NOTE 6
(Chapter VII, page [185])
The Colony of Georgia affords another interesting illustration. It was the result of James Oglethorpe’s venture in colonizing debtor-prisoners and other unfortunates, a movement characterized as “the beginning of modern philanthropy,” and giving an opportunity to those noted missionaries of the Church of England, John and Charles Wesley and George Whitfield. Slavery was to be forbidden in the colony; but circumstances proved too strong. Rice was the staple crop, the waters formed its congenial home, and the Negroes—who else could so well subdue the swamps and make them productive? The result was inevitable. Georgia conformed to the general policy of her sister colonies.
As philanthropy was the motive, so religion was the animating spirit, of the new colony. Accordingly John and Charles Wesley were among the first colonists. The former established Christ Church Parish, Savannah, which was later divided, allowing the formation of Christ Church Parish, Frederica, named for the Savannah mother-church, Charles Wesley being its first rector, in 1736. These were deadly pioneer days, and rectors came thick and fast as predecessors were driven out, sometimes by political influence, most often by climatic.
Charles Wesley remained a year, and then John, his brother, assumed the charge of both parishes, making his way to Frederica on foot, trusting, for the crossing of the large rivers, to the passing canoes of the friendly Indians. “The fact of these visits to Frederica has been questioned,” writes the Rev. D. W. Winn, the present rector, “but the writer has seen Wesley’s own diary in which he tells how he fell into the water from a small boat while embarking from Frederica, and the leaves of the diary showed the marks of the water.” Mr. Winn, the descendant of the sister of those first missionaries, Charles and John Wesley, and fourteenth rector in succession from them, has had more than ordinary interest in the labors of his predecessors and in the knowledge of them. George Whitfield succeeded the Wesleys in 1737 or ’38; and, after them, three other missionaries of the period of establishment. The last, the Rev. Bartholomew Zorabuhler, was also the first of the line of permanent workers, serving from 1746 to 1766. Frederica, the chief centre of negro missions, furnishes our sample for the study of this early work in Georgia. The English Church Commissary, succeeding Commissary Bray for a part of the period, was the Rev. J. Ottolonghe, who made his headquarters in Savannah, and directed the Church’s enterprises in the colony.
Happily we have access to some of the early reports of the Commissary describing the negro work, these being kindly furnished by the Rev. James Lawrence, present historiographer of the Diocese. These are written with punctilious regard to the picturesquely bad spelling of the days of “Bloody Mary” and “Good Queen Bess,” one line only, in original, is here inflicted; it is dated Dec. 5, 1751. “In my last sent you by ye Charming Martha I took ye liberty to acquaint you with my safe arrival in Georgia.” The lonely Commissary takes large liberty in thus addressing his home-superiors through the intermediary, not of a charming spinster, but of a boat whose picture would belie the description; and he notes, in appropriate capitals, his arrival, safe from peril, to which a good 20 per cent of the adventurers of the time fell victims.
The letter proceeds: “As soon as the Fatigue of the Voyage permitted it, I desired Reverend Zouberbuyler (Zorabuhler, Mr. Winn says; but what matters such a liberty with names among friends?) that he would be so good as to give the people notice in the Church that I would instruct their Negroes three days in the week, viz.: Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, which he accordingly did, and that I might make it easier to the Masters of these unhappy Creatures, I have appointed the Time of their coming to me to be at Night, when their daily Labour is done. When we meet, I make them go to Prayers with me, having composed for the purpose a few Prayers, suitable (I hope) to the Occasion. Having thus recommended Ourselves to the Protection of Heaven, and for his Blessing on our Undertaking; I instruct them to Reade, that they may be able in Time to comfort themselves in reading the Book of God. After this is done, I make them repeat the Lord’s Prayer and the Belief, and a Short Portion of the Catechism, explaining to them in as easie and Familiar a manner as I can the Meaning of what they repeat, and before I part with them, I make a Discourse to them on the Being of God, or the Life and Death of our adorable Redeemer, or upon some of ye Precepts of the Holy Gospel, generally introducing some Event or Story, taken out of the Bible, suitable to the Discourse in Hand; and in order to get their Love, I use them with all the Kindness and endearing Words that I am capable of, which makes them willing to come to me and ready to follow my advice, and as Rewards are Springs that set less selfish minds than these unhappy Creatures possess, on Motion, I have therefore promised to reward the Industrious and Diligent, and Hope through Christ’s Grace, that ’twill have its due Effect. These then, Dear Sir, are the Methods, these the Path, that I have chalked out in order to discharge my Duty. If right and agreeable to your better Judgement, I shall continue in them; if not, I shall be very ready to put in Practice any other Method, which you shall please to prescribe.”
As the efforts expand and the field is enlarged, new difficulties are met. In 1754, the Commissary has pushed out among the new arrivals. A more stable government had encouraged the expansion of planting interests. There were great difficulties to be met in reaching the Negroes of the new expansions. “Our Negroes,” he writes, referring to the new plantations, “are so ignorant of the English language, and none can be found to talk in their own, that it is a great while before you can get them to understand what the meaning of Words is. Again Slavery is certainly a great Depresser of the Mind, which retards their learning a new Religion proposed to them in a new and unknown Language, besides the superstitions of a false religion to be combatted with, and nothing harder to be removed (you know) than Prejudices of Education, riveted by Time and intrenched in deep Ignorance.” So there was anguish of heart all along the line.
In 1858, the Commissary’s letter clearly infers another peril to his efforts growing out of the quarrels of Christian denominations. A Church-Bill was presented to the Assembly seeking to better the conditions of the Slaves in all ways possible. But the Assembly was composed of a large majority of Dissenters, and the bill was presented by Church of England representatives—fair ground apparently for religious disputes which lost sight of bill, of Negroes, of religion and of justice.
It was the age of materialism which, as Professor Brawley says, “defeated the benevolence of Oglethorpe’s scheme for the founding of Georgia,” and against which the Church battled, not only on behalf of the slaves, but for the very life of religion. A difficult battle it was when self-interest was all arrayed on the side of materialism.