he very act of baptizing a slave child did
not set him free from slavery. Because of that question many
slave-owners declined to permit the baptism of their slaves until the
question was settled, and consequently in every slave-owning colony it
became necessary to secure a legislative enactment establishing the
legal status of a baptized slave. The question arose in Virginia, and
in 1667 the following act was adopted by the General Assembly:

Whereas some doubts have risen whether children that are
slaves by birth, and by the charity and piety of their owners
made partakers of the blessed sacrament of baptisme, should
by virtue of their baptisme be made free; _It is enacted and
declared by this Grand Assembly and the authority thereof_,
that the conferring of baptisme doth not alter the condition
of the person as to his bondage or freedom; that diverse
masters, freed from this doubt, may more carefully endeavour
the propagation of Christianity by permitting children,
though slaves, or those of greater growth if capable to be
admitted to that sacrament.

The question was settled likewise throughout all the slave-holding
colonies of England, and human slavery was written into the laws of the
various colonies of the British empire, there to remain until the
ideals of the nineteenth century eliminated it from the constitution
and the laws of every English-speaking nation.

The following incidents, although they occurred in the first half of
the eighteenth century, outside the period covered by this booklet, are
yet of such interest in the continuing story of Negro slavery as to be
worth recording here.

In 1724 the Bishop of London, Edmund Gibson, sent a questionary to the
incumbent minister of every Anglican parish in the American colonies.
Among the questions he asked were two; one inquiring how many
"infidels," either Indians or Negroes, there were in each parish; and
two, what efforts were being made to convert them to the Christian
faith. The answers revealed a serious situation, and the need of more
definite and better organized efforts to convert the Negroes.

The first effort made by the Bishop of London was as strong a pastoral
letter as he could write upon the need of more earnest effort to bring
the Negro slaves into the Christian faith. He also prepared a pamphlet
to be used for the instruction of Negroes. His pastoral letter and his
pamphlet were sent to every i