The church was given a freer hand with the slaves, missions were established, church houses were built, and many of the slaves learned to read under the guidance of the church. Their characters were improved. The influence of the churches was always directed toward better living conditions, better food and clothing, and better treatment generally. Their influences were felt directly by the negroes as well as indirectly through Christian masters. The individual churches in Tennessee differed considerably in their attitude toward slavery in the early period. In the order of their degree of hostility to slavery, the Friends should have first place, the Methodists second, Cumberland Presbyterians third, Baptists fourth, Presbyterians fifth, and Episcopalians sixth. From point of service, the Methodists should rank first, and the Baptists second. These two churches represented the masses of the slaveholders and contained the majority of the slaves that belonged to the church. It is difficult to estimate the work of the Baptists because there are no records of their local associations or their individual congregations. Through biographies and actions of Tennessee delegations to the Southern Convention after 1845, one can find convincing evidence that Tennessee Baptists did a valuable work for the negro. The sources for the study of the Methodists are much more abundant. It appears, therefore, that their work assumed larger proportions than that of any other denomination. “High and low alike,” says Harrison, “entered into this noble work. There was no phase of it too humble, no duty connected with it too unpleasant to deter the most earnest and painstaking effort. Bishop McTyeire, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, declared that during a long ministerial life there was nothing connected with it in which he took more pride and satisfaction than the remembrance of the more than three hundred services he had preached to negro congregations.”[173] FOOTNOTES [1] Jernegan, M. W., Slavery and Conversion in the Colonies, pp. 516-7. [2] Ibid., p. 576. [3] Ibid., p. 514. [4] Col. Recs., I, 204. [5] Ibid., 857. [6] Ibid., 720. [7] Ibid., IV, 13. [8] Ibid., 794. [9] Ibid., VII, 126. [10] Ibid., 424. [11] Ibid., 705. [12] Matlock, L. C., The Anti-slavery Struggle and Triumph in the Methodist Episcopal Church, 17. [13] American Church History, XI, 1. [14] Tyerman, L., Life of Whitefield, II, 272. Whitefield is reported as having said: “I should think myself highly favored if I could purchase a good number of slaves in order to make their lives more comfortable and lay a foundation for bringing up their posterity in the nature and admonition of the Lord.” He died owning 75 slaves. American Church History, XI, 5. [15] Jernegan, op. cit., 515. [16] Matlock, op. cit., 17. [17] Minutes of the Methodist Episcopal Conferences, 1773-1813, I, 5-6. [18] The first paragraph of this law shows the general tenor of these regulations: