he day it was an evening school. It was successfully
conducted for more than twenty years. In 1763 the institution was for some
unknown reason closed after being conducted in the face of many
difficulties and obstructions, although this was the only educational
institution in that colony for its 50,000 blacks.[10]

Some good results were obtained by the missionaries of the Society of
North Carolina, but difficulties were also encountered there. The chief
trouble seems to have been that missionaries of that colony were
"frustrated by the slave owners who would by no means permit" their Negroes
to be baptized, "having a false notion that a christened slave is by law
free."[11] "By much importunity," says an investigator, Mr. Ransford of
Chowan (in 1712) prevailed on Mr. Martin to let him baptize three of his
Negroes, two women and a boy. "All the arguments I could make use of,"
said he, "would scarce effect it till Bishop Fleetwood's sermon (in 1711)
... turned ye scale."[12] Mr. Rumford succeeded, however, in baptizing
upwards of forty Negroes in one year. In the course of time, when the
workers overcame the prejudice of the masters, a missionary would sometimes
baptize fifteen to twenty-four in a month, forty to fifty in six months,
and sixty to seventy in a year.[13] Reverend Mr. Newman, a minister in
North Carolina, reported in 1723 that he had baptized two Negroes who could
say the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and gave good
sureties for their further information.[14] According to the report of Rev.
C. Hall, the number of conversions there among Negroes for eight years was
355, including 112 adults, and "at Edenton the blacks generally were
induced to attend service at all these stations, where they behaved with
great decorum."[15]

In the Middle and Southern Colonies these missionaries had the cooperation
of Dr. Thomas Bray. In 1696 he was sent to Maryland by the Bishop of
London to do what he could toward the conversion of adult Negroes and the
education of their children.[16] Bray's most influential supporter was M.
D'Alone, the private secretary of King William. D'Alone gave for the
maintenance of the cause a fund, the proceeds of which were first used to
employ catechists, and later to support the Thomas Bray Mission after the
catechists had failed to give satisfaction. At the death of this
missionary the task was taken up by certain of his followers known as the
"Associates of Dr. Bray."[17] T