1763.
Rev. Jonathan Boucher's Opinions on Slavery--Remarks.
THE Rev. Jonathan Boucher, a minister of the established church, in a
sermon preached at Bray's, in Leedstown, Hanover Parish, on occasion of
the general peace proclaimed in 1763, expressed himself on the subject
of slavery as follows: "The united motives of interest and humanity call
on us to bestow some consideration on the case of those sad outcasts of
society, our negro slaves; for my heart would smite me were I not in
this hour of prosperity to entreat you (it being their unparalleled hard
lot not to have the power of entreating for themselves) to permit them
to participate in the general joy. Even those who are the sufferers can
hardly be sorry when they see wrong measures carrying their punishment
along with them. Were an impartial and competent observer of the state
of society in these middle colonies asked whence it happens that
Virginia and Maryland--which were the first planted, and which are
superior to many colonies, and inferior to none in point of natural
advantages--are still so exceedingly behind most of the other British
transatlantic possessions in all those improvements which bring credit
and consequence to a country, he would answer, 'They are so because they
are cultivated by slaves.' I believe it is capable of demonstration,
that except the immediate interest he has in the property of his slaves,
it would be for every man's interest that there were no slaves, and for
this plain reason, because the free labor of a free man, who is
regularly hired and paid for the work he does, and only for what he
does, is in the end cheaper than the eye-service of a slave. Some loss
and inconvenience would no doubt arise from the general abolition of
slavery in these colonies, but were it done gradually, with judgment and
with good temper, I have never yet seen it satisfactorily proved that
such inconvenience would be either great or lasting. North American or
West Indian planters might possibly for a few years make less tobacco,
or less rice, or less sugar, the raising of which might also cost them
more; but that disadvantage would probably soon be amply compensated to
them by an advanced price, or (what is the same thing) by the reduced
expense of cultivation. * * * * * * *
"I do you no more than justice in bearing witness that in no part of the
world were slaves ever better treated than, in general, they are in
these colonies. That there are exceptions needs not to be concealed: in
all countries there are bad men. And shame be to those men who, though
themselves blessed with freedom, have minds less liberal than the poor
creatures over whom they so meanly tyrannize! Even your humanity,
however, falls short of their exigencies. In one essential point I fear
we are all deficient: they are nowhere sufficiently instructed. I am far
from recommending it to you at once to set them all free, because to do
so would be a heavy loss to you and probably no gain to them; but I do
entreat you to make them some amends for the drudgery of their bodies by
cultivating their minds. By such means only can we hope to fulfil the
ends which we may be permitted to believe Providence had in view in
suffering them to be brought among us. You may unfetter them from the
chains of ignorance, you may emancipate them from the bondage of
sin--the worst slavery to which they can be subjected--and by thus
setting at liberty those that are bruised, though they still continue to
be your slaves, they shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption
into the glorious liberty of the children of God."[527:A]
The Rev. Jonathan Boucher, was born in Cumberland County, England, in
1738, and brought up at Wigton Grammar School. He came over to Virginia
at the age of sixteen, and was nominated by the vestry of Hanover
Parish, in the County of King George, before he was in orders. Returning
to England for ordination, he recrossed the Atlantic, and entered upon
the duties of that parish on the banks of the Rappahannock. He removed
soon afterwards to St. Mary's Parish, in Caroline County, upon the same
river. After remaining here a good many years and enjoying the esteem
of his people, he removed to Maryland, and was there ejected from his
rectory at the breaking out of the Revolution, when he returned to
England. His Discourses, preached between 1763 and 1775, were published
by him when he was Vicar of Epsom, in Surrey, in 1797.
Abraham, the father of the faithful, was a slaveholder; upon his death
his servants passed by descent to his son Isaac, as in like manner those
of Isaac descended to Jacob. They were hereditary bondsmen, and, like
chattels, bought and sold. Job, a pattern of piety, was a slaveholder,
and, like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, won no small portion of his claims
to a character of high and exemplary virtue from the manner in which he
discharged his duty to his slaves.
The master who faithfully performs his duties toward his slaves is a
high example of virtue, and the slave who renders his service faithfully
is worthy of equal commendation. If the rights of the slave are narrow,
his duties are proportionally limited.
The institution of slavery, divinely appointed, was maintained for five
hundred years in Abraham's family. When the patriarchal dispensation
came to an end, the right of property in slaves was recognized in the
decalogue. The system was incorporated into the Mosaic law, and so
continued to the end of the Jewish dispensation, and was nowhere
denounced as a moral evil, nor was any reproof uttered by the prophets
against the system on account of the evils connected with it.
The primitive Christian church consisted largely of slaveholders and
slaves, and the slavery of the Roman empire, in which the early churches
were planted, corresponded with that of Virginia, and where it differed,
it was worse. The relation of master and servant is placed by the
apostles upon the same footing as that of parent and child, and of
husband and wife.[528:A] It is enjoined upon servants to be obedient to
their masters, whether "good and gentle, or froward." Christian servants
were commanded to obey their masters, whether heathens or believers; and
Christians, to withdraw themselves from any, who, rejecting divine
authority, should teach a contrary doctrine.[528:B]
In the New Testament no censure is cast upon the institution of
slavery, no master is denounced for holding slaves, nor advised to
emancipate them. The evils incidental to the relation of master and
slave are, in kind, like those incidental to the other domestic
relations, and do not render the one unlawful or sinful any more than
the others. The evils of slavery are not in the relation, but in the
parties to it; therefore the abolition of the relation (the whites and
the blacks still continuing together) would not extinguish the evils,
but only change them, and a new relation would be substituted, fraught
with still greater evils. The two races, separated by a barrier of
natural incompatibility, cannot coalesce, nor can they coexist on equal
terms.
The evils connected with slavery are, like others, to be remedied by the
reforming influence of Christianity. Slavery originated in a curse, but
out of it Providence has mysteriously educed a blessing, as from
poisonous flowers honey is extracted by the bee.[529:A]
The religious instruction of the slaves in Virginia was, with some
honorable exceptions, too generally neglected by the ministers of the
established church. The churches afforded but little room or
accommodation for the negroes, and the difficulties in the way of
imparting instruction to them were no doubt great, yet by no means
insuperable. The Rev. Samuel Davies appears to have labored more
successfully for their benefit than any other minister in Virginia,
either before his time or since. The Rev. Mr. Wright, co-operating with
him in this work, established Sunday-schools, for the instruction of
negroes, in the County of Cumberland, in the year 1756.[529:B]
FOOTNOTES:
[527:A] Anderson's Hist. of Church of England in the Colonies, second
ed., iii. 159.
[528:A] Ephesians, vi.; Colossians, iii., iv.
[528:B] 1 Timothy, vi.
[529:A] Brief Examination of Scripture Testimony on the Institution of
Slavery, by the Rev. Thornton Stringfellow; Essay on Abolition of
Slavery, by the Rev. Dr. George A. Baxter; Rights and Duties of Masters,
by the Rev. Dr. J. H. Thornwell; The Christian Doctrine of Slavery, by
the Rev. George D. Armstrong, D.D.
[529:B] Foote's Sketches, first series, 291.