Part 17 (1/2)

[Footnote 4: The Constitution of the Liberty County association for the Religious Instruction of Negroes, Article IV]

Directing their efforts thereafter toward ious workers depended upon the memory of the slave to retain sufficient of the truths and principles expounded to effect his conversion Pamphlets, hymn books, and catechisms especially adapted to the ritten by churchmen, and placed in the hands of discreetother publications of this kind were Dr Capers's Short Catechism for the Use of Colored Members on _Trial in the Methodist Episcopal Church in South Carolina; A Catechisious Instruction of Persons of Color in the Episcopal Church of South Carolina_; Dr Palmer's _Cathechism_; Rev John Mine's _Catechism_; and CC Jones's _Catechisinal Instruction of Colored People_ Bishop Meade was once engaged in collecting such literature addressed particularly to slaves in their stations These extracts were to be read to them on proper occasions by any member of the family[1]

[Footnote 1: Meade, _Sermons of Rev Thomas Bacon_, p 2]

Yet on the whole it can be safely stated that there were few societies forious and moral instruction Only a fewtheanda of any southern church included anything which could be designated as systeroes[1] Even owners, who took care to feed, clothe, and lodge their slaves well and treated thehten their understanding as to their responsibility to God [Footnote 1: Madison's Works, vol in, p 314; Olmsted, _Back Country_, p 107; Birney, _The Aious Instruction_, etc, p 100]

Observing closely these conditions one would wonder little that raded The very institution of slavery itself produced shi+ftless, undependable beings, seeking relief whenever possible by giving the least and getting the most froht of the gospel by the large plantation systean to exhibit such undesirable traits as insensibility of heart, lasciviousness, stealing, and lying

The cruelty of the ”Christian” master to the slaves ether inhuman Just as the white slave drivers developed into hopeless brutes by having huroes in their treate If soroes were commanded not to commit adultery, such a prohibition did not extend to the slave women forced to have illicit relations with oods and chattels If the bondht not to steal the aim was to protect the supplies of the local plantation Few masters raised any serious objection to the act of their half-starved slaves who at night crossed over to so plantation to secure food Many white men roes

In the strait in whichin an environment where the actions of alroes were frequently called upon to tell what they knew and were sometimes forced to say what they did not know Furtherainst their n each other to keep alive a feeling of hatred The bad traits of the Aroes resulted then not from an instinct common to the natives of Africa, but fro of the slaves to be low and depraved that they th to become a powerful eleroes either nominal Christians or heathen, the anti-slavery men could not be silent[1] Ja churches like indifferent observers, had watched the abaseroes to a plane of beasts without reainst the iniquitous measures[2]

Moreover, because there was neither literary nor systeregations, uniting with the Church e in the condition of the slaves They were thrown back just as before a influences, allowed to forego attendance at public worshi+p on Sundays, and rarely encouraged to attend family prayers[3]

In view of this state of affairs Birney was not surprised that it was only here and there that one could find a few slaves who had an intelligent view of Christianity or of a future life

[Footnote 1: Tower, _Slavery Unmasked_, p 394]

[Footnote 2: Birney, _American Churches_, p 6]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid_, p 7]

Williaret that the whole lot of the slave was fitted to keep hisit seeht, few beaiven no books to excite his curiosity His master provided for him no teacher but the driver who broke him almost in childhood to the servile tasks which were to fill up his life Channing complained that when benevolence would approach the slave with instruction it was repelled Not being allowed to be taught, the ”voice which would speak to hie to learn the truth ”his immortal spirit was syste all , _Slavery_, p 77]

Discussing the report that slaves were taught religion, Channing rejoiced that any portion of theives inward freedoht, however, that this nu was certain that norance But extensive as was this so-called religious instruction, he did not see how the teaching of the slave to be obedient to hisone to the divinity of man How slavery which tends to debase the mind of the bondman could prepare it for spiritual truth, or how he could co it from the lips of his selfish and unjust owner, were questions which no defender of the syste then no hope for the elevation of the Negro as a slave, he became a more determined abolitionist

[Footnote 1: _Ibid_, p 78]

William Jay, a son of the first Chief Justice of the United States, and an abolition preacher of the ardent type, later directed his attention to these conditions The keeping of hu to reverence the obligation of Christianity seemed to him an unpardonable sin He believed that the natural result of this ”compromise of principle, this suppression of truth, this sacrifice to unanimity,” had been the adoption of expediency as a standard of right and wrong in the place of the revealed will of God[1] ”Thus,” continued he, ”good ood Christians have been tempted by their zeal for the American Colonization Society to countenance opinions and practices inconsistent with justice and hulect the result that in 1835 only 245,000 of the 2,245,144 slaves had a saving knowledge of the religion of Christ He deplored the fact that unhappily the evil influence of the reactionaries had not been confined to their own circles but had to a lamentable extent ”vitiated the moral sense” of other communities

The proslavery leaders, he said, had reconciled public opinion to the continuance of slavery, and had aggravated those sinful prejudices which subjected the free blacks to insult and persecution and denied theious instruction[3]

[Footnote 1: Jay, _An Inquiry_, etc, p 24]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_, p 25]

[Footnote 3: Jay, _An Inquiry_, etc, p 26]

A of those who censured the South for its reactionary policy was Rev John G Fee, an abolitionthe inevitable result in States where public opinion and positive laws had roes i God's Word and at the sa them into the Church as nominal Christians, the South had weakened the institution Without the ion it was inorant class to beco those who had kept their servants in ignorance to secure the perpetuity of the institution of slavery, Feeup the s, was tanta off the hand or foot in order to prevent his escape fro servitude[2] ”If by our practice, our silence, or our sloth,” said he, ”we perpetuate a system which paralyzes our hands e attempt to convey to thereat uiltless in the sight of Hirace? This is sinful Said the Saviour: 'Woe unto you lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and the in ye hindered”'[3]

[Footnote 1: Fee, _Antislavery Manual_, p 147]