Yet, it should seem that Negroes, of all Americans, would be found in the Freethought fold, since they have suffered more than any other class of Americans from the dubious blessings of Christianity. It has been well said that the two great instruments for the propagation of race prejudice in America are the Associated Press and the Christian Church. This is quite true. Historically, it was the name of religion that cloaked the beginnings of slavery on the soil of America, and buttressed its continuance. The church saw to it that the religion taught to slaves should stress the servile virtues of subservience and content, and these things have bitten deeply into the souls of black folk. True, the treasured music of these darker millions preserves, here and there, the note of stifled rebellion; but this was in spite of religion—not because of it. Besides, such of their "sorrow-songs" as have this note in them were brutally banned by their masters, and driven to the purlieus of the plantation, there to be sung in secret, And all through the dark days of slavery, it was the Bible that constituted the divine sanction of this "peculiar institution." "Cursed be Canaan," "Servants obey your masters" and similar texts were the best that the slaveholders' Bible could give of consolation to the brothers in black, while, for the rest, teaching them to read was made a crime so that whatever of social dynamite there might be in certain parts of the book, might not come near their minds. Lowell, in his "Biglow Papers," has given a caustic but correct summary of the Christian slave-holders' theology in regard to the slavery of black working-people: "All things wuz gin to man for's use, his sarvice an' demean delight? An' don't the Greek an' Hebrew words that mean a man mean white? Ain't it belittlin' the good book in all its proudes' features To think ‘t wuz wrote for black an' brown an' 'lasses-colored creatures, Thet couldn' read it ef they would—nor ain't by lor allowed to, But ought to take wut we think suits their naturs, an' be proud to? * * * * Where'd their soles go ter, I'd like to know, ef we should let 'em ketch Freeknowledgism an' Fourierism an' Speritoolism an' sech?" When the fight for the abolition of slavery was on, the Christian church, not content with quoting scripture, gagged the mouths of such of their adherents as dared to protest against the accursed thing, penalized their open advocacy of abolition, and opposed all the men like Garrison, Lovejoy, Phillips and John Brown, who fought on behalf of the Negro slave. The detailed instances and proofs are given in the last chapter of "A Short History of the Inquisition," wherein the work shows the relation of the church and slavery.