h their Negroes the
Christian religion. Looking beyond the narrow circle of his own sect,
the bishop invited the attention of all denominations to this subject
in which they were "equally concerned." He especially besought "the
ministers of the gospel to take it into serious consideration as a
matter for which they also will have to give an account. Did not
Christ," said he, "die for these poor creatures as well as for any
other, and is it not given in charge of the minister to gather his
sheep into the fold?"[2]

[Footnote 1: Meade, _Sermons of Rev. Thos. Bacon_, pp. 31,32, 81, 90,
93, 95, 104, and 105.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., p. 104.]

Another worker in this field was Bishop William Capers of the
Methodist Episcopal Church of South Carolina. A southerner to the
manner born, he did not share the zeal of the antislavery men who
would educate Negroes as a preparation for manumission.[1] Regarding
the subject of abolition as one belonging to the State and entirely
inappropriate to the Church, he denounced the principles of the
religious abolitionists as originating in false philosophy. Capers
endeavored to prove that the relation of slave and master is
authorized by the Holy Scriptures. He was of the opinion, however,
that certain abuses which might ensue, were immoralities to be
prevented or punished by all proper means, both by the Church
discipline and the civil law.[2] Believing that the neglect of the
spiritual needs of the slaves was a reflection on the slaveholders, he
set out early in the thirties to stir up South Carolina to the duty of
removing this stigma.

[Footnote 1: Wightman, _Life of William Capers_, p. 295.]

[Footnote 2: Wightman, _Life of William Capers_, p. 296.]

His plan of enlightening the blacks did not include literary
instruction. His aim was to adapt the teaching of Christian truth to
the condition of persons having a "humble intellect and a limited
range of knowledge by means of constant and patient reiteration."[1]
The old Negroes were to look to preachers for the exposition of these
principles while the children were to be turned over to catechists
who would avail themselves of the opportunity of imparting these
fundamentals to the young at the time their minds were in the plastic
state. Yet all instructors and preachers to Negroes had to be careful
to inculcate the performance of the duty of obedience to their masters
as southerners found them stated in the Holy Scriptures. Any one w