no pretentious to religion,
men who rarely attend the preaching of the gospel themselves, should
encourage their slaves to attend divine service, and, in some
instances build churches and employ ministers for the benefit of their
own slaves. Strange as it may appear, it is nevertheless true. But
admitting the fact, and I cheerfully admit it, that all has been done
that was practicable, under the circumstances, to Christianize the
African race in the Southern States, yet the principles of
Christianity have exerted on them but a partial influence, in
consequence of their ignorance. No people can be brought fully under
the influence of the Christian religion, unless their minds are at the
same time enlightened and expanded by literature. Religion and
literature are twin sisters; bound together by indissoluble ties, and
the Divine Being never intended that they should be separated.
Religious instruction without literary culture, can produce but a
partial and superficial effect on the human mind; it can produce no
strong, permanent and abiding influence. When the gospel is preached
to an ignorant, illiterate, semi-savage people, the seed is sown in an
incongenial soil, and the product will be in accordance with the soil
in which the seed is sown. This accounts for a fact stated in the
preceding pages, that slaves apparently pious, when liberated and
exposed to certain temptations, were very likely to fall into their
former habits and vices. It also accounts for the fact, that but few
Africans can bear flattery and attention from the white race, it
matters not how virtuous and pious they may be; it is certain to elate
them, and to excite them to acts of indiscretion, and sometimes to
acts grossly vicious. It is so common for Southern slaves who arc
apparently pious, when exposed to temptation to fall into acts of
gross immorality, that many unthinking persons in the South have come
to the conclusion that there is no sincere piety among them; that they
are insincere and hypocritical in their professions and pretentious. A
gentleman once remarked to me, that he had never seen an African in
whose piety he had entire confidence. It was a remark, I believe of
Doctor Nelson, (the author of the celebrated work on infidelity,) that
he had never seen but one or two consistently pious slaves. The doctor
was long a resident of Tennessee, a practitioner of medicine and a
minister of the gospel, and certainly had good opportunities for
fo