CHAPTER XLI. RELIGIOUS STRUGGLES.
Caste, the natural product of slavery, did not stop at the door of the sanctuary, as might be presumed that it would, but entered all, or nearly all, of the Christian denominations of our country, and in some instances even pursued the negro to the sacramental altar. All churches had their “Negro-pew,” where there were any blacks to put into them. This was the custom at the South, and it was the same at the North.
As the religion of the country was fashioned to suit the public sentiment, which was negro-hating in its character, the blacks of the United States would have formed a poor idea of the Christian religion in its broadest sense, had not an inward monitor told them that there was still something better.
The first step towards the enjoyment of religious freedom was taken by the colored people of Philadelphia. This was caused by the unkind treatment of their white brethren, who considered them a nuisance in their houses of worship, where they were pulled off their knees while in the act of prayer, and ordered to the back seats. From these and other acts of unchristian conduct, the blacks considered it their duty to devise means of having a house for religious worship, of their own. Therefore, in November, 1787, they seceded from the Methodist Church, in Philadelphia, formed a society, built a house to meet in, and set up for themselves.
Although the whites considered the blacks as intruders in their churches, they were, nevertheless, unwilling to allow them to worship by themselves, unless they should have the privilege of furnishing their sable brethren with preachers. The whites denied the blacks the right of taking the name of Methodist without their consent, and even went so far as to force their white preachers into the pulpits of the colored people on Sundays. The law, however, had more justice in it than the Gospel; and it stepped in between the blacks and their religious persecutors, and set the former free.
In 1793, Rev. Richard Allen built a church for his people in Philadelphia, and henceforth their religious progress was marvellous. In 1816, Richard Allen was ordained Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church; Morris Brown was ordained a bishop in 1828; Edward Waters in 1836; and William P. Quinn in 1844. These were known as the Bethel Methodists. About the same time, the colored Christians of New York, feeling the pressure of caste, which weighed heavily upon them, began to sigh for the freedom enjoyed by their brethren in the City of Brotherly Love; and in 1796, under the lead of Francis Jacobs, William Brown, and William Miller, separated from their white brethren, and formed a church, now known as the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. This branch of seceders equalled in prosperity their brethren in Philadelphia.
The first annual conference of these churches was held in the city of Baltimore, in April, 1818. The example set by the colored ministers of Philadelphia and New York was soon followed by their race in Baltimore, Richmond, Boston, Providence, and other places. These independent religious movements were not confined to the sect known as Methodists, but the Baptists, Presbyterians, and Episcopalians were permitted to set up housekeeping for themselves.
The Episcopalians, however, in New York and Philadelphia, had to suffer much, for they were compelled to listen to the preacher on Sunday who would not recognize them on Monday. The settlement of the Revs. Peter Williams at New York, and William Douglass at Philadelphia, seemed to open a new era to the blacks in those cities, and the eloquence of these two divines gave the members of that sect more liberty throughout the country. In the Southern States, the religious liberty of the blacks was curtailed far more than at the North. The stringent slave-law, which punished the negro for being found outside of his master’s premises after a certain time at night, was construed so as to apply to him in his going to and from the house of God; and the poor victim was often flogged for having been found out late, while he was on his way home from church.
These laws applied as well to the free blacks as to the slaves, and frequently the educated colored preacher had his back lacerated with the “cat-o’-nine-tails” within an hour of his leaving the pulpit.
In all of the slave states laws were early enacted regulating the religious movements of the blacks, and providing that no slave or free colored person should be allowed to preach. The assembling of blacks for religious worship was prohibited, unless three or more white persons were present.