NOTE 7
(Chapter VII, page [185])
Regarding the instruction in religion given to the Negroes by their white owners, the following may be of interest.
It is only occasionally that one finds a record like this: “In 1712 the Rev. Gilbert Jones was Rector of Christ Church Parish. He felt a great interest in the spiritual welfare of the Negroes, and endeavored to persuade their owners to assist in having them instructed in the Christian faith; but he found this good work lay under difficulties as yet insuperable.”
Generally the testimony is most favorable and encouraging, as, for example, “The Rev. William Taylor wrote to the Society in 1713, stating that Mrs. Haig and Mrs. Edwards, who lately came to the plantations in Carolina, have taken extraordinary pains to instruct a considerable number of Negroes in the principles of the Christian religion, and to reclaim and reform them. The wonderful success they met with in about six months, encouraged me to go and examine the Negroes about their knowledge in Christianity. They declared to me their faith in the chief articles of our religion, which they sufficiently explained. They rehearsed by heart, very distinctly, the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Ten Commandments. Fourteen of them gave me so great satisfaction, and were so desirous to be baptized, that I thought it my duty to do it on the last Lord’s Day. I doubt not but these gentlewomen will prepare the rest of them for Baptism in a little time, and I hope their good example will provoke some masters and mistresses to take the same care and pains with their poor Negroes.”