A TRUE ACCOUNT OF A PIOUS NEGRO
(Written about 1800)
Some years ago an English gentleman had occasion to be in North America, where, among other adventures, the following circumstances occurred to him which are related in his own words.
"Every day's observation convinces me that the children of God, viz. those who believe in him, and on such terms are accepted by him through Jesus Christ, are made so by his own especial grace and power inclining them to what is good, and, assisting them when they endeavor to be and continue so.
"In one of my excursions, while I was in the province of New York, I was walking by myself over a considerable plantation, amused with its husbandry, and comparing it with that of my own country, till I came within a little distance of a middle aged negro, who was tilling the ground. I felt a strong inclination to converse with him. After asking him some little questions about his work, which he answered very sensibly, I wished him to tell me, whether his state of slavery was not disagreeable to him, and whether he would not gladly exchange it for his liberty?"
"Massah," said he, looking seriously upon me, "I have wife and children; my massah takes care of them, and I have no care to provide anything; I have a good massah, who teach me to read; and I read good book, that makes me happy." "I am glad," replied I, "to hear you say so; and pray what is the good book you read?" "The Bible, massah, God's own good book." "Do you understand, friend, as well as read this book? for many can read the words well, who cannot get hold of the true and good sense." "O massah," says he, "I read the book much before I understand; but at last I found things in the book which made me very uneasy." "Aye," said I, "and what things were they?" "Why massah, I found that I was a sinner, massah, a very great sinner, I feared that God would destroy me, because I was wicked, and done nothing as I should do. God was holy, and I was very vile and naughty; so I could have nothing from him but fire and brimstone in hell, if I continued in this state." In short, he fully convinced me that he was thoroughly sensible of his errors, and he told me what scriptures came to his mind, which he had read, that both probed him to the bottom of his sinful heart, and were made the means of light and comfort to his soul. I then inquired of him, what ministry or means he made use of and found that his master was a Quaker, a plain sort of man who had taught his slaves to read, and had thus afforded him some means of obtaining religious knowledge, though he had not ever conversed with this negro upon the state of his soul. I asked him likewise, how he got comfort under all his trials? "O massah," said he, "it was God gave me comfort by his word. He bade me come unto him, and he would give me rest, for I was very weary and heavy laden." And here he went through a line of the most striking texts in the Bible, showing me, by his artless comment upon them as he went along, what great things God had done in the course of some years for his soul….—Bishop William Meade's "Tracts, Dialogues," etc., in the Appendix of Thomas Bacon's Sermons Addressed to Masters and Servants.