O, AND MULATTO CHILDREN AT LAMBETH, VIRGINIA, 1724

"It being a duty of Christianity very much neglected by masters and
mistresses of this country (America) to endeavor the good instruction
and education of their heathen slaves in the Christian faith,--the
said duty being likewise earnestly recommended by his Majesty's
instructions,--for the facilitating thereof among the young slaves
that are born among us; it is, therefore, humbly proposed that every
Indian, Negro, or mulatto child that shall be baptized and afterward
brought to church and publicly catechized by the minister in church,
and shall, before the fourteenth year of his or her age, give a
distinct account of the Creed, the Lord's Prayer and Ten Commandments,
and whose master or mistress shall receive a certificate from the
minister that he or she hath so done, such Indian, Negro or mulatto
child shall be exempted from paying all levies till the age of
eighteen years."--Bishop William Meade's _Old Churches, Ministers, and
Families of Virginia_, vol. i., p. 265.

PASTORAL LETTER OF BISHOP GIBSON OF LONDON

To the Masters and Mistresses of Families in the English Plantations
abroad; exhorting them to encourage and promote the instruction of
their Negroes in the Christian Faith. (About 1727.)

The care of the Plantations abroad being committed to the Bishop of
London as to Religious Affairs; I have thought it my duty to make
particular Inquiries into the State of Religion in those Parts, and to
learn among other Things, what numbers of slaves are employed within
the several Governments, and what Means are used for their Instruction
in the Christian Faith: I find the Numbers are prodigiously great; and
am not a little troubled to observe how small a Progress has been made
in a Christian country, towards the delivering those poor Creatures
from the Pagan Darkness and Superstition in which they were bred,
and the making them Partakers in the Light of the Gospel, and the
Blessings and Benefits belonging to it. And what is yet more to be
lamented, I find there has not only been very little Progress made
in the work but that all Attempts toward it have been by too many
industriously discouraged and hindered; partly by magnifying the
Difficulties of the Work beyond what they really are; and partly by
mistaken Suggestions of the Change which Baptism would make in the
Condition of the Negroes, to the Loss and Disadvantage of their
Masters.

As to the Difficulties