CHAPTER XVII

RECONSTRUCTION IN the chuRCHES

HERETOFORE we have looked at the secular side of the reorganization of the South after the Civil War, the political, social and economic features of the time. It might be thought that this would embrace everything, that at least religion would be untouched, if not indeed prove a means of reunion. But religion is more, or less, than one's love of God and man. It embraces forms of worship, church government and beliefs, which may harden into creeds, but receive ever-varying applications with new surroundings. All faiths agree that purity and goodness mark the religious life, but even Christians have fought and persecuted each other over forms and government as well as over beliefs. In America few differences arise as to worship and polity, but the application of beliefs and practice to a moral question, which also was an economic one, preceded the political struggle, and indeed we may find outlasted it. To understand the religious conditions at the close of the war we must look far earlier in the century.

Slavery was the universal touchstone before the Civil War. It divided old political parties by a sectional line, and, strange as it may be, it had the same effect upon the churches, which at first would seem to concern themselves only with spiritual affairs. We might go further and say that religion was the cause of the political division; for there was throughout America, despite denominational lines,

a real Christian unity which antedated the growth of political unity. The Colonization Society, which founded Liberia, was perhaps a political rather than a religious body, but it was favored by the churches, who long worked and prayed for it as a solution of the question of the negro's future. If at the North the sinfulness of slavery was uncompromisingly preached, at least it was at first regarded as a national sin, as well as a national danger. But colonization was generally realized to be an inadequate solution, because at best too slow, and industrial growth and educational development gave rise in New England to a class who could echo the contentions of Sharp and Wilberforce abroad. The agitation over the moral, or, what was the same thing, the religious side of slavery, beginning from New England, the home of ethical discussion, was the cause of the division which finally broke up the Union. It was unfortunate, but it was perhaps unavoidable, that the most violent attacks upon slavery came from the East, where the institution had died out because of climatic reasons. The result was an awakening antagonism in the South, for there it was felt that slavery was neither understood nor appreciated by its critics; that incidental evils were looked at rather than the general improvement which had resulted to the blacks. If on the one side there was the criticism, so easy and so natural, of other people's affairs, so on the other came the disposition to defend existing institutions which concerned one's own pocket, and an indisposition to discuss the principles involved.

Before the Civil War the principal denominations were the Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, and Congregationalists, and the Episcopalians, although in some portions of the South, as, for instance, Louisiana, the Catholics predominated. Each had its own local and general organization, with assemblies annually or at other intervals for the oversight of the church. At first there was no distinction or even discussion as to slavery, but gradually this ghost would not down and it required wisdom to prevent marring

of fraternal relations. Among the Methodists the question came up whether slaveholders should be officers, among the Presbyterians and Baptists whether they should be missionaries.

All denominations favored and cultivated religion among

the negroes.

The typical planter cared for the spiritual health of his slaves as he did their bodily welfare, and white pastors ministered to the servants, in town or country, as regularly as to the masters. In town the galleries were reserved for the negroes, and in the country the same church building might be used at different times by whites and blacks. Often there were negro preachers, ministering under the supervision of white authorities. There were white missionaries who gave their lives to the salvation of the blacks even in the rice fields of Carolina, and some blacks were sent as missionaries abroad, notably to Africa. It is true that there were exceptions to this kindly treatment, but they were exceptions, and public opinion was gradually inducing spiritual improvement of the subject race. Even education was encouraged in some places until the rise of abolitionism aroused fears of insurrection and caused a reaction.

At the North the course of development was somewhat different. The negro is as a rule an emotional and affectionate creature, and some sides of religion have always appealed to him. He is naturally musical and with some mental cultivation has transformed this feature into rhythmical expression. One of the earliest of the negroes pointed out by abolitionists as an instance of what the race could accomplish was Phillis Wheatley, brought as a child from Africa and educated at Boston. She became a poetess of some note, especially on religious themes. With others later the taste for numbers has sometimes shown itself in a musical prose, occasionally of great beauty. Neither the Presbyterians nor Episcopalians were to contain many negro members, but two of the best-known negroes of the earlier part of the nineteenth century were ministers of these

churches. J. W. C. Pennington, the first colored Presbyterian minister in New York, was a fugitive slave from Maryland. He was of pure African blood and lived at different places in the North. Of even higher attainments, perhaps, was Alexander Crummell, at one time one of the four episcopally ordained colored clergymen in the United States. He met with prejudice in attaining education at the North, and had the clearness of vision to detect the great weakness of his race, the lack of moral character. He gave himself to trying to remedy this and after discouragements was admitted to the Episcopal ministry. His work failed in New England, and he declined to enter the diocese of Pennsylvania because denied a seat in the church councils, but finally obtained a charge in New York. He was at Oxford for a while and then sought the west coast of Africa; but, somewhat as Phillis Wheatley rejoiced that she had been torn away from that continent as a slave in order to enjoy the blessings of America, Crummell sought the United States again, and there he lived and there he died. But it was not among the Presbyterians or Episcopalians, despite the strength of these two men, that the strongest appeal was to be made to the negroes in America. It was among the Methodists and Baptists that we find their largest membership.

As free negroes increased and slaves decreased in number, there grew up a desire on the part of the negroes for separation from the white churches. This came about naturally and almost unperceived, and among the Methodists by 1796 practically a new denomination was founded under the name of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. This began in New York and soon a number of congregations were formed. The separating tendency led to the formation at Philadelphia in 1816 of another church differing mainly in name, the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Each went its way, grew and multiplied throughout the North, claiming finally thousands of adherents, with bishops, clergy and ecclesiastical organization complete.

The churches had little or no membership at the South, for the slaves were not permitted to form organizations outside of the jurisdiction of their masters. The southern negroes absorbed the Christian influences about them, but everywhere, and particularly in the outlying portions of the country, many African superstitions survived, much as the spread of Christianity in the early centuries took up with it Roman customs and beliefs. Medicine and theology were hardly severed, and conjuring on the one hand was not distinguishable from Voodoo practice on the other.

The discussion of the white Methodists over slavery culminated at the General Conference of 1844, held in New York, when it was deemed best in view of all the circumstances to divide the church, and a Plan of Separation was worked out. Satisfactory arrangements were made for division of property, but unfortunately a change in sentiment caused litigation over this subject. The first Southern General Conference was organized at Petersburg, Virginia, in May, 1846, and thenceforward the two bodies pursued their separate courses. It is true the Northern General Conference in 1848 declared the Plan of Separation null and void, but the only result of this was friction between the two branches of the church. The Southern Conference established a publishing house at Nashville, missions abroad and among the negroes at home, and grew in all departments of work. By 1860 the membership was over five hundred thousand whites, two hundred thousand negroes, and forty-one hundred Indians.

It is perhaps uncertain which of the three evangelical denominations was the pioneer in the South, but there is no doubt that the Baptists were early in the field and active in building up churches. Their stronghold for a long time. was in the country districts rather than in the towns, and their democratic form of organization, each congregation being almost independent, gave them an adaptability to circumstances perhaps superior to the others. They were at all times one of the strongest if not the strongest