The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861: A History of the Education of the Colored People of the United States from the Beginning of Slavery to the Civil WarWoodson, Carter Godwin
History
The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861: A History of the Education of the Colored People of the United States from the Beginning of Slavery to the Civil War
Woodson, Carter Godwin
African Americans -- Education
The most striking example of this class of workers was the Rev. C.C.
Jones, a minister of the Presbyterian Church. Educated at Princeton
with men actually interested in the cause of the Negroes, and located
in Georgia where he could study the situation as it was, Jones became
not a theorist but a worker. He did not share the discussion of the
question as to how to get rid of slavery. Accepting the institution as
a fact, he endeavored to alleviate the sufferings of the unfortunates
by the spiritual cultivation of their minds. He aimed, too, not to
take into his scheme the solution of the whole problem but to appeal
to a special class of slaves, those of the plantations who were left
in the depths of ignorance as to the benefits of right living. In this
respect he was like two of his contemporaries, Rev. Josiah Law[1] of
Georgia and Bishop Polk of Louisiana.[2] Denouncing the policy of
getting all one could out of the slaves and of giving back as little
as possible, Jones undertook to show how their spiritual improvement
would exterminate their ignorance, vulgarity, idleness, improvidence,
and irreligion; Jones thought that if the circumstances of the Negroes
were changed, they would equal, if not excel, the rest of the human
family "in majesty of intellect, elegance of manners, purity of
morals, and ardor of piety."[3] He feared that white men might cherish
a contempt for Negroes that would cause them to sink lower in the
scale of intelligence, morality, and religion. Emphasizing the fact
that as one class of society rises so will the other, Jones advocated
the mingling of the classes together in churches, to create kindlier
feelings among them, increase the tendency of the blacks to
subordination, and promote in a higher degree their mental and
religious improvement. He was sure that these benefits could never
result from independent church organization.[4]
[Footnote 1: Rev. Josiah Law was almost as successful as Jones in
carrying the gospel to the neglected Negroes. His life is a large
chapter in the history of Christianity among the slaves of that
commonwealth. See Wright, _Negro Education in Georgia_, p. 19.]
[Footnote 2: Rhodes, _History of the U.S_., vol. i., p. 331.]
[Footnote 3: Jones, _Religious Instruction_, p. 103.]
[Footnote 4: Jones, _Religious Instruction_, pp. 106, 217.]
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