, is one of the saddest
results of the system. Those who are now permitted to watch over the
religious progress of the freedmen, can bring new and abundant proof to
the assertion of De Tocqueville, that 'Christianity is a religion of
_freemen_.' The present opportunities for religious worship which the
freedmen enjoy consist of their 'praise meetings'--similar in most
respects to our prayer meetings--which are held two or three times a
week on the plantations, and the Sunday services at the various churches
scattered about the islands. These services are usually conducted by
white preachers, and are attended not only by the negroes, but also by
the superintendents, teachers, and many casual visitors from the camps.
At Beaufort and Hilton Head large and flourishing Sunday schools are in
operation. Most of the freedmen belong either to the Baptist or
Methodist denomination, and the fervor and zeal of the preachers of the
latter persuasion always find a response in the excitable and impulsive
nature of the blacks. It is not a little singular that, while Cochin can
write concerning the freedmen in the French colonies that 'the
_Catholic_ worship has incomparable attractions for the blacks,' we find
the negro in our own country everywhere attracted toward that sect of
Protestants which has always been the most powerful antagonist to
Romanism.
On Sunday, the 15th of March, in company with a party of superintendents
and teachers, I attended a service held for the freedmen on St. Helena's
Island. Our ride from the plantation took us through field and wood,
till we reached the main road on which the church is situated. It is a
simple, unpretending structure of brick, shaded on all sides by handsome
live oaks. Near by is the small cemetery, and the drooping moss from the
oaks hangs in sombre beauty over the graves. Under the trees is a group
of superintendents discussing the news and the last order of General
Hunter. As we ride up, a party of officers comes galloping in from camp,
while from the other direction is seen approaching a venerable carryall,
conveying a party of lady teachers from a distant plantation. The
service has already begun, and the church is crowded with the dusky
auditors, while here and there may be seen a pew filled with 'white
folks.' The day is warm, so we can stand by the open window and take in
the whole scene at a single glance. No danger to-day of any
manifestations of overwrought feelings; no groans nor excited shoutings
of 'Amen.' The preacher has taken his text from the first chapter of
Genesis, and he is describing the wonders of the creation. His sermon
might properly be entitled a 'Disquisition upon the Universe.' It is
evident that his colored hearers fail to see the 'beauty and mysterious
order of the stellar world' which he is portraying, for most of them are
already dozing, and the rest are nodding their heads as if in sleepy
assent to the undoubted truth of the good man's words. He has
overreached his mark, and hits neither the heads nor the hearts of his
congregation. At length the discourse is ended, and all rise to join in
the closing hymn, which is 'deaconed off' by the minister, and responded
to by the negroes in a monotonous '_yah, yah_.' They have not recovered
from the soporific effect of the sermon, and, besides, can hardly be
blamed for not catching the feebly uttered words. But their time is
coming. No sooner is the benediction pronounced, than one of the negro
elders strikes up a well known hymn, and, suddenly rousing from their
stupor, the whole congregation join in singing in clear and ringing
tones verse after verse of the jubilant song. Then follow other hymns
and chants peculiar to the negro worship, the crude expressions of their
deep emotional feeling. As we leave the church, we are convinced that
the religious teachers of the newly freed blacks are sadly at fault in
repeating so much the kind of preaching to which the negroes were
accustomed under the old system, and in neglecting to pour into their
perceptive souls both the light and warmth of the Gospel. As an officer
remarked who had stood at our side listening to the service: 'These
people had enough of the Old Testament thrown at their heads under
slavery. Now give them the glorious utterances and practical teachings
of the Great Master.'
At some of the meetings of the freedmen, they are addressed by negro
preachers, who never fail to speak with great effect. In Alexandria,
Va., I was told by the superintendent of the freedmen of an old negro
teacher and exhorter, the self-elected pastor of all the blacks there,
going about from house to house to minister to the wants of the sick and
afflicted, teaching the young, and speaking in all the meetings. 'This
old negro,' said the superintendent, 'has more influence over the
blacks, and does more good among them, than all the missionaries and
chaplains who have been sent here.' To the same effect is the testimony
of all who have listened to the colored preacher at Port Royal, and who
know the great power which the chief elders of their churches possess
over the rest of the negroes. A verbatim report of an exhortation given,
just before the expedition to Jacksonville, Fla., to the soldiers of
Colonel Higginson's 1st South Carolina Volunteers, by one of these negro
preachers, would be worthy a place in 'American Oratory.' I remember
only one striking passage, where, in his appeal to the troops to fight
bravely, he urged them to seek always the post of danger, since heaven
would be the immediate reward of all who should be killed in battle;
for, said he, as if moved by an oracle: 'What hab been, dat will be. He
who is de fust man to get into de boat, and de fust to jump on shore,
him, if he fall, will be de fust to get to heaben.' Then, as if standing
already in the midst of the fight, and with all the feelings of his
nature roused against his enemies, he added: 'An' when de battle
comes--when you see de Kunn'l put his shoulder to de wheel, and hear de
shot and shell flying all round like de rain drops, den remember dat
ebery one ob dose shot is a bolt ob de Almighty God to send dem rebels
to deir eberlasting damnation.' Such fervent utterances are not uncommon
among the negro preachers, and are well calculated to produce a powerful
effect upon the susceptible natures of their hearers, 'deep answering
unto deep.'