ous body in favor
of the enslavement of my race, nor did I see how the northern churches
could be responsible for the conduct of southern churches; neither did
I fully understand how it could be my duty to remain separate from the
church, because bad men were connected with it. The slaveholding church,
with its Coveys, Weedens, Aulds, and Hopkins, I could see through at
once, but I could not see how Elm Street church, in New Bedford, could
be regarded as sanctioning the Christianity of these characters in the
church at St. Michael's. I therefore resolved to join the Methodist
church in New Bedford, and to enjoy the spiritual advantage of public
worship. The minister of the Elm Street Methodist church, was the Rev.
Mr. Bonney; and although I was not allowed a seat in the body of
the house, and was proscribed on account of my color, regarding this
proscription simply as an accommodation of the uncoverted congregation
who had not yet been won to Christ and his brotherhood, I was willing
thus to be proscribed, lest sinners should be driven away form the
saving power of the gospel. Once converted, I thought they would be
sure to treat me as a man and a brother. "Surely," thought I, "these
Christian people have none of this feeling against color. They, at
least, have renounced this unholy feeling." Judge, then, dear reader, of
my astonishment and mortification, when I found, as soon I did find, all
my charitable assumptions at fault.

An opportunity was soon afforded me for ascertaining the exact position
of Elm Street church on that subject. I had a chance of seeing the
religious part of the congregation by themselves; and{274} although
they disowned, in effect, their black brothers and sisters, before the
world, I did think that where none but the saints were assembled, and
no offense could be given to the wicked, and the gospel could not be
"blamed," they would certainly recognize us as children of the same
Father, and heirs of the same salvation, on equal terms with themselves.

The occasion to which I refer, was the sacrament of the Lord's Supper,
that most sacred and most solemn of all the ordinances of the Christian
church. Mr. Bonney had preached a very solemn and searching discourse,
which really proved him to be acquainted with the inmost secerts(sic)
of the human heart. At the close of his discourse, the congregation
was dismissed, and the church remained to partake of the sacrament. I
remained to see, as I though