Note: The minutes of the Annual Conference of the Methodists in Tennessee were burned with the Methodist Publishing House in Nashville, February, 1872. The publishing house has never been able to find another copy. McFerrin’s History of Methodism in Tennessee, which contains copious quotations from these minutes, is the only available source. [31] Supra, p. 105. [32] Asbury, Thomas, Journal of Rev. Francis Asbury, Vol. 3, p. 290; Cartwright, Peter, Fifty Years as a Presiding Elder, pp. 53ff.; Goodspeed, pp. 663-667; Temple, O. P., East Tennessee and Civil War, pp. 97ff. [33] Goodspeed, p. 667. [34] Supra, p. 106. [35] McFerrin, II, 261, 283; Goodspeed, pp. 667, 668. [36] McFerrin, II, 261. [37] McFerrin, II, 401. [38] The Code of 1817 is as follows: “If a local elder, deacon, or preacher, in our Church, shall purchase a slave or slaves, he shall lay his case before the Quarterly-Meeting Conference of his circuit as soon as practicable, which Quarterly-Meeting Conference shall say how long such slave or slaves serve as a remuneration to the purchaser; and on the decision of the Quarterly-Meeting Conference, touching the time the slave or slaves shall serve, the purchaser shall, without delay, enter into a written obligation to the Quarterly-Meeting Conference to emancipate such slave or slaves at the expiration of the term of servitude, _if the law of the State_ will admit; and such obligation shall be entered on the Journals of the Quarterly-Meeting Conference. But should the laws of the State continue rigidly to oppose the emancipation of slaves, so that their freedom, as above contemplated, should prove impracticable, during the term and at the end of the slave’s or slaves’ servitude, as determined by the Quarterly-Meeting Conference, he, the said elder, deacon, or preacher, shall, at the end of the time of servitude, again lay his case before the Quarterly-Meeting Conference, which Quarterly-Meeting Conference shall determine it according to the then existing slave rule of the Annual Conference to which he belongs; and should the said elder, deacon, or preacher, be dissatisfied with the decision of the Quarterly-Meeting Conference, he shall be allowed an appeal to the ensuing Annual Conference, provided he then signifies his intention of so appealing.