S. Com. of Ed_., 1871, pp.
217-221.]
[Footnote 2: In several Southern States special laws were enacted to
prevent the influx of such Christian workers.]
How difficult it was for these churchmen to carry out their policy
of religion without letters may be best observed by viewing the
conditions then obtaining. In most Southern States in which Negro
preachers could not be deterred from their mission by public
sentiment, they were prohibited by law from exhorting their fellows.
The ground for such action was usually said to be incompetency and
liability to abuse their office and influence to the injury of the
laws and peace of the country. The elimination of the Christian
teachers of the Negro race, and the prevention of the immigration of
workers from the Northern States rendered the blacks helpless
and dependent upon a few benevolent white ministers of the slave
communities. During this period of unusual proselyting among the
whites, these preachers could not minister to the needs of their own
race.[1] Besides, even when there was found a white clergyman who was
willing to labor among these lowly people, he often knew little about
the inner workings of their minds, and failing to enlighten their
understanding, left them the victims of sinful habits, incident to the
institution of slavery.
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