The examiner. [volume] (Louisville, Ky.) 1847-1849, 1849-01-06
LOUISVILLE, KY: SATURDAY, JANUARY 6. 1913.


personal purity and domestic life cheer an
aid the missionary in his work TO reiorI
and elevate them.
the slaves were of necessity servile an
crouching, and when Aattered by their MAJ
tiers, or selected as favortes, become fawI
ing sycophants. The emancipation ha
broken this spell of power, and the reaction
has been so great that the laborers Otter
maintain their cause with degree OF blunt
ness and frmness, that seems TO be, an,
sometimes is, insolence; and OCCASIONAL,
they manifest petulance and excitemen
extremely improper. They are subject t.
overwhelming bursts Of passion, during
which they are entirely uncomfortable, AM
give utterance to the most wild and frenzieC
rawlings. We have seen such. But wher
reason has regained her sway, they have
not been unwilling to know their wrong
nor slow TO ask forgiveness. except when
designing men had wrought upon theiI
prejudiees, OF excited their suspicious.
The religion of the slaves, so lar as they
had Easy, was assssds4icd Africans heaihen.
ism, baptised into the names and forms Of
Christianity. Obiism and Mialism pre-.
vailed over the whole island; these are an.
cient African superstitions, and are some
times represented as snlagonistic; Obi being
the spirit of evil, and Mial the spirit OF
good; but il is often hard to distinguish be-
tween their deeds, and the hateful crimes
and vices of their priests and believers
Obi men, and Mal men were "lhe great
power Of God They wrought all man
ner OF miracles; caused, cured and iorelold
sickness, plaques. affections, losses-pos
sessed and dispossessed houses Of evil spir
its, &c.
Their great method Of curing disease was
by suction. They prolessed to look through
the body of the patient, and having detected
the cause Of the sickness, which an enemy
had caused TO be placed there by the Obi.
man, they commenced sucking from the
neck, side. arms, &c, skeins Of thread,
pins, needles, dogs and cats teeth, fish
bones, glass, red rags, &c, &c. All this
was done for money, and the fees were pro
por,ioned to the ability Of the patient to
pay. These men were often profane,
licentious, incorporate and grossly ignorant.
yet by their rude juggleries they had oh
tanned an ascendancy over the minds Of the
people, as perfect as that Of the idolauOus
priests of Africa.
Another superstition, and an object of
great terror, was, "the rolling cali. " which
was represented as bailkin with clank.
ing chain, prowlng about at night, with
eyeballs OF fire, and breath Of flame, de
stroying all he met The original Of this
gloss conception may be found in Peter
V. 5.
The belief in ghosts was universal. The
ghosts walked by day as well as by night
they ale and drank, bought and sold, and
worked. They had currency, "ghost
money" which would stay with none but
yet 1t was so much like the
queens good money. that many were de-
ceived by it, and would have dealings with
ghosts, without knowing it, till the ghost
money would slip through their fingers and
be off They could not hold it fast il
would melt away or burn through their
hands Every child wore smulets to pre-
serve it from being breaiked upon by in
visible ghosts, and from being carried off by
visible ones. Every man and woman WAS
guarded by the same charmed rag.
These superstitiom are gradually yield
ing TO the influence Of truth and the light
OF freedom. ObiiSm and Mialism are
now found only in the more Ignorant and
degraded neighbofhoods. The rolling
calf" is becoming an exploded notion;
charms and amulets are pretty generally
dispensed with by the adults, though the
children continue TO wear them, merely, as
their parents aver, because il is Jamaica
fashion.
Since the decree of emancipation, the
bodies OF England have WED
with each other in their efforts for the moral
elevation of the freedmen. la 1924, there
were perhaps forty five ministers OF religion
in Jamaica, some Of these were state paid
hirelings-seventeen were dissenting mis-
sionaries. In 1881, there were nearly one
hundred minis ters, foriy.four Of whom were
dissenters. There are now not less than
two hundred and ten ministers, OF whom
about one hundred are Of the established
churches Of England and Scotland, thirty
are Wesleyans, twenty-six Baptists, sixteen
Presbyterians, thirteen Independents, fifteen
Moravans, FIVE Wesleyan NEWCOMER
ion," four American Congregationalists.
Besides there are Jews three, Catholics FIVE,
Native Baptists twenty -fve.'
The influences of the emancipation up
OH the religious condition Of the freedmen,
is by far its most interesting and important
aspect. 1t excited in them strong feelings Of
gratitude, and with one voice they ascribed
the praise to God. whom they were taught
to regard as their new master, and to whom
they transferred much Of the servility they
had shown to their old ones. The chapels
were thronged, and multitudes earnestly
sought admission TO the bosom oil the
church. This exuberance OF constitutional
feeling, was regarded as the special bestow-
ment OF the Holy Spirit kind Of compen-
sation for the wrongs Of the past. They
were perfectly plastic under the hands Of
the ministry; they acquiesced in everything,
did everything; but it was all external; there
was no thought, no reflection among them,
and scarcely the power OF thought and re-
Election. As slaves they were ignorant oil
the value and uses Of money. and now they
as readily yielded their earnings for the