e benefit of the young, and finally that
slaves were received into the churches which permitted them to hear
the same gospel and praise the same God.[3]

[Footnote 1: Smith, _Lectures on the Philosophy and Practice of
Slavery_, pp. 228 _et seq_.]

[Footnote 2: Van Evrie, _Negroes and Negro Slavery_, p. 215.]

[Footnote 3: Smith, _Lectures on the Philosophy of Slavery_, p. 228.]

Seeing even in the policy of religious instruction nothing but danger
to the position of the slave States, certain southerners opposed it
under all circumstances. Some masters feared that verbal instruction
would increase the desire of slaves to learn. Such teaching might
develop into a progressive system of improvement, which, without any
special effort in that direction, would follow in the natural order of
things.[1] Timorous persons believed that slaves thus favored would
neglect their duties and embrace seasons of religious worship for
originating and executing plans for insubordination and villainy. They
thought, too, that missionaries from the free States would thereby
be afforded an opportunity to come South and inculcate doctrines
subversive of the interests and safety of that section.[2] It would
then be only a matter of time before the movement would receive such
an impetus that it would dissolve the relations of society as then
constituted and revolutionize the civil institutions of the South.

[Footnote 1: Jones, _Religious Instruction_, p. 192; Olmsted, _Back
Country_, pp. 106-108.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., p. 106.]

The black population of certain sections, however, was not reduced
to heathenism. Although often threatening to execute the reactionary
laws, many of which were never intended to be rigidly enforced,
the southerners did not at once eliminate the Negro as a religious
instructor.[1] It was fortunate that a few Negroes who had learned the
importance of early Christian training, organized among themselves
local associations. These often appointed an old woman of the
plantation to teach children too young to work in the fields, to say
prayers, repeat a little catechism, and memorize a few hymns.[2] But
this looked too much like systematic instruction. In some States it
was regarded as productive of evils destructive to southern
society and was, therefore, discouraged or prohibited.[3] To local
associations organized by kindly slaveholders there was less
opposition because the chief aim always was to restrain strangers