"[2]
In 1738 he said, "I instruct in Christian morals the slaves of our
residence, who are Negroes, and as many others as I can get from their
masters."[3] Years later Francois Philibert Watrum, seeing that some
Jesuits had on their estates one hundred and thirty slaves, inquired
why the instruction of the Indian and Negro serfs of the French did
not give these missionaries sufficient to do.[4] Hoping to enable
the slaves to elevate themselves, certain inhabitants of the French
colonies requested of their king a decree protecting their title to
property in such bondmen as they might send to France to be confirmed
in their instruction and in the exercise of their religion, and to
have them learn some art or trade from which the colonies might
receive some benefit by their return from the mother country.
[Footnote 1: _Ibid_., vol. lxvii., pp. 259 and 343.]
[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., vol. lxviii., p. 201.]
[Footnote 3: _Ibid_., vol. lxix., p. 31.]
[Footnote 4: _Ibid_., vol. lxx., p. 245.]
The education of Negroes was facilitated among the French and Spanish
by their liberal attitude toward their slaves. Many of them were
respected for their worth and given some of the privileges of
freemen.
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