SLAVERY AS A MISSIONARY SYSTEM

In the county of Liberty, in Georgia, a Presbyterian
minister has been for many years employed exclusively
in laboring for the moral enlightenment of the slaves,
being engaged and paid for this especial duty by their
owners. From this circumstance, almost unparalleled
as it is, it may be inferred that the planters of that
county are, as a body, remarkably intelligent, liberal,
and thoughtful for the moral welfare of the childlike
wards Providence has placed under their care and
tutorship. According to my private information, there
is no body of slaveowners more, if as much so, in the
United States. I heard them spoken of even as far
away as Virginia and Kentucky. I believe, that in no
other district has there been displayed as general and
long-continued an interest in the spiritual well-being
of the negroes. It must be supposed that nowhere else
are their circumstances more happy and favorable to
Christian nurture.'

1 In White's Statistics of Georgia (page 377), the citizens of
Liberty county, are characterized as " unsurpassed for the great
attention paid to the duties of religion." Dr. Stevens, in hts
History of Georgia, describes them as "worthy of their sites,"
who were " the moral and intellectual nobility of the province,"
" whose accession was an honor to Georgia, and has ever proved
one of its richest blessings." In the biography of General



66 In the Back Country

After laboring thirteen years with a zeal and judg-
ment which had made him famous, this apostle to the
slaves of Liberty was called to the professorship of
theology in the University of South Carolina. On re-
tiring from his field of labor as a missionary, he
addressed a valedictory sermon to his patrons, which
has been published. While there is no unbecoming
despondency or absence of proper gratitude for such
results as have rewarded his protracted labor, visible
in this document, the summing up is not such as
would draw unusual cheers if given in the report of
an African missionary at the Tabernacle or Exeter
Hall. 