's, the Governor and a member of the Assembly, Mr. and Mrs.
Skeen,[5] Mrs. Haigue and Mrs. Edwards. So successful were the efforts of
Mrs. Haigue and Mrs. Edwards that they were formally thanked by the
Society for their care and good example in instructing the Negroes of whom
no less than twenty-seven prepared by them, including those of another
planter, were baptized by the Reverend E. Taylor of St. Andrew's within
two years.[6]

Other less liberal masters refused to allow their slaves to attend Mr.
Taylor for instruction, but some of them were induced to teach the blacks
the Lord's Prayer. The result even from this was so successful that there
came to the church more Negroes than could be accommodated. So great was
their desire for instruction that had it not been for the opposition of
their owners, almost all of them would have been converted. "So far as
the missionaries were permitted," says one, "they did all that was
possible for their evangelization, and while so many professed Christians
among the planters were lukewarm, it pleased God to raise to himself
devout servants among the heathen, whose faithfulness was commended by the
masters themselves. In some of the congregations the Negroes or blacks
constituted one half of the communicants."[7]

This interest of the clergy in the Negroes of South Carolina continued in
spite of opposition. Rev. Mr. Guy, of St. Andrew's Parish, said that he
baptized "a Negro man and a Negro woman" in 1723, and Rev. Mr. Hunt,
minister of St. John's Parish, reported in that same year that "a slave, a
sensible Negro, who can read and write and comes to church, is a Catechumen
under probation for Baptism which he desires."[8] A new impetus too was
given the movement about 1740. Influenced by such urgent addresses as those
of Dr. Brearcroft, and Bishops Gibson, Wilson and Seeker, the workers of
the Society were aroused to proselyting more extensively among the Negroes.
In 1741 the Bishop of Canterbury expressed his gratification at the large
number of Negroes who were then being brought into the church.[9]

A decided step forward was noted in 1743. That year a school for Negroes
was opened by Commissary Garden and placed in charge of Harry and Andrew,
two colored youths, who had been trained as teachers at the cost of the
Society. This establishment was a sort of training school for bright young
blacks who felt called to instruct their fellow countrymen. For adults who
labored during t