Slavery and the Constitution Part 2

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 a.s.sociations 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 ma.s.s 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 const.i.tuted, 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, ill.u.s.trative 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 advertis.e.m.e.nt of a runaway slave who claimed to be a Methodist preacher!

The Alabama Baptist a.s.sociation 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 a.s.sociation 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 a.s.semble there on such occasion."

In MISSOURI, the Act approved Feb. 16, 1847, sec. 2, provides that--

"No meeting or a.s.semblage 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 a.s.semblage, 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 cla.s.s 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 ent.i.tled 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 "G.o.d's messengers" to the souls of the slaves! The moral and religious teaching of the slaves is _exclusively_ vested in that cla.s.s 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!

CHAPTER V.

DIRECT RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OF SLAVES.

"Hath _He_ not brought you out of a land of darkness and ignorance, where your forefathers knew nothing of him, to a country where you may come to the knowledge of the only true G.o.d, and learn a sure way to heaven?"--_Right Rev. Bishop Meade's Instruction to Slaves._

"The religious instruction of your people will promote your own _interests_ for time and eternity."--_Rev. C. C. Jones's Teaching to Slaveholders_ ("_Rel. Inst._" p. 275).

We might safely presume, that religions owners would instruct their slaves in such doctrines as they deemed essential to the salvation of their own souls, and that such instruction would not materially vary from that given elsewhere on the same points. But abundant proof exists.

The Right Rev. Levi S. Ives has published "A Catechism to be taught orally to those who cannot read;" New York, 1848. In the preface, he says it was the result of a winter's visit to a large Southern plantation, and was adapted by him, "in a course of actual experiment, to the capacity of _colored_ children, from four to twelve years of age." There are twenty lessons in this little book. He teaches, among other things, about the fall, original sin, the atonement, the trinity, and the sacraments. Elsewhere ("Spirit of Missions," Nov. 1842) he has expressed the conviction, that, if the planters of North Carolina would adopt it, and see to its faithful inculcation, the next generation of blacks in that State, "at a very small expense, would sufficiently understand the truth as it is in Jesus, without knowing a letter of the alphabet."

Dr. Jones's Catechism is really, what it professes to be, a "Catechism of Scripture doctrine, as well as practice," and contains a very much more elaborate exposition than Bishop Ives's book. Altogether, it must be a much more serviceable book to "owners and ministers."

We shall therefore chiefly content ourselves with showing what the slaves are taught it is their duty to do, and to refrain from doing, and what motives to duty are urged upon them.

"As ministers or missionaries to the negroes," says Mr. Jones ("Rel.

Inst." p. 270), "in the discharge of our official duty, and in our intercourse with the negroes, we should have nothing to do with their civil condition. We are appointed of G.o.d to preach 'the unsearchable riches of Christ' to our perishing fellow-men. We are to meditate upon the duties and responsibilities of our office, and to give ourselves _wholly to it_." Ib. pp. 193, 194: "We _separate entirely_ their _religious_ and their _civil_ condition, and contend that the one may be attended to without interfering with the other. Our principle is that laid down by the holy and just one, 'Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto G.o.d the things that are G.o.d's.' And Christ and his apostles are our example. Did they deem it proper and consistent with the good order of society to preach the gospel to servants? They did. In discharge of this duty, did they interfere with their civil condition?

They did not. They expressed no opinion whatever on the subject, if we except that which appears in one of the Epistles to the Corinthian Church (1st Epist. chap. vii. ver. 19-23). There the Apostle Paul considers a state of freedom preferable to one of servitude, and advises slaves, if they can lawfully obtain their freedom, to do it; but not otherwise. He does not treat the question as one of very great moment, in comparison to the benefits of the gospel. 'Art thou called being a servant, care not for it; but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather; for he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord's freeman,' &c. May we not follow in the footsteps of our Saviour and his apostles, and that with perfect safety too? Yea, and without proceeding as far as did the Apostle Paul?(!) We maintain that in judicious religious instruction there will be no necessary interference with their civil condition. The religious teacher must step out of his way for the purpose." The Presbytery of Georgia declares in its memorial, that, if the church will undertake the religious instruction of the slaves,--

"The minds of ministers and members will be drawn off from abstract questions of a civil and a political nature, with which, as Christians engaged in evangelizing the world, we have little to do; and they will be presented with a way whereby they may practically gratify all their benevolent sympathies for the negroes, in the best manner possible. Our attention, as a church, will be turned to the great question before us, and indeed before all other denominations, _and which should take precedence of all other questions touching the negroes_, _Shall this people be saved or lost?_"

"The New Testament," says the Rev. Theodore Clapp (Sermon, pp. 25, 26, and these are his present sentiments), "decides in the plainest terms that Christians are bound to acquiesce in and support those laws and regulations concerning slavery which are enacted by the respective civil governments under which they live. The legislature must determine who shall be kept in bondage, and what shall be their condition and privileges. The pulpit must not interfere in this important and delicate matter.... Let him (the clergyman) at all times preach unconditional submission to civil laws and inst.i.tutions."

At the outset, therefore, the religious teachers of the slaves disclaim all desire or intention to interfere with the condition of servitude.

Their appropriate and only work, they say, is the saving of souls![F]

That their brother's soul is brutalized and deadened, in consequence of slavery, is to them no reason why they should interfere with slavery; for slavery is a _civil_ condition, which G.o.d, in his mysterious providence, has allowed to exist! But, though it is thus improper to "interfere" with the civil condition of the slaves, that religious teacher (as we shall shortly see) does _not_ "step out of his way," but merely does his duty, who preaches to them that submission to their civil condition, and faithful service for their masters, is demanded of them by G.o.d! They cannot interfere to _injure_ the inst.i.tution of slavery; but _very materially to strengthen_ it falls within their legitimate province! To condemn slavery would be to condemn the providence of G.o.d; but in strengthening slavery, they are preaching "the unsearchable riches of Christ" to their perishing fellow-men!

The Right Rev. William Meade, Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church for the diocese of Virginia, who has also devoted a great deal of attention to the religious instruction of slaves, a few years since collected and published a volume of sermons and tracts, designed to aid the almoners of Divine Mercy in their work of salvation. The grand motive to duty is thus presented to the slaves, pp. 94, 95 ("Slavery and the Slaveholder's Religion as opposed to Christianity, by Samuel Brooke," p. 29, &c.):--

"Besides, when people die, we know but of two places they have to go to, and that is heaven or h.e.l.l; so that whoever misses the one must go to the other. Now, heaven is a place of great happiness, which G.o.d hath prepared for all that are good; where they shall enjoy rest from their labors, and a blessedness which shall never have an end.

And h.e.l.l is a place of great torment and misery, where all wicked people will be shut up with the devil and other evil spirits, and be punished for ever because they will not serve G.o.d. If, therefore, we would have our souls saved by Christ; if we would escape h.e.l.l and obtain heaven, we must set about doing what he requires of us, that is, to serve G.o.d. Your own poor circ.u.mstances in this life ought to put you particularly upon this, and taking care of your souls; for you cannot have the pleasures and enjoyments of this life like rich free people, who have estates and money to lay out as they think fit. If others will run the hazard of their souls, they have a chance of getting wealth and power, of heaping up riches, and enjoying all the ease, luxury, and pleasure their hearts should long after. But you can have none of these things; so that, if you sell your souls for the sake of what poor matters you can get in this world, you have made a very foolish bargain indeed. Almighty G.o.d hath been pleased to make you slaves here, and to give you nothing but labor and poverty in this world, which you are obliged to submit to, as it is his will that it should be so. And think within yourselves what a terrible thing it would be, after all your labors and sufferings in this life, to be turned into h.e.l.l in the next life; and, after wearing out your bodies in service here, to go into a far worse slavery when this is over, and your poor souls be delivered over into the possession of the devil, to become his slaves for ever in h.e.l.l, without any hope of ever getting free from it. If, therefore, you would be G.o.d's freemen in heaven, you must strive to be good and serve him here on earth. Your bodies, you know, are not your own: they are at the disposal of those you belong to; but your precious souls are still your own, which nothing can take from you, if it be not your own fault. Consider well, then, that, if you lose your souls by leading idle, wicked lives here, you have got nothing by it in this world, and you have lost your all in the next. For your idleness and wickedness is generally found it, and your bodies suffer for it here; and, what is far worse, if you do not repent and amend, your unhappy souls will suffer for it hereafter."

The Rev. Alexander Glennie, Rector of All-Saints Parish, Waccamaw, S.C.

has for several years been in the habit of preaching expressly for slaves. In 1844, he published in Charleston a selection of these sermons, under the t.i.tle of "Sermons preached on Plantations to Congregations of Negroes." This book[G] contains twenty-six sermons; and in twenty-two of them there is either a more or less extended account or a reference to eternal misery in h.e.l.l as a motive to duty. He thus describes the day of judgment (Serm. 15, Matt. xxv. 31, p. 90):--

"When all people shall be gathered before him, 'he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats; and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.' That, my brethren, will be an awful time, when this separation shall be going on; when the holy angels, at the command of the great Judge, shall be gathering together all the obedient followers of Christ, and be setting them on the right hand side of the judgment-seat, and shall place all the remainder on the left.

Remember that each of you must be present; remember that the great Judge can make no mistake; and that you shall be placed on one side or on the other, according as in this world you have believed in and obeyed him or not. How full of joy and thanksgiving will you be, if you shall find yourselves placed on the right hand! but how full of misery and despair, if the left shall be appointed as your portion!"...

"But what shall he say to the wicked on the left hand? To them he shall say, 'Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.' He will tell them to depart: they did not while here seek him by repentance and faith; they did not obey him; and he will drive them from him. He will call them cursed."

Page 42 (Sermon 7, Rom. vi. 28): "The death, which is the wages of sin, is this everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. It is a fire which shall last for ever; and the devil and his angels, and all people who will not love and serve G.o.d, shall there be punished for ever. The Bible says, 'The smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever:' the fire is not quenched; it never goes out: 'their worm dieth not:' their punishment is spoken of as a worm, always feeding upon them, but never consuming them: it never can stop."

Mr. Jones orally catechizes[H] the slaves in the same manner:--