Slavery and the ConstitutionBowditch, William I. (William Ingersoll)
Religion
Slavery and the Constitution
Bowditch, William I. (William Ingersoll)
Enslaved persons -- United States -- Social conditions; Slavery -- United States
Page 27: "Q. You said that at your baptism you were made inheritors
of the kingdom of heaven; but will you get eternal life in heaven,
if you do not strive to go there?--A. No; but I shall be sent down
to hell.
Q. How are you to strive or try to go to heaven?--A. I must have
nothing to do with the devil and his works; which I gave up at my
baptism.
Q. In what way are you to shun the devil and his works?--A. By
keeping within me no bad thoughts; by speaking no bad words; and by
doing no bad things.
Q. What do you mean by keeping within you no bad thoughts?--A. I
mean that I must not hate anybody, nor wish to hurt anybody, nor
wish to do any wrong.
Page 30: Q. What do you mean by doing no bad things, such things as
the devil tempts you to do?--A. I mean that I must not hurt anybody;
must not disobey my parents, nor disobey my master, nor disobey God.
Q. But can you not disobey your parents and your master without
their knowing it?--A. Yes; but God knows it; for God always sees me.
Q. What else must you do to get to heaven?--A. I must believe all
that God has told me about the way to get there.
Pp. 35, 36: Q. How are you to show that you love your neighbor as
yourself?--A. I am to show it by always doing my duty to my
neighbor, as God has commanded me.
Q. Who is your neighbor?--A. Everybody who lives with me and around
me, and has the control over me.
Q. Can you name some persons?--A. My playfellows, my master and
mistress, and my parents....
Q. How are you to show your love to your master and mistress and
your parents?--A. I am never to lie to them, to steal from them, nor
speak bad words about them, but always to do as they bid me.
Page 47: Q. How do others sin against you?--A. By cursing me,
telling lies about me, or striking me.
Q. What must you do to those who thus sin against you?--A. I must
forgive them.
Q. What if you do not forgive them?--A. Then God will not forgive
me.
Q. Why?--A. Because I pray to him to forgive me, just as I forgive
others.
Page 48: Q. How are you to forgive others, when they trespass
against you?--A. I am not to hurt them, because they hurt me; but I
must pray for them, and try to do them good.
Q. What if you do to them just as they do to you?--A. Then God will
not forgive my sins, but will punish me.
Page 43: Q. What do you pray for, when you say in the Lord's prayer,
'Thy will be done'?--A. I pray that my will and everybody's will may
submit to God's will.
Q. Where does God make his will known to us?--A. In his word and in
his acts.
Page 44: Q. What are God's acts by which he makes his will known to
us?--A. Every thing that happens to us is God's act.
Q. How are you to submit to God's will as made known in his
acts?--A. When God sends trouble or sickness or death, I am to feel
that God does right."
Mr. Jones thus catechizes the slaves ("Catechism," pp. 129-131):--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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