MORAL AND RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF THE SLAVES.
"Q. When you hear the minister preach, are you not to listen to him
as the minister of God; God's messenger to your soul? A.
Yes."--_Jones's Catechism_, p. 140.
"By the providence and word of God," says Mr. Jones ("Religious
Instruction," pp. 165, 166), "are we under obligations to impart the
gospel to our servants.... We cannot disregard this obligation ...
without forfeiting our humanity, our gratitude, our consistency, and our
claim to the spirit of Christianity itself. _Our humanity...._ The Lord
Jesus has furnished us with the most beautiful and striking
illustrations of this virtue:--'What man shall there be among you, that
shall have one sheep; and, if it fall into a pit, will he not lay hold
on it, and lift it out?' 'Doth not each one of you loose his ox or his
ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? And ought not this
woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these
eighteen years, be loosed from this bond?'... Apply the reasoning: 'How
much, then, is a man better than a sheep or an ox?' When our servants
are sick and diseased, we do not suffer them to want: we physic and
nurse them (?). But are not their _souls_ more precious than their
_bodies_? Much more, then, should we lift our servants from the pit of
ignorance, moral pollution and death, into which they have fallen. Much
more should we strive to loose them (bound for so many years!) from the
bonds of sin and Satan, and lead away their famishing souls to the water
of life."
"_Our gratitude._ They nurse us in infancy, contribute to our pleasures
and pastimes in youth, and furnish us with the means of education. They
constitute our wealth, and yield us all the comforts and conveniences of
life. They may, in a degree, adopt towards us the language of Jacob to
Laban, 'Thus I was: in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by
night, and my sleep departed from mine eyes.' They watch around our
languishing beds in sickness, share in our misfortunes, weep over us
when we die, prepare us for the burial, and carry us to the house
appointed for all the living. The obligations, the sacrifice, and
service are not to be all on one side, in the relation of master and
servant. If we have been made partakers of their _carnal_ things, our
duty is also to minister unto them in _spiritual_ things,[D] Rom. xv.
27. 1 Cor. ix. 11. And shall we consider it a great thing to fulfil this
duty? The kindest and the most grateful return which we can make them is
to put them in possession of the richest gift of God to men, the gospel
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."
How far has the existence or utterance of such sentiments as these
resulted in securing to the slaves a sound moral and religious
instruction? What kind of teachers and what kind of instruction are
thought to be consistent with proper feelings of gratitude and humanity
on the part of masters? We have just seen the deep moral degradation of
the very great majority of the slaves. Still "there are at the present
time," says Mr. Jones (p. 100), "tens of thousands connected by a
credible profession to the church of Christ, and the gospel is reaching
them to a greater extent and in greater purity and power than ever
before."
By whom is the gospel thus preached to them in purity and power? Who is
it that "ministers unto them in spiritual things," and "leads away their
famishing souls to the water of life"?
"Those who would keep the Bible from their fellow-creatures are the
enemies of God and man. The Bible belongs of right to every man. It is
the property of the world." Thus speaks the _Protestant_ defender of
slavery, Charles C. Jones ("Catechism," p. 80). But to prevent a slave
from reading the Bible is not by any means to keep the Bible from him!
In what a _Catholic_ spirit he thus exhorts the slaves! ("Catechism," p.
79) "What benefit will this precious book be to us, unless we diligently
study it, and embrace opportunities of receiving instruction from it,
such as are afforded us in the house of God, in the sabbath-school, and
in the Bible-class? 'Search the Scriptures' is the Redeemer's
command."[E] "We cannot," he says ("Religions Instruction," p. 167),
"cry out against the Papists for withholding the Scriptures from the
common people, and keeping them in ignorance of the way of life; for our
inconsistency is as great as theirs, if we withhold the Bible from our
servants, and keep them in ignorance of its saving truths, which we
certainly do while we will not provide ways and means of having it read
and explained to them"! So readily, at the bidding of slavery, will
Protestants surrender the most distinctive feature of Protestantism!
It is obvious, that, if any religious instruction is to be imparted to
slaves, it must be given them by others. But it is in the power of the
owner to forbid all such instruction. "The whole arrangement of the
religious instruction of the negroes, as to teachers, times, places,
matter and manner, is in our own power," says Mr. Jones (ib. p. 98).
The Presbytery of Georgia, in the memorial before alluded to, says--
"The law of the land makes and can make no provision for their
religious instruction. That instruction is committed to owners, as
the instruction of children is to parents; and _they can give or
withhold it at pleasure_. We owners and ministers are 'the almoners
of divine mercy to them,' and, if we do not open the door of
salvation, they may grope their way into a miserable eternity; for
they have no power of any kind to originate and establish and carry
forward church organizations and associations for their own benefit.
They are entirely dependent upon us for the gospel of salvation."
"We may," says Mr. Jones ("Religious Instruction," p. 158), "according
to the power lodged in our hands, forbid religious meetings and
religious instruction on our own plantations; we may forbid our servants
going to church at all, or only to such churches as we may select for
them; we may literally shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, and
suffer not them that are entering to go in!"
Wherever an owner is willing to permit such instruction, it must still
be carried on wholly by _oral_ communications. "This immense mass of
immortal beings," says Mr. Jones, "is thrown for religious instruction
upon oral communications _entirely_" (ib. p. 157). That any oral
instruction of the adult or aged slaves is worth but little he evidently
admits, because he says (ib. p. 229), "If a people are to be instructed
orally, let the instruction be communicated to them in early life;" and
"the great hope of permanently benefiting the negroes is laid in
sabbath-schools, in which children and youth may be trained up in the
knowledge of the Lord." Our minds are so constituted, that, unless our
powers of memory have been strengthened by constant or frequent use in
youth, we cannot in after-life either receive or retain much benefit
from oral instruction. And if this is true of the freeman, how much more
is it true of the slave! Consequently, the only method of instructing
the slaves, which law or custom or both do not forbid, is the very
last,--the poorest method for their real good which can be devised!
There are _colored_ preachers at the South, "and _some_ of them," says
Mr. Jones, "are able to read" (ib. p. 175). The following anecdote,
illustrative of their capacity to impart knowledge, is told by Charles
Lyell. When in Louisville, Ky. he attended a Methodist Church. "The
preacher was a full black, spoke good English, and quoted Scripture
well." "It appeared," says Prof. Lyell, "from his explanation of 'Whose
superscription is this?' that he supposed the piece of money to be a
dollar note, to which Caesar had put his signature."
Some, probably most of them, are slaves. We have now before us the
advertisement of a runaway slave who claimed to be a Methodist preacher!
The Alabama Baptist Association bought one of its missionaries, named
Caesar, in 1828, and owned him till the time of his death! He lived to be
76 years old. A writer in the "Georgia Christian Index" begins an
obituary notice of him thus, "A good colored man has fallen in Israel;"
and ends by saying, "The writer can truly say that his labors have been
much blest." Mr. Jones gives the names of several other slave preachers.
Still, however, they are discountenanced.
The "Revised Statutes" of NORTH CAROLINA (chap. 111, sec. 34; "Revision
of Statute," 1831, chap. 4, sec. 1) provide that--
"It shall not be lawful, under any pretence, for any slave or free
person of color to preach or exhort in public, or in any manner to
officiate as a preacher or teacher in any prayer-meeting or other
association for worship where slaves of different families are
collected together; and if any free person of color shall be thereof
duly convicted, on indictment, before any court having jurisdiction
thereof, he shall for each offence receive not exceeding thirty-nine
lashes on his bare back; and when any slave shall be guilty of a
violation of this section, he shall, on conviction before a single
magistrate, receive not exceeding thirty-nine lashes on his bare
back."
In ALABAMA (Stat. 1832, chap. 8, sec. 24; "Clay's Digest," 545, sec.
35),--
"If any slave or free person of color shall preach to, exhort, or
harangue any slave or slaves or free persons of color, unless in the
presence of five respectable (!) slaveholders, any such slave or
free person of color so offending shall, on conviction before any
justice of the peace, receive, by order of said justice of the
peace, thirty-nine lashes for the first offence, and fifty lashes
for every offence thereafter; and any person may arrest any such
slave or free person of color, and take him before a justice of the
peace for trial,--Provided that the negroes so haranguing or
preaching shall be licensed thereto by some regular body of
professing Christians immediately in the neighborhood, and to whose
society or church such negro shall properly belong."
In GEORGIA, the Act approved Dec. 23, 1833, sec. 5 ("Prince's Digest,"
808; "Hotchkiss's Codification," 840, 841), provides that--
"No person of color, whether free or slave, shall be allowed to
preach to, exhort, or join in any religious exercise with, any
persons of color, either free or slave, there being more than seven
persons of color present," &c.
In MISSISSIPPI, the law declares (How. and Hutch. 178) that--
"It shall not be lawful for any slave, free negro or mulatto to
exercise the functions of a minister of the gospel under the penalty
of thirty-nine lashes,--Provided that it shall be lawful for any
master or owner to permit his slave to preach upon his own premises,
but not to permit any other slaves but his own to assemble there on
such occasion."
In MISSOURI, the Act approved Feb. 16, 1847, sec. 2, provides that--
"No meeting or assemblage of negroes or mulattoes for the purpose of
religious worship or preaching shall be held or permitted, where the
services are performed or conducted by negroes or mulattoes, unless
some sheriff, constable, marshal, police officer, or justice of the
peace shall be present during all the time of such meeting or
assemblage, in order to prevent all seditious speeches and
disorderly and unlawful conduct of every kind."
"Negro preachers are discouraged," says Mr. Jones ("Religious
Instruction," p. 157), "if not suppressed, on the ground of
incompetency, and liability to abuse their office and influence to the
injury of the morals of the people, and the infringement of the laws and
peace of the country. I would not go all the lengths of many on this
point; for, from my own observation, negro preachers may be employed and
confided in, and _so regulated_ as to do their own color great good, and
community no harm." Ib. p. 274: "The appointment of colored preachers
and watchmen by the _white churches, and under their particular
supervision_, in many districts of country, has been attended with happy
effects; and _such_ auxiliaries, _properly managed_, may be of great
advantage." Doubtless, when thus "properly managed," they are of great
advantage! "I shall never forget," says Mr. Jones (ib. p. 215), "the
remark of a venerable colored preacher, made with reference to the
Southampton tragedy" (_i.e._ Nat. Turner's insurrection in Southampton,
Va. in 1832). "With his eyes filled with tears, and his whole manner
indicating the deepest emotion, said he, 'Sir, it is the gospel that we,
ignorant and wicked people, need.(!) If you will give us the gospel, it
will do more for the obedience of servants and the peace of community
than all your guards and guns and bayonets.' This same Christian
minister, on receiving a packet of inflammatory pamphlets through the
post-office, and discovering their character and intention, immediately
called upon the mayor of the city, and delivered them into his hands.
Who can estimate the value in community of one such man acting under the
influence of the gospel of peace?"
Not only are negro preachers thus discountenanced, unless they are the
abject tools of the slaveholders, but only a certain class of _white_
teachers are allowed. The following extract is taken from the "Georgia
Christian Index:"--
"PREACHERS FOR THE SLAVES.--We think the instruction of the blacks
in the South should be committed wholly to white men; and they
should be Southern men, in whom the masters have confidence. If the
preacher is himself a slaveholder, as are Mr. Jones and Mr. Law,
they will command the greater confidence, and have access to the
larger number of plantations."
"The field of labor among the negroes in the South," says Mr. Jones
("Religious Instruction," p. 196), "is one, in many respects, of no
ordinary difficulty; and it is the dictate as well of benevolence as of
prudence to inquire into the character and qualifications of those who
enter it. _They should be Southern men_; men entitled to that
appellation; either those who have been born and reared in the South, or
those who have identified themselves with the South, and are familiarly
acquainted with the structure of society; _in a word, men having their
interests in the South_. Such men would possess the _confidence of the
community_; for they would not act, in their official connection with
the negroes, in such a manner as to breed disturbances, which would
inevitably jeopard their own lives, and tend to the utter prostration of
their families and interests." Ib. p. 235: "The missionaries should be
_Southern men_, or men ... _identified in views, feelings, and interests
with the South, and who possess the confidence of society_." We should
(ib. p. 197) "know _who_ their teachers are, and _what_ and _when_ and
_where_ they are taught."
The object of these laws and precautions evidently is wholly to exclude,
as religious teachers of the slaves, all persons except slaveholders, or
those who are fully identified with or subject to them. Only
slaveholders and their tools _can_ be "God's messengers" to the souls of
the slaves! The moral and religious teaching of the slaves is
_exclusively_ vested in that class of men whose _interest_ it is to
_uphold_ and _strengthen_ slavery! A slaveholder _must_ have the
strongest inducement to make his teaching of such a quality as directly
to increase the market value of his hearers; and yet the slaves are
receiving from the hallowed lips of their owners the gospel of love and
human brotherhood in greater purity and power than ever before!