olgan, Rev. R. Charlton, and Rev. S. Auchmutty. From
1732 to 1740 Mr. Charlton baptized 219 slaves and frequently thereafter
the number admitted yearly was from 40 to 60.[39] The great care exercised
in preparing slaves for the church was rewarded by the spiritual knowledge
which in some cases was such as might have put to shame many persons who
had had greater advantages. Rev. Mr. Auchmutty, who served from 1747 to
1764, reported that there was among the Negroes an ever-increasing desire
for instruction and "not one single Black" that had been "admitted by him
to the Holy Communion" had "turned out bad or been in any shape a disgrace
to our holy Profession."[40]

The interest in the enlightenment of Negroes too extended also to other
parts of the colony. In 1737 Rev. Mr. Stoupe wrote of baptizing four black
children at New Rochelle.[41] Mr. Charlton had taken upon himself at New
Windsor the task of instructing these unfortunates before he entered upon
the work in New York City. At Staten Island too he found it both practical
and convenient "to throw into one the classes of his white and black
catechumens."[42] Rev. Charles Taylor, a schoolmaster at that place, kept
a night school "for the instruction of Negroes, and of such as" could not
"be spared from their work in the day time."[43] Rev. J. Sayre, of
Newburgh, followed the same plan of coeducation of the races in each of
the four churches under his charge.[44] Rev. T. Barclay, an earnest worker
among the slaves in Albany, reported in 1714 "a great forwardness" among
them to embrace Christianity "and a readiness to receive
instruction."[45] He found much opposition among certain masters, chief
among whom were Major M. Schuyler and his brother-in-law Petrus
Vandroffen. Sixty years later came the report from Schenectady that there
were still to be found several Negro slaves of whom 11 were sober, serious
communicants.[46]

These missionaries met with more opposition than encouragement in New
England. The Puritan had no serious objection to seeing the Negroes saved,
but when the conversion meant the incorporation of the undesirable class
into the state, then so closely connected with the church, many New
Englanders became silent. This opposition, however, was not effective
everywhere. From Bristol, Rev. J. Usher wrote in 1730 that several Negroes
desired baptism and were able "to render a very good account of the hope
that was in them," but he was forbidden by their mas