The first real educators to take up the work of enlightening American
Negroes were clergymen interested in the propagation of the gospel
among the heathen of the new world. Addressing themselves to this
task, the missionaries easily discovered that their first duty was to
educate these crude elements to enable them not only to read the truth
for themselves, but to appreciate the supremacy of the Christian
religion. After some opposition slaves were given the opportunity to
take over the Christian civilization largely because of the adverse
criticism[1] which the apostles to the lowly heaped upon the planters
who neglected the improvement of their Negroes. Made then a device for
bringing the blacks into the Church, their education was at first too
much dominated by the teaching of religion.
[Footnote 1: Bourne, "Spain in America", p. 241; and "The Penn. Mag.
of History", xii., 265.]
Many early advocates of slavery favored the enlightenment of the
Africans. That it was an advantage to the Negroes to be brought within
the light of the gospel was a common argument in favor of the slave
trade.[1] When the German Protestants from Salsburg had scruples about
enslaving men, they were assured by a message from home stating that
if they took slaves in faith and with the intention of conducting
them to Christ, the action would not be a sin, but might prove a
benediction.[2] This was about the attitude of Spain. The missionary
movement seemed so important to the king of that country that he at
first allowed only Christian slaves to be brought to America, hoping
that such persons might serve as apostles to the Indians.[3] The
Spaniards adopted a different policy, however, when they ceased their
wild search for an "El Dorado" and became permanently attached to the
community. They soon made settlements and opened mines which
they thought required the introduction of slavery. Thus becoming
commercialized, these colonists experienced a greed which,
disregarding the consequences of the future, urged the importation
of all classes of slaves to meet the demand for cheap labor.[4] This
request was granted by the King of Spain, but the masters of such
bondmen were expressly ordered to have them indoctrinated in the
principles of Christianity. It was the failure of certain Spaniards to
live up to these regulations that caused the liberal-minded Jesuit,
Alphonso Sandoval, to register the first protest against slavery in
America.[5] In later years the change in the attitude of the Spaniards
toward this problem was noted. In Mexico the ayuntamientos were under
the most rigid responsibility to see that free children born of slaves
received the best education that could be given them. They had to
place them "for that purpose at the public schools and other places of
instruction wherein they" might "become useful to society."[6]
[Footnote 1: Proslavery Argument; and Lecky, "History of England",
vol. ii., p. 17.]
[Footnote 2: Faust, "German Element in United States", vol. i., pp.
242-43.]
[Footnote 3: Bancroft, "History of United States", vol. i., p. 124.]
[Footnote 4: Herrera, "Historia General", dec. iv., libro ii.; dec.
v., libro ii.; dec. vii., libro iv.]
[Footnote 5: Bourne, "Spain in America", p. 241.]
[Footnote 6: "Special Report U.S. Com. of Ed.", 1871, p. 389.]
In the French settlements of America the instruction of the Negroes
did not early become a difficult problem. There were not many Negroes
among the French. Their methods of colonization did not require many
slaves. Nevertheless, whenever the French missionary came into contact
with Negroes he considered it his duty to enlighten the unfortunates
and lead them to God. As early as 1634 Paul Le Jeune, a Jesuit
missionary in Canada, rejoiced that he had again become a real
preceptor in that he was teaching a little Negro the alphabet. Le
Jeune hoped to baptize his pupil as soon as he learned sufficient to
understand the Christian doctrine.[1] Moreover, evidence of a general
interest in the improvement of Negroes appeared in the Code Noir which
made it incumbent upon masters to enlighten their slaves that they
might grasp the principles of the Christian religion.[2] To carry
out this mandate slaves were sometimes called together with white
settlers. The meeting was usually opened with prayer and the reading
of some pious book, after which the French children were turned over
to one catechist, and the slaves and Indians to another. If a large
number of slaves were found in the community their special instruction
was provided for in meetings of their own.[3]
[Footnote 1: "Jesuit Relations", vol. v., p. 63.]
[Footnote 2: Code Noir, p. 107.]
[Footnote 3: "Jesuit Relations", vol. v., p. 62.]
After 1716, when Jesuits were taking over slaves in larger numbers,
and especially after 1726, when Law's Company was importing many to
meet the demand for laborers in Louisiana, we read of more instances
of the instruction of Negroes by French Catholics.[1] Writing about
this task in 1730, Le Petit spoke of being "settled to the instruction
of the boarders, the girls who live without, and the Negro women."[2]
In 1738 he said, "I instruct in Christian morals the slaves of our
residence, who are Negroes, and as many others as I can get from their
masters."[3] Years later François Philibert Watrum, seeing that some
Jesuits had on their estates one hundred and thirty slaves, inquired
why the instruction of the Indian and Negro serfs of the French did
not give these missionaries sufficient to do.[4] Hoping to enable
the slaves to elevate themselves, certain inhabitants of the French
colonies requested of their king a decree protecting their title to
property in such bondmen as they might send to France to be confirmed
in their instruction and in the exercise of their religion, and to
have them learn some art or trade from which the colonies might
receive some benefit by their return from the mother country.
[Footnote 1: "Ibid"., vol. lxvii., pp. 259 and 343.]
[Footnote 2: "Ibid"., vol. lxviii., p. 201.]
[Footnote 3: "Ibid"., vol. lxix., p. 31.]
[Footnote 4: "Ibid"., vol. lxx., p. 245.]
The education of Negroes was facilitated among the French and Spanish
by their liberal attitude toward their slaves. Many of them were
respected for their worth and given some of the privileges of
freemen. Estevanecito, an enlightened slave sent by Niza, the Spanish
adventurer, to explore Arizona, was a favored servant of this
class.[1] The Latin custom of miscegenation proved to be a still more
important factor in the education of Negroes in the colonies. As the
French and Spanish came to America for the purpose of exploitation,
leaving their wives behind, many of them, by cohabiting with and
marrying colored women, gave rise to an element of mixed breeds. This
was especially true of the Spanish settlements. They had more persons
of this class than any other colonies in America. The Latins, in
contradistinction to the English, generally liberated their mulatto
offspring and sometimes recognized them as their equals. Such Negroes
constituted a class of persons who, although they could not aspire to
the best in the colony, had a decided advantage over other inhabitants
of color. They often lived in luxury, and, of course, had a few
social privileges. The Code Noir granted freedmen the same rights,
privileges, and immunities as those enjoyed by persons born free, with
the view that the accomplishment of acquired liberty should have on
the former the same effect that the happiness of natural liberty
caused in other subjects.[2] As these mixed breeds were later lost, so
to speak, among the Latins, it is almost impossible to determine what
their circumstances were, and what advantages of education they had.
[Footnote 1: Bancroft, "Arizona and New Mexico", pp. 27-32.]
[Footnote 2: The Code Noir obliged every planter to have his Negroes
instructed and baptized. It allowed the slave for instruction,
worship, and rest not only every Sunday, but every festival usually
observed by the Roman Catholic Church. It did not permit any market to
be held on Sundays or holidays. It prohibited, under severe penalties,
all masters and managers from corrupting their female slaves. It did
not allow the Negro husband, wife, or infant children to be sold
separately. It forbade them the use of torture, or immoderate and
inhuman punishments. It obliged the owners to maintain their old and
decrepit slaves. If the Negroes were not fed and clothed as the law
prescribed, or if they were in any way cruelly treated, they might
apply to the Procureur, who was obliged by his office to protect them.
See Code Noir, pp. 99-100.]
The Spanish and French were doing so much more than the English to
enlighten their slaves that certain teachers and missionaries in the
British colonies endeavored more than ever to arouse their countrymen
to discharge their duty to those they held in bondage. These reformers
hoped to do this by holding up to the members of the Anglican Church
the praiseworthy example of the Catholics whom the British had for
years denounced as enemies of Christ. The criticism had its effect.
But to prosecute this work extensively the English had to overcome
the difficulty found in the observance of the unwritten law that
no Christian could be held a slave. Now, if the teaching of slaves
enabled them to be converted and their Christianization led to
manumission, the colonists had either to let the institution gradually
pass away or close all avenues of information to the minds of their
Negroes. The necessity of choosing either of these alternatives
was obviated by the enactment of provincial statutes and formal
declarations by the Bishop of London to the effect that conversion did
not work manumission.[1] After the solution of this problem English
missionaries urged more vigorously upon the colonies the duty of
instructing the slaves. Among the active churchmen working for this
cause were Rev. Morgan Goodwyn and Bishops Fleetwood, Lowth, and
Sanderson.[2]
[Footnote 1: "Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed.", 1871, p. 352.]
[Footnote 2: On observing that laws had been passed in Virginia to
prevent slaves from attending the meetings of Quakers for purposes of
being instructed, Morgan Goodwyn registered a most earnest protest. He
felt that prompt attention should be given to the instruction of the
slaves to prevent the Church from falling into discredit, and to
obviate the causes for blasphemy on the part of the enemies of the
Church who would not fail to point out that ministers sent to the
remotest parts had failed to convert the heathen. Therefore, he
preached in Westminster Abbey in 1685 a sermon "to stir up and
provoke" his "Majesty's subjects abroad, and even at home, to use
endeavors for the propagation of Christianity among their domestic
slaves and vassals." He referred to the spreading of mammonism and
irreligion by which efforts to instruct and Christianize the heathen
were paralyzed. He deplored the fact that the slaves who were the
subjects of such instruction became the victims of still greater
cruelty, while the missionaries who endeavored to enlighten them were
neglected and even persecuted by the masters. They considered the
instruction of the Negroes an impracticable and needless work of
popish superstition, and a policy subversive of the interests of
slaveholders. Bishop Sanderson found it necessary to oppose this
policy of Virginia which had met the denunciation of Goodwyn. In
strongly emphasizing this duty of masters, Bishop Fleetwood moved the
hearts of many planters of North Carolina to allow missionaries access
to their slaves. Many of them were thereafter instructed and baptized.
See Goodwyn, "The Negroes and Indians' Advocate"; Hart, "History Told
by Contemporaries", vol. i., No. 86; "Special Rep. U.S. Com. of Ed.",
1871, p. 363; "An Account of the Endeavors of the Soc.", etc., p. 14.]
Complaints from men of this type led to systematic efforts to
enlighten the blacks. The first successful scheme for this purpose
came from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign
Parts. It was organized by the members of the Established Church in
London in 1701[1] to do missionary work among Indians and Negroes.
To convert the heathen they sent out not only ministers but
schoolmasters. They were required to instruct the children, to teach
them to read the Scriptures and other poems and useful books, to
ground them thoroughly in the Church catechism, and to repeat "morning
and evening prayers and graces composed for their use at home."[2]
[Footnote 1: Pascoe, "Classified Digest of the Records of the Society
for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts", p. 24.]
[Footnote 2: Dalcho, "An Historical Account of the Protestant
Episcopal Church in South Carolina", p. 39; "Special Rep. U.S. Com. of
Ed.", 1871, p. 362.]
The first active schoolmaster of this class was Rev. Samuel Thomas of
Goose Creek Parish in South Carolina. He took up this work there in
1695, and in 1705 could count among his communicants twenty Negroes,
who with several others "well understanding the English tongue" could
read and write.[1] Rev. Mr. Thomas said: "I have here presumed to give
an account of one thousand slaves so far as they know of it and are
desirous of Christian knowledge and seem willing to prepare themselves
for it, in learning to read, for which they redeem the time from their
labor. Many of them can read the Bible distinctly, and great numbers
of them were learning when I left the province."[2] But not only had
this worker enlightened many Negroes in his parish, but had enlisted
in the work several ladies, among whom was Mrs. Haig Edwards. The Rev.
Mr. Taylor, already interested in the cause, hoped that other masters
and mistresses would follow the example of Mrs. Edwards.[3]
[Footnote 1: Meriwether, "Education in South Carolina", p. 123].
[Footnote 2: "Special Rep. U.S. Com. of Ed.", 1871, p. 362.]
[Footnote 3: "An Account of the Endeavors Used by the Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts", pp. 13-14.]
Through the efforts of the same society another school was opened in
New York City in 1704 under Elias Neau.[1] This benefactor is commonly
known as the first to begin such an institution for the education of
Negroes; but the school in Goose Creek Parish, South Carolina, was
in operation at least nine years earlier. At first Neau called the
Negroes together after their daily toil was over and taught them at
his house. By 1708 he was instructing thus as many as two hundred.
Neau's school owes its importance to the fact that not long after its
beginning certain Negroes who organized themselves to kill off their
masters were accredited as students of this institution. For this
reason it was immediately closed.[2] When upon investigating the
causes of the insurrection, however, it was discovered that only one
person connected with the institution had taken part in the struggle,
the officials of the colony permitted Neau to continue his work and
extended him their protection. After having been of invaluable service
to the Negroes of New York this school was closed in 1722 by the
death of its founder. The work of Neau, however, was taken up by Mr.
Huddlestone. Rev. Mr. Wetmore entered the field in 1726. Later there
appeared Rev. Mr. Colgan and Noxon, both of whom did much to promote
the cause. In 1732 came Rev. Mr. Charlton who toiled in this field
until 1747 when he was succeeded by Rev. Mr. Auchmutty. He had the
coöperation of Mr. Hildreth, the assistant of his predecessor. Much
help was obtained from Rev. Mr. Barclay who, at the death of Mr. Vesey
in 1764, became the rector of the parish supporting the school.[3]
[Footnote 1: "An Account of the Endeavors Used by the Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts", pp. 6-12.]
[Footnote 2: "Ibid"., p. 9.]
[Footnote 3: "Special Report U.S. Com. of Ed.", 1871, p. 362.]
The results obtained in the English colonies during the early period
show that the agitation for the enlightenment of the Negroes spread
not only wherever these unfortunates were found, but claimed the
attention of the benevolent far away. Bishop Wilson of Sodor and Man,
active in the cause during the first half of the eighteenth century,
availed himself of the opportunity to aid those missionaries who
were laboring in the colonies for the instruction of the Indians
and Negroes. In 1740 he published a pamphlet written in 1699 on the
"Principles and Duties of Christianity in their Direct Bearing on the
Uplift of the Heathen". To teach by example he further aided this
movement by giving fifty pounds for the education of colored children
in Talbot County, Maryland.[1]
[Footnote 1: "Ibid.", 1871, p. 364.]
After some opposition this work began to progress somewhat in
Virginia.[1] The first school established in that colony was for
Indians and Negroes.[2] In the course of time the custom of teaching
the latter had legal sanction there. On binding out a "bastard or
pauper child black or white," churchwardens specifically required
that he should be taught "to read, write, and calculate as well as to
follow some profitable form of labor."[3] Other Negroes also had an
opportunity to learn. Reports of an increase in the number of colored
communicants came from Accomac County where four or five hundred
families were instructing their slaves at home, and had their children
catechized on Sunday. Unusual interest in the cause at Lambeth, in the
same colony, is attested by an interesting document, setting forth
in 1724 a proposition for ""Encouraging the Christian Education of
Indian, Negro, and Mulatto Children"." The author declares it to be
the duty of masters and mistresses of America to endeavor to educate
and instruct their heathen slaves in the Christian faith, and
mentioned the fact that this work had been "earnestly recommended by
his Majesty's instructions." To encourage the movement it was proposed
that "every Indian, Negro and Mulatto child that should be baptized
and afterward brought into the Church and publicly catechized by the
minister, and should before the fourteenth year of his or her age
give a distinct account of the creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten
Commandments," should receive from the minister a certificate which
would entitle such children to exemption from paying all levies until
the age of eighteen.[4] The neighboring colony of North Carolina
also was moved by these efforts despite some difficulties which the
missionaries there encountered.[5]
[Footnote 1: Meade, "Old Families and Churches in Virginia", p. 264;
Plumer, "Thoughts on the Religious Instruction of Negroes", pp.
11-12.]
[Footnote 2: Monroe, "Cyclopaedia of Education", vol. iv., p. 406.]
[Footnote 3: Russell, "The Free Negro in Virginia", in J.H.U. Studies,
Series xxxi., No. 3, p. 107.]
[Footnote 4: Meade, "Old Families and Churches in Virginia", pp.
264-65.]
[Footnote 5: Ashe, "History of North Carolina", pp. 389-90.]
This favorable attitude toward the people of color, and the successful
work among them, caused the opponents of this policy to speak out
boldly against their enlightenment. Some asserted that the Negroes
were such stubborn creatures that there could be no such close dealing
with them, and that even when converted they became saucier than
pious. Others maintained that these bondmen were so ignorant and
indocile, so far gone in their wickedness, so confirmed in their
habit of evil ways, that it was vain to undertake to teach them such
knowledge. Less cruel slaveholders had thought of getting out of the
difficulty by the excuse that the instruction of Negroes required more
time and labor than masters could well spare from their business. Then
there were others who frankly confessed that, being an ignorant and
unlearned people themselves, they could not teach others.[1]
[Footnote 1: For a summary of this argument see Meade, "Four Sermons
of Reverend Bacon", pp. 81-97; also, "A Letter to an American Planter
from his Friend in London", p. 5.]
Seeing that many leading planters had been influenced by those opposed
to the enlightenment of Negroes, Bishop Gibson of London issued an
appeal in behalf of the bondmen, addressing the clergy and laymen in
two letters[1] published in London in 1727. In one he exhorted masters
and mistresses of families to encourage and promote the instruction of
their Negroes in the Christian faith. In the other epistle he directed
the missionaries of the colonies to give to this work whatever
assistance they could. Writing to the slaveholders, he took the
position that considering the greatness of the profit from the labor
of the slaves it might be hoped that all masters, those especially who
were possessed of considerable numbers, should be at some expense in
providing for the instruction of those poor creatures. He thought
that others who did not own so many should share in the expense of
maintaining for them a common teacher.
[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 sermons on "the great and
indispensable duty of all Christian masters to bring up their slaves
in the knowledge 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 him, and that in return for their drudgery the
master owed it to his bondmen to have them enlightened. He believed
that the reading and explaining of the Holy Scriptures should be made
a stated duty. In the course of time the place of catechist in each
family might be supplied out of the intelligent slaves by choosing
such among them as were best taught to instruct the rest.[2] He was of
the opinion, too, that were some of the slaves taught to read, were
they sent to school for that purpose when young, were they given
the New Testament and other good books to be read at night to their
fellow-servants, such a course would vastly increase their knowledge
of God and direct their minds to a serious thought 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 from the rest of
mankind. Denouncing the more cruel treatment of slaves as cattle,
unfit for mental and moral improvement, these churchmen asserted that
the highest 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 U.S. Com. of Ed.", 1871, p. 363.]
[Footnote 2: "Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed"., 1871, p. 363.]
On account of these appeals made during the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries a larger number of slaves of the English colonies were
thereafter treated as human beings capable of mental, moral, and
spiritual development. Some masters began to provide for the
improvement of these unfortunates, not because they loved them, but
because instruction would make them more useful to the community. A
much more effective policy of Negro education was brought forward in
1741 by Bishop Secker.[1] He suggested the employment of young Negroes
prudently chosen to teach their countrymen. To carry out such a plan
he had already sent a missionary to Africa. Besides instructing
Negroes 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", p.6.]
This organization hit upon the plan of purchasing two Negroes named
Harry and Andrew, and of qualifying them by thorough 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, the missionary who had directed the training of these
young men, a building costing about three hundred and eight 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 home and diffuse the same knowledge 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 from teaching or causing a slave to be
taught, or from employing or using a slave as a scribe in any manner
of writing.
[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 seem that
the sentiment against the education of free Negroes had by that time
become sufficiently strong 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 middle of the eighteenth century,
Eliza Lucas, a lady of South Carolina, who afterward married Justice
Pinckney, mentions a parcel of little Negroes 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 America", p. 241.]
The work of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign
Parts was also effective in communities of the North in which the
established Church of England had some standing. In 1751 Reverend Hugh
Neill, once a Presbyterian minister of New Jersey, became a missionary
of this organization to the Negroes of Pennsylvania. He worked among
them fifteen years. Dr. Smith, Provost of the College 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 seems,
however, that prior to the eighteenth century not much had been done
to enlighten the slaves of that colony, although free persons of
color had been instructed. Rev. Mr. Wayman, another missionary to
Pennsylvania about the middle of the eighteenth 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 U.S. Com. of Ed.", 1871, p. 362.]
[Footnote 2: Wickersham, "History of Education in Pennsylvania", p.
248.]
To meet this need the Society set the example of maintaining
catechetical lectures for Negroes in St. Peter's and Christ Church of
Philadelphia, during the incumbency of Dr. Jennings from 1742 to 1762.
William Sturgeon, 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 remained nineteen years, rendering 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.]
Antedating this movement in Pennsylvania were the efforts of Reverend
Dr. Thomas Bray. In 1696 he was sent to Maryland by the Bishop of
London on an ecclesiastical mission to do what he could toward the
conversion of adult Negroes and the education of their children.[1]
Bray's most influential supporter was M. D'Alone, the private
secretary of King William. D'Alone gave for the maintenance of the
cause a fund, the proceeds of which were first used for the employment
of colored catechists, and later for the support of the Thomas Bray
Mission after the catechists had failed to give satisfaction. At the
death of this missionary the task was taken up by certain followers
of the good man, known as the "Associates of Doctor Bray."[2] They
extended their work beyond the confines of Maryland. In 1760 two
schools for the education of Negroes were maintained in Philadelphia
by these benefactors. It was the aid obtained from the Dr. Bray fund
that enabled the abolitionists to establish in that city a permanent
school which continued for almost a hundred years.[3] About the close
of the French and Indian War, Rev. Mr. Stewart, a missionary in North
Carolina, found there a school for the education of Indians and free
Negroes, conducted by Dr. Bray's Associates. The example of these men
appealing to him as a wise policy, he directed to it the attention of
the clergy at home.[4]
[Footnote 1: "Ibid"., p. 252; Smyth, "Works of Franklin", vol. iv., p.
23; and vol. v., p. 431.]
[Footnote 2: Smyth, "Works of Franklin", vol. v., p. 431.]
[Footnote 3: Wickersham, "History of Education in Pennsylvania", p.
249.]
[Footnote 4: Bassett, "Slavery and Servitude in North Carolina", Johns
Hopkins University Studies, vol. xv., p. 226.]
Not many slaves were found among the Puritans, but the number sufficed
to bring the question of their instruction before these colonists
almost as prominently as we have observed it was brought in the case
of the members of the Established Church of England. Despite the fact
that the Puritans developed from the Calvinists, believers in the
doctrine of election which swept away all class distinction, this sect
did not, like the Quakers, attack slavery as an institution. Yet if
the Quakers were the first of the Protestants to protest against the
buying and selling of souls, New England divines were among the first
to devote attention to the mental, moral, and spiritual development of
Negroes.[1] In 1675 John Eliot objected to the Indian slave trade, not
because of the social degradation, but for the reason that he desired
that his countrymen "should follow Christ his Designe in this matter
to promote the free passage of Religion" among them. He further
said: "For to sell Souls for Money seemeth to me to be dangerous
Merchandise, to sell away from all Means of Grace whom Christ hath
provided Means of Grace for you is the Way for us to be active in
destroying their Souls when they are highly obliged to seek their
Conversion and Salvation." Eliot bore it grievously that the souls of
the slaves were "exposed by their Masters to a destroying Ignorance
meerly for the Fear of thereby losing the Benefit of their
Vassalage."[2]
[Footnote 1: "Pennsylvania Magazine of History", vol. xiii., p. 265.]
[Footnote 2: Locke, "Anti-slavery Before 1808", p. 15; Mather, "Life
of John Eliot", p. 14; "New Plymouth Colony Records", vol. x., p.
452.]
Further interest in the work was manifested by Cotton Mather. He
showed his liberality in his professions published in 1693 in a set of
"Rules for the Society of Negroes", intended to present the claims of
the despised race to the benefits of religious instruction.[1] Mather
believed that servants were in a sense like one's children, and that
their masters should train and furnish them with Bibles and other
religious books for which they should be given time to read. He
maintained that servants should be admitted to the religious exercises
of the family and was willing to employ such of them as were competent
to teach his children lessons of piety. Coming directly to the issue
of the day, Mather deplored the fact that the several plantations
which lived upon the labor of their Negroes were guilty of the
"prodigious Wickedness of deriding, neglecting, and opposing all
due Means of bringing the poor Negroes unto God." He hoped that
the masters, of whom God would one day require the souls of slaves
committed to their care, would see to it that like Abraham they have
catechised servants. They were not to imagine that the "Almighty God
made so many thousands reasonable Creatures for nothing but only to
serve the Lusts of Epicures, or the Gains of Mammonists."[2]
[Footnote 1: Locke, "Anti-slavery", etc., p. 15.]
[Footnote 2: Meade, "Sermons of Thomas Bacon", p. 137 "et seq".]
The sentiment of the clergy of this epoch was more directly expressed
by Richard Baxter, the noted Nonconformist, in his "Directions to
Masters in Foreign Plantations," incorporated as rules into the
"Christian Directory".[1] Baxter believed in natural liberty and
the equality of man, and justified slavery only on the ground of
"necessitated consent" or captivity in lawful war. For these reasons
he felt that they that buy slaves and "use them as Beasts for their
meer Commodity, and betray, or destroy or neglect their Souls are
fitter to be called incarnate Devils than Christians, though they be
no Christians whom they so abuse."[2] His aim here, however, is not to
abolish the institution of slavery but to enlighten the Africans and
bring them into the Church.[3] Exactly what effect Baxter had on this
movement cannot be accurately figured out. The fact, however, that his
creed was extensively adhered to by the Protestant colonists among
whom his works were widely read, leads us to think that he influenced
some masters to change their attitude toward their slaves.
[Footnote 1: Baxter, "Practical Works", vol. i., p. 438.]
[Footnote 2: Baxter, "Practical Works", vol. i., p. 438-40.]
[Footnote 3: "Ibid"., p. 440.]
The next Puritan of prominence who enlisted among the helpers of the
African slaves was Chief Justice Sewall, of Massachusetts. In 1701
he stirred his section by publishing his "Selling of Joseph", a
distinctly anti-slavery pamphlet, based on the natural and inalienable
right of every man to be free.[1] The appearance of this publication
marked an epoch in the history of the Negroes. It was the first direct
attack on slavery in New England. The Puritan clergy had formerly
winked at the continuation of the institution, provided the masters
were willing to give the slaves religious instruction. In the "Selling
of Joseph" Sewall had little to say about their mental and moral
improvement, but in the "Athenian Oracle", which expressed his
sentiments so well that he had it republished in 1705,[2] he met more
directly the problem of elevating the Negro race. Taking up this
question, Sewall said: "There's yet less doubt that those who are of
Age to answer for themselves would soon learn the Principles of our
Faith, and might be taught the Obligation of the Vow they made in
Baptism, and there's little Doubt but Abraham instructed his Heathen
Servants who were of Age to learn, the Nature of Circumcision before
he circumcised them; nor can we conclude much less from God's own
noble Testimony of him, 'I know him that he will command his Children
and his Household, and they shall keep the Way of the Lord.'"[3]
Sewall believed that the emancipation of the slaves should be promoted
to encourage Negroes to become Christians. He could not understand
how any Christian could hinder or discourage them from learning the
principles of the Christian religion and embracing the faith.
[Footnote 1: Moore, "Notes on Slavery in Massachusetts", p. 91.]
[Footnote 2: Moore, "Notes on Slavery in Massachusetts", p. 92; Locke,
"Anti-slavery", etc., p. 31.]
[Footnote 3: Moore, "Notes on Slavery", etc., p. 91; "The Athenian
Oracle", vol. ii., pp. 460 "et seq".]
This interest shown in the Negro race was in no sense general among
the Puritans of that day. Many of their sect could not favor such
proselyting,[1] which, according to their system of government,
would have meant the extension to the slaves of social and political
privileges. It was not until the French provided that masters should
take their slaves to church and have them indoctrinated in the
Catholic faith, that the proposition was seriously considered by many
of the Puritans. They, like the Anglicans, felt sufficient compunction
of conscience to take steps to Christianize the slaves, lest the
Catholics, whom they had derided as undesirable churchmen, should put
the Protestants to shame.[2] The publication of the Code Noir probably
influenced the instructions sent out from England to his Majesty's
governors requiring them "with the assistance of our council to find
out the best means to facilitate and encourage the conversion of
Negroes and Indians to the Christian Religion." Everly subsequently
mentions in his diary the passing of a resolution by the Council Board
at Windsor or Whitehall, recommending that the blacks in plantations
be baptized, and meting out severe censure to those who opposed this
policy.[3]
[Footnote 1: Moore, "Notes on Slavery", etc., p. 79.]
[Footnote 2: This good example of the Catholics was in later years
often referred to by Bishop Porteus. "Works of Bishop Porteus", vol.
vi, pp. 168, 173, 177, 178, 401; Moore, "Notes on Slavery", etc., p.
96.]
[Footnote 3: "Ibid"., p. 96.]
More effective than the efforts of other sects in the enlightenment of
the Negroes was the work of the Quakers, despite the fact that they
were not free to extend their operations throughout the colonies. Just
as the colored people are indebted to the Quakers for registering in
1688 the first protest against slavery in Protestant America, so are
they indebted to this denomination for the earliest permanent and
well-developed schools devoted to the education of their race. As the
Quakers believed in the freedom of the will, human brotherhood,
and equality before God, they did not, like the Puritans, find
difficulties in solving the problem of enlightening the Negroes.
While certain Puritans were afraid that conversion might lead to the
destruction of caste and the incorporation of undesirable persons into
the "Body Politick," the Quakers proceeded on the principle that all
men are brethren and, being equal before God, should be considered
equal before the law. On account of unduly emphasizing the relation of
man to God the Puritans "atrophied their social humanitarian instinct"
and developed into a race of self-conscious saints. Believing in human
nature and laying stress upon the relation between man and man the
Quakers became the friends of all humanity.
Far from the idea of getting rid of an undesirable element by merely
destroying the institution which supplied it, the Quakers endeavored
to teach the Negro to be a man capable of discharging the duties of
citizenship. As early as 1672 their attention was directed to this
important matter by George Fox.[1] In 1679 he spoke out more boldly,
entreating his sect to instruct and teach their Indians and Negroes
"how that Christ, by the Grace of God, tasted death for every man."[2]
Other Quakers of prominence did not fail to drive home this thought.
In 1693 George Keith, a leading Quaker of his day, came forward as a
promoter of the religious training of the slaves as a preparation for
emancipation.[3] William Penn advocated the emancipation of slaves,[4]
that they might have every opportunity for improvement. In 1696 the
Quakers, while protesting against the slave trade, denounced also the
policy of neglecting their moral and spiritual welfare.[5] The
growing interest of this sect in the Negroes was shown later by the
development in 1713 of a definite scheme for freeing and returning
them to Africa after having been educated and trained to serve as
missionaries on that continent.[6]
[Footnote 1: Quaker Pamphlet, p. 8; Moore, "Anti-slavery", etc., p.
79.]
[Footnote 2: "Ibid.", p. 79.]
[Footnote 3: "Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed.", p. 376.]
[Footnote 4: Rhodes, "History of the United States", vol. i., p. 6;
Bancroft, "History of the United States", vol. ii., p. 401.]
[Footnote 5: Locke, "Anti-slavery", p. 32.]
[Footnote 6: "Ibid.", p. 30.]
The inevitable result of this liberal attitude toward the Negroes
was that the Quakers of those colonies where other settlers were
so neglectful of the enlightenment of the colored race, soon found
themselves at war with the leaders of the time. In slaveholding
communities the Quakers were persecuted, not necessarily because they
adhered to a peculiar faith, not primarily because they had manners
and customs unacceptable to the colonists, but because in answering
the call of duty to help all men they incurred the ill will of the
masters who denounced them as undesirable persons, bringing into
America spurious doctrines subversive of the institutions of the
aristocratic settlements.
Their experience in the colony of Virginia is a good example of how
this worked out. Seeing the unchristian attitude of the preachers in
most parts of that colony, the Quakers inquired of them, "Who made you
ministers of the Gospel to white people only, and not to the tawny and
blacks also?"[1] To show the nakedness of the neglectful clergy there
some of this faith manifested such zeal in teaching and preaching to
the Negroes that their enemies demanded legislation to prevent them
from gaining ascendancy over the minds of the slaves. Accordingly, to
make the colored people of that colony inaccessible to these workers
it was deemed wise in 1672 to enact a law prohibiting members of that
sect from taking Negroes to their meetings. In 1678 the colony enacted
another measure excluding Quakers from the teaching profession by
providing that no person should be allowed to keep a school in
Virginia unless he had taken the oath of allegiance and supremacy.[2]
Of course, it was inconsistent with the spirit and creed of the
Quakers to take this oath.
[Footnote 1: Quaker Pamphlet, p. 9.]
[Footnote 2: Hening, "Statutes at Large", vol. i., 532; ii., 48, 165,
166, 180, 198, and 204. "Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed".,
1871, p. 391.]
The settlers of North Carolina followed the same procedure to check
the influence of Quakers, who spoke there in behalf of the man of
color as fearlessly as they had in Virginia. The apprehension of the
dominating element was such that Governor Tryon had to be instructed
to prohibit from teaching in that colony any person who had not
a license from the Bishop of London.[1] Although this order was
seemingly intended to protect the faith and doctrine of the Anglican
Church, rather than to prevent the education of Negroes, it operated
to lessen their chances for enlightenment, since missionaries from
the Established Church did not reach all parts of the colony.[2] The
Quakers of North Carolina, however, had local schools and actually
taught slaves. Some of these could read and write as early as 1731.
Thereafter, household servants were generally given the rudiments of
an English education.
[Footnote 1: Ashe, "History of North Carolina", vol. i., p. 389. The
same instructions were given to Governor Francis Nicholson.]
[Footnote 2: "Ibid"., pp. 389, 390.]
It was in the settlements of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York
that the Quakers encountered less opposition in carrying out their
policy of cultivating the minds of colored people. Among these Friends
the education of Negroes became the handmaiden of the emancipation
movement. While John Hepburn, William Burling, Elihu Coleman, and
Ralph Sandiford largely confined their attacks to the injustice of
keeping slaves, Benjamin Lay was working for their improvement as a
prerequisite of emancipation.[1] Lay entreated the Friends to "bring
up the Negroes to some Learning, Reading and Writing and" to "endeavor
to the utmost of their Power in the sweet love of Truth to instruct
and teach 'em the Principles of Truth and Religiousness, and learn
some Honest Trade or Imployment and then set them free. And," says he,
"all the time Friends are teaching of them let them know that they
intend to let them go free in a very reasonable Time; and that our
Religious Principles will not allow of such Severity, as to keep them
in everlasting Bondage and Slavery."[2]
[Footnote 1: Locke, "Anti-slavery", etc., p. 31.]
[Footnote 2: "Ibid"., p. 32.]
The struggle of the Northern Quakers to enlighten the colored people
had important local results. A strong moral force operated in the
minds of most of this sect to impel them to follow the example of
certain leaders who emancipated their slaves.[1] Efforts in this
direction were redoubled about the middle of the eighteenth century
when Anthony Benezet,[2] addressing himself with unwonted zeal to the
uplift of these unfortunates, obtained the assistance of Clarkson and
others, who solidified the antislavery sentiment of the Quakers and
influenced them to give their time and means to the more effective
education of the blacks. After this period the Quakers were also
concerned with the improvement of the colored people's condition in
other settlements.[3]
[Footnote 1: Dr. DuBois gives a good account of these efforts in his
"Suppression of the African Slave Trade".]
[Footnote 2: Benezet was a French Protestant. Persecuted on account of
their religion, his parents moved from France to England and later to
Philadelphia. He became a teacher in that city in 1742. Thirteen years
later he was teaching a school established for the education of the
daughters of the most distinguished families in Philadelphia. He was
then using his own spelling-book, primer, and grammar, some of the
first text-books published in America. Known to persecution himself,
Benezet always sympathized with the oppressed. Accordingly, he
connected himself with the Quakers, who at that time had before
them the double task of fighting for religious equality and the
amelioration of the condition of the Negroes. Becoming interested in
the welfare of the colored race, Benezet first attacked the slave
trade, so exposing it in his speeches and writings that Clarkson
entered the field as an earnest advocate of the suppression of the
iniquitous traffic. See Benezet, "Observations", p. 30, and the
"African Repository", vol. iv., p. 61.]
[Footnote 3: Quaker Pamphlet, p. 31.]
What the other sects did for the enlightenment of Negroes during this
period, was not of much importance. As the Presbyterians, Methodists,
and Baptists did not proselyte extensively in this country prior to
the middle of the eighteenth century, these denominations had little
to do with Negro education before the liberalism and spirit of
toleration, developed during the revolutionary era, made it possible
for these sects to reach the people. The Methodists, however, confined
at first largely to the South, where most of the slaves were found,
had to take up this problem earlier. Something looking like an attempt
to elevate the Negroes came from Wesley's contemporary, George
Whitefield,[1] who, strange to say, was regarded by the Negro race
as its enemy for having favored the introduction of slavery. He was
primarily interested in the conversion of the colored people. Without
denying that "liberty is sweet to those who are born free," he
advocated the importation of slaves into Georgia "to bring them within
the reach of those means of grace which would make them partake of a
liberty far more precious than the freedom of body."[2] While on a
visit to this country in 1740 he purchased a large tract of land at
Nazareth, Pennsylvania, for the purpose of founding a school for the
education of Negroes.[3] Deciding later to go south, he sold the site
to the Moravian brethren who had undertaken to establish a mission
for Negroes at Bethlehem in 1738.[4] Some writers have accepted the
statement that Whitefield commenced the erection of a schoolhouse at
Nazareth; others maintain that he failed to accomplish anything.[5] Be
that as it may, accessible facts are sufficient to show that, unwise
as was his policy of importing slaves, his intention was to improve
their condition. It was because of this sentiment in Georgia in 1747,
when slavery was finally introduced there, that the people through
their representatives in convention recommended that masters should
educate their young slaves, and do whatever they could to make
religious impressions upon the minds of the aged. This favorable
attitude of early Methodists toward Negroes caused them to consider
the new churchmen their friends and made it easy for this sect to
proselyte the race.
[Footnote 1: "Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed"., 1871, p. 374.]
[Footnote 2: "Ibid"., p. 374.]
[Footnote 3: Turner, "The Negro in Pennsylvania", p. 128.]
[Footnote 4: Equally interested in the Negroes were the Moravians who
settled in the uplands of Pennsylvania and roamed over the hills of
the Appalachian region as far south as Carolina. A painting of a
group of their converts prior to 1747 shows among others two Negroes,
Johannes of South Carolina and Jupiter of New York. See Hamilton,
"History of the Church known as the Moravian", p. 80; Plumer,
"Thoughts on the Religious Instruction of Negroes", p. 3; Reichel,
"The Moravians in North Carolina", p. 139.]
[Footnote 5: "Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed"., 1869, p. 374.]
