ones thought that if the circumstances of the Negroes
were changed, they would equal, if not excel, the rest of the human
family "in majesty of intellect, elegance of manners, purity of
morals, and ardor of piety."[3] He feared that white men might cherish
a contempt for Negroes that would cause them to sink lower in the
scale of intelligence, morality, and religion. Emphasizing the fact
that as one class of society rises so will the other, Jones advocated
the mingling of the classes together in churches, to create kindlier
feelings among them, increase the tendency of the blacks to
subordination, and promote in a higher degree their mental and
religious improvement. He was sure that these benefits could never
result from independent church organization.[4]

[Footnote 1: Rev. Josiah Law was almost as successful as Jones in
carrying the gospel to the neglected Negroes. His life is a large
chapter in the history of Christianity among the slaves of that
commonwealth. See Wright, _Negro Education in Georgia_, p. 19.]

[Footnote 2: Rhodes, _History of the U.S_., vol. i., p. 331.]

[Footnote 3: Jones, _Religious Instruction_, p. 103.]

[Footnote 4: Jones, _Religious Instruction_, pp. 106, 217.]

Meeting the argument of those who feared the insubordination of
Negroes, Jones thought that the gospel would do more for the obedience
of slaves and the peace of the community than weapons of war. He
asserted that the very effort of the masters to instruct their slaves
created a strong bond of union between them and their masters.[1]
History, he believed, showed that the direct way of exposing the
slaves to acts of insubordination was to leave them in ignorance and
superstition to the care of their own religion.[2] To disprove the
falsity of the charge that literary instruction given in Neau's school
in New York was the cause of a rising of slaves in 1709, he produced
evidence that it was due to their opposition to becoming Christians.
The rebellions in South Carolina from 1730 to 1739, he maintained,
were fomented by the Spaniards in St. Augustine. The upheaval in New
York in 1741 was not due to any plot resulting from the instruction
of Negroes in religion, but rather to a delusion on the part of the
whites. The rebellions in Camden in 1816 and in Charleston in 1822
were not exceptions to the rule. He conceded that the Southampton
Insurrection in Virginia in 1831 originated under the color of
religion. It was pointed out, howev