[5] Be
that as it may, accessible facts are sufficient to show that, unwise
as was his policy of importing slaves, his intention was to improve
their condition. It was because of this sentiment in Georgia in 1747,
when slavery was finally introduced there, that the people through
their representatives in convention recommended that masters should
educate their young slaves, and do whatever they could to make
religious impressions upon the minds of the aged. This favorable
attitude of early Methodists toward Negroes caused them to consider
the new churchmen their friends and made it easy for this sect to
proselyte the race.
[Footnote 1: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed_., 1871, p. 374.]
[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., p. 374.]
[Footnote 3: Turner, _The Negro in Pennsylvania_, p. 128.]
[Footnote 4: Equally interested in the Negroes were the Moravians who
settled in the uplands of Pennsylvania and roamed over the hills of
the Appalachian region as far south as Carolina. A painting of a
group of their converts prior to 1747 shows among others two Negroes,
Johannes of South Carolina and Jupiter of New York. See Hamilton,
_History of the Church known as the Moravian_, p.
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