As I remarked in my last letter, the largest part of the negroes making a religious profession are classed under the denomination of Baptists. They insist upon immersion as necessary to salvation; and I have heard one of them argue the point with his master with no less confidence, wit and pertinacity than doctors of divinity commonly employ in theological discussions; it will not be disrespectful to those who intelligently embrace this doctrine, to nevertheless suppose that the mass of negroes accept it because it makes more of an event of the baptismal ceremony, thus gratifying their passionate fondness for excitement. All who write upon this dogma, and act upon it, are considered to be within the reach of God’s mercy, and are held in fellowship by them, but within this they also split into numerous parties or sects, each designated by a [165] title which is generally expressive of the degree of loyalty to some standard of orthodoxy attributed to each, such as “Hard Shell,” “Soft Shell,” &c.

On almost every large plantation, and in every neighborhood of small ones, there is one man who has come to be considered the head or pastor of the local church. The office among the negroes, as among all other people, confers a certain importance and power. A part of the reverence attaching to the duties is given to the person; vanity and self-confidence is cultivated, and a higher ambition aroused than usually can enter the mind of a slave. The self-respect of the preacher is also increased by the consideration in which he is held by his masters as well as his fellows; thus, the preachers generally have an air of superiority to other negroes; they acquire a remarkable memory of words, phrases and forms---a sort of curious poetic talent is developed---a habit is obtained of rhapsodizing and exciting furious emotions, to a great degree spurious and temporary, in themselves and others, through the imagination. I was once introduced to a preacher, who was represented to be quite distinguished among them. I took his hand respectfully, and said I was happy to meet him. He seemed to take this for a joke, and laughed heartily. He was a “driver,” and my friend said, “He drives the negroes at the cotton all the week, and Sundays he drives them at the Gospel-don’t you, John?” He commenced to reply in some Scriptural phrase, soberly, but before he could say three words, began to laugh again, and reeled off like a drunken man-entirely overcome with merriment. He recovered himself in a moment and came up to us again. “They say he preaches very powerfully, too.” “Yah, Massa! ’kordin to der grace-yah! yah!” and he staggered off again with the peculiar hearty negro guffaw. My friend’s tone was, I suppose, slightly humorous, but I was grave, and really meant to treat him respectfully, wishing to draw him into conversation; but he had started upon a merry mood, and I found it impossible to get the better of it.

There is no element in the difficult problem of Slavery which we of the North so little comprehend and leave out of view in our theorizing, as the exceedingly low moral and intellectual condition of the slaves. In one of my earliest letters after entering Virginia, I conveyed to you the impressions which I had received on this point from the general appearance, language, and conversation of the negroes. These impressions have been strengthened and confirmed by further observation of them as I have proceeded South. I described to you the influences which, by destroying ambition and elevated aims, and by cultivating improvidence and carelessness, and by stimulating only the lowest impulses of a man, combine to keep the negro in a condition of mental childishness and moral debasement.

In considering a great system, we cannot be too careful not to be deceived by its exceptional appearances. Individual instances, in which various Christian virtues and graces are beautifully exhibited by slaves, are constantly cited on both sides, by Southerners as well as Northerners, which can only properly be considered as eddies in the general current of slave life. Give the system fair play, where no sheltering point of an unusually indulgent and [166] sensible master, or a peculiar natural drift of mind (such as in a higher class, according to the proverb, produces the poet), and you see only a dark, deep tide of stupidity and superstitution. Mungo Park found exquisite benevolence touchingly displayed among the negroes of the darkest wilds of Africa. I can say myself of a certain heathen I have known, that I scarce ever saw evidence of a character more full of meekness, patience and affection, and I have had an East Indian idolator preach to me with an earnestness, candor and logical ability that deserved my gratitude and respect.

Such cases are to Paganism what such a character as “Uncle To” is to slavery, or the religion of slaves. “Such a character is impossible in a negro” (slave) is the most common criticism on “the greatest story of the age,” by Southerners, though once or twice, when I remarked that this was evidence unfavorable to slavery, I have been assured by others that they had known slaves wonderfully like“Uncle Tom.” I confess the character does not seem to me to be altogether consistent or natural under the circumstances.

The mind and higher faculties of the negro are less disciplined and improved in slavery than in the original barbarism of the race, because in the latter state he has at least to exercise them under the necessity of contriving to procure food, raiment, and habitation; in providing for his offspring, in the consequently necessary acquisition of property, exciting cautious enterprise, having reference to the chances of the future, and in the defence of personal liberty. I do not believe there is a body of men in the world that have so stupid, unmanly, and animal an existence as the rank and file plantation negroes of our Southern States. I have never been on the Slave Coast of Africa, but I have been among the essentially savage natives of the Malay Archipelago, and the latter, according to my observation, were as fully developed men by the side of babes compared with the mass of these plantation slaves. The agricultural laborer in those districts of England in which land is held in the largest parcels, such as Wiltshire, being in a large degree dependent on their immediate employer, more nearly resemble the negroes in this respect than any other people I have known. The number of these is small, their condition is improving, and so far as it is the result of a system of government or law, this is being yearly modified favorably to their elevation. This condition of the negro, which it seems to me is the main, and sufficient reason, against unconditional, immediate abolition of the relation of master and dependent, is not simply a circumstance attending his perpetual slavery, but is its result. I cannot see how this conclusion is avoidable by a candid and sensible observer. I therefore take ground against the writer of a recent article in Hunt’s Merchant’s Magazine, who maintains that slavery is the (only) true, speedy, and successful method for civilizing and christianizing the heathen; and am constrained to say that my judgment, and my observation of facts, a priori, would by no means lead me to recommend any such scheme for preaching the Gospel as he favors.

I do not admit, in evidence upon this subject, the statistics that are usually cited, of the number of slaves counted as religious by their owners or by [167] themselves. A profession or name for a religious character among them appears to be founded upon the exhibition of certain phrensied states of the imagination, excitable at will in any mind not habitually disciplined to the control of reason, and in the direction of words and actions according to certain precepts and formulas.

Delirium, madness, and even catalepsy, are often produced by the excited imagination in certain sects of the Mahometans, and in many idolaters, at their festivals and meetings for public worship; and blind obedience to certain rules of conduct which they have been taught to consider of supernatural importance, and slavish reverence to certain days and words and things, are as habitual among the Fetish worshippers of Africa as among their transplanted cousins, the baptized and enrolled church-members of America. That the morality and the superstition of these latter is in all cases better than theirs, that it is much more like what Christianity prompts a man to, is very true, but it is no more the same thing than a rush light is a sunbeam.

On two of the rice plantations that I visited there were neat buildings set apart and fitted up as chapels, (called by the negroes “Prayer houses”). In one of these were rows of seats with backs to them, and I was told that the negroes objected to these because they did not leave them room enough to pray. It was explained to me that it was their custom in social worship to work themselves up to a great pitch of excitement, in which they yell and cry aloud, and finally shriek and leap up, clapping their hands and dancing, as it is done at heathen festivals—the seats were too close together to admit of this exercise. Mr. A., the rice planter spoken of in a previous letter, told me that he had forbidden his negroes this shouting and jumping at their plantation meeting, from a conviction that there was not the slightest element of religious sentiment in it. He considered it to be engaged in more as an exciting amusement than from any really religious impulse. In the town churches, except, perhaps, those managed and conducted almost exclusively by negroes, they commonly engage in religious exercises in a sober and decorous manner, yet a member of a Presbyterian Church in a Southern city told me that he had seen the negroes in his own house of worship, during “a season of revival,” leap from their seats, throw their arms wildly in the air, shout vehemently and unintelligibly, cry, groan, rend their clothes, and fall into cataleptic trances.

In conversation with a very worthy and intelligent gentleman on this subject, I asked if he had often known religion to effect any very great elevation of character among slaves. He replied that he had, and mentioned the following as a case in point. A cook came into his possession, who was generally a very good and valuable servant, but who would sometimes get intoxicated, and then do and say a great deal that was wrong. He several times expostulated with her, but effected no good; at length, knowing that she was a member of a colored church (it was in a city), he threatened to complain to the officers of it of her conduct. This threat had more effect upon her than all the previous means he had used, but, at length, she had a drunken fit again, and he did call on the [168] officers of her church, and told them her conduct was such as was inconsistent with the professions of a church-member, and they ought to warn her. He found the officers—colored men—very respectable, intelligent and obliging persons. They thanked him for advising them of the case, and forthwith called upon the cook, and threatened her with suspension or excommunication if she did not reform. She was very much frightened and mortified, and since that time she had been constantly sober, and her moral character in every respect excellent. Now, such a case as this plainly shows the power for good (or evil) of an ecclesiastical inquisition, not the power of religion.

There was an improved morality, or rather, here was an improved self-control, a better degree of self—government, arising not from an elevated moral sense and love of the All Good, but from little better than a base, irreligious, and unmanly principle of heart—the fear or worship of man; or, if it be deemed rather the worship or fear of God, manifested in reverence and obedience to his human representatives or ministers, you simply elevate it from Infidelity to Idolatry. I make these observations with reference to a subject of frequent discussion—how far compensation for the evils, or palliation for the wrong of the perpetual Slavery of the Negroes of the South is to be found in the good it is doing in the way of christianizing them. Christianity can only be practically defined, in considering this question, as a principle of the heart which manifests itself in the constantly progressive, moral elevation of the individual. In my judgment, the general degradation of manhood, the training to cowardice and imbecility, or duplicity of mind, the constraint upon the free development of individuality of character, and the destruction of the sense of high individual responsibility, which is demanded by an established system of perpetual Slavery, is most strongly opposed to the reception in the hearts of its subjects of anything that can be reverently dignified with the holy name of Christianity.

I do not question, that there are many slaves whose lives are radiant with the light of the simple and pure faith of Christianity, nor that there has been a considerable improvement in their moral condition, as a people, since they have been removed from the savage and cannibal state of society and been held in the restraint of American civilization and law; but I think this improvement limited and restricted by the necessities of Slavery; that Slavery, in its effects on slaves, is at war with progress, with enlightenment, with Christianity.

I think the native manly spirit and capacity of the savage is but poorly compensated for by the pseudo-religion and civilization of the slave.

This opinion is not common or popular, but my very first observation of the manners, language and conversation of the slaves in Virginia, as I then expressed to you, favored it, and my continued investigation of this subject has surprisingly established it in my mind. I, therefore, wish to state it frankly and distinctly.

Out of respect to the generous spirit of the correspondent of the Daily Times, “A Native Southerner,” I will refer especially to his views. In my [169] judgment, Slavery as it is intended to be perpetuated at the South, in its general and legitimate operations upon the character of the slaves, is “inconsistent with a beautiful type of humanity.” He admits that the South is not faithful to the task of regenerating the slaves, but thinks that it is not for want of anxious solicitude and much steady, earnest labor on the part of the whites. So far as my knowledge extends, there is very little of such earnest, steady labor; the labor is isolated, intermittent, and, in the minds of most sensible men engaged in it that I have met, is far from encouraging in its results.

It is always difficult for us to distinctly understand the moral effect of institutions to which we are accustomed, and with which our whole lives are associated, but I think it is because it is felt how impracticable it is to free the slave’s mind without freeing his body, and how little he can be improved morally while his mind is left fettered in darkness, that so little is attempted; that so much is by law forbidden at the South in this field of Christian and benevolent labor. A clergyman confessed to me that after seven years’ daily intercourse with and labors among slaves, he was deeply grieved to find how little hold upon them he had gained, how small his influence was, and how little real confidence they had in him. He said they seemed to be always suspicious of his motives and to be unable to repose an unfeigned trust in him. A Northern clergyman who had resided for two years in a Southern city, told me that he thought that not more than one in seven of the negroes who were members of the churches in it had a sensible understanding of what they professed.

When “A Native Southerner” speaks of “the largest and most effective missionary operation in the world in steady earnest action on the negro mind,” I suppose he uses a figure of speech. There are no associated, systematic, special operations to improve the religious or moral character of the slaves, worth mentioning. Very rarely the planters of a small district may unite to support a missionary or white clergyman to preach in circuit, on their plantations, on Sundays. I have heard of three such, and I also know of one very large slave owner who keeps a white preacher employed upon his own property alone. I have been on plantations where Sunday-schools were formerly kept, and I presume they are not uncommon. In these the children are taught to repeat catechisms, creeds, hymns, and passages of scripture. A lady from Kentucky, on attending such a school while on a visit in Georgia, remarked that she had never seen a Sabbath-school for colored children before. But I will continue this subject in another letter.