[Footnote 1: Jones, _Religious Instruction_, p. 175.]
To a civilized man the result was alarming. The Church as an
institution had ceased to be the means by which the Negroes of the
South could be enlightened. The Sabbath-schools in which so many
colored people there had learned to read and write had by 1834
restricted their work to oral instruction.[1] In places where the
blacks once had the privilege of getting an elementary education, only
an inconceivable fraction of them could rise above illiteracy. Most of
these were freedmen found in towns and cities. With the exception of
a few slaves who were allowed the benefits of religious instruction,
these despised beings were generally neglected and left to die
like heathen. In 1840 there were in the South only fifteen colored
Sabbath-schools, with an attendance of about 1459.
[Footnote 1: Goodell, _Slave Code_, p. 324.]
There had never been any regular daily instruction in Christian
truths, but after this period only a few masters allowed field hands
to attend family prayers. Some sections went beyond this point,
prohibiting by public sentiment any and all kinds of religious
instruction.
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