Part 2 (1/2)

[Footnote 1: _An Account of the Endeavors Used by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts_, pp 16, 21, and 32; and Dalcho, _An Historical Account_, etc, pp 104 et seq]

Equally censorious of these neglectful masters was Reverend Thomas Bacon, the rector of the Parish Church in Talbot County, Maryland

In 1749 he set forth his protest in four serreat and indispensable duty of all Christian e and fear of God”[1] Contending that slaves should enjoy rights like those of servants in the household of the patriarchs, Bacon insisted that next to one's children and brethren by blood, one's servants, and especially one's slaves, stood in the nearest relation to hiery the htened He believed that the reading and explaining of the Holy Scriptures should be made a stated duty In the course of tiht be supplied out of the intelligent slaves by choosing such aht to instruct the rest[2] He was of the opinion, too, that were soht to read, were they sent to school for that purpose when young, were they given the New Testaht to their fellow-servants, such a course would vastly increase their knowledge of God and direct their ht of futurity[3]

[Footnote 1: Meade, _Sermons of Thomas Bacon_, pp 31 et seq]

[Footnote 2: Meade, _Sermons of Thomas Bacon_, pp 116 _et seq_]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid_, p 118]

With almost equal zeal did Bishops Williams and Butler plead the same cause[1] They deplored the fact that because of their dark skins Negro slaves were treated as a species different fro the more cruel treatment of slaves as cattle, unfit for mental and hest property possible to be acquired in servants could not cancel the obligation to take care of the religious instruction of those who ”despicable as they are in the eyes of man are nevertheless the creatures of God”[2]

[Footnote 1: _Special Report of the US Com of Ed_, 1871, p 363]

[Footnote 2: _Special Report of the US Com of Ed_, 1871, p 363]

On account of these appeals er nulish colonies were thereafter treated as hus capable of an to provide for the improvement of these unfortunates, not because they loved them, but because instruction would make them more useful to the coro education was brought forward in 1741 by Bishop Secker[1] He suggested the eroes prudently chosen to teach their countrymen To carry out such a plan he had already sent a roes at his post of duty, this apostle sent three African natives to England where they were educated for the work[2] It was doubtless the sentiment of these leaders that caused Dr Brearcroft to allude to this project in a discourse before the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts in 1741[3]

[Footnote 1: Secker, _Works_, vol v, p 88]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_, vol vi, p 467]

[Footnote 3: _An Account of the Endeavors Used by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts_, p6]

This organization hit upon the plan of purchasing two Negroes nah instruction in the principles of Christianity and the fundamentals of education, to serve as schoolmasters to their people Under the direction of Rev

Mr Garden, theht pounds was erected in Charleston, South Carolina In the school which opened in this building in 1744 Harry and Andrew served as teachers[1] In the beginning the school had about sixty young students, and had a very good daily attendance for a number of years The directors of the institution planned to send out annually between thirty and forty youths ”well instructed in religion and capable of reading their Bibles to carry hoe to their fellow slaves”[2] It is highly probable that after 1740 this school was attended only by free persons of color Because the progress of Negro education had been rather rapid, South Carolina enacted that year a law prohibiting any person fro or using a slave as a scribe in any

[Footnote 1: Meriwether, _Education in South Carolina_, p 123; McCrady, _South Carolina_, etc, p 246; Dalcho, _An Historical Account of the Protestant Episcopal Church in South Carolina_, pp

156, 157, 164]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_, pp 157 and 164]

In 1764 the Charleston school was closed for reasons which it is difficult to determine From one source we learn that one of the teachers died, and the other having turned out profligate, no instructors could be found to continue the work It does not seeroes had by that ti to cause the school to be discontinued[1]

It is evident, however, that with the assistance of influential persons of different communities the instruction of slaves continued in that colony Writing about the hteenth century, Eliza Lucas, a lady of South Carolina, who afterward roes whom she had undertaken to teach to read[2]

[Footnote 1: _An Account of the Endeavors Used by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts_, p 15]

[Footnote 2: Bourne, _Spain in Aation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts was also effective in coland had soh Neill, once a Presbyterian anization to the Negroes of Pennsylvania He worked ae of Philadelphia, devoted a part of his time to the work, and at the death of Neill in 1766 enlisted as a regular missionary of the Society[1] It seehteenth century not hten the slaves of that colony, although free persons of color had been instructed Rev Mr Wayman, another hteenth century, asserted that ”neither” was ”there anywhere care taken for the instruction of Negro slaves,” the duty to whom he had ”pressed upon masters with little effect”[2]

[Footnote 1: _Special Report of the US Com of Ed_, 1871, p 362]

[Footnote 2: Wickersham, _History of Education in Pennsylvania_, p

248]

Tocatechetical lectures for Negroes in St Peter's and Christ Church of Philadelphia, during the incueon, a student of Yale, selected to do this work, was sent to London for ordination and placed in charge in 1747[1] In this position Rev Mr Sturgeon re such satisfactory services in the teaching of Negroes that he deserves to be recorded as one of the first benefactors of the Negro race

[Footnote 1: _Ibid_, p 241]