Huntsville gazette., 1890-11-01

'AS W 'ce Gnu siCaI WtTo StFpugly pTOnOunCSQ
and much divided. The right of the Negro to
baptism was fiercely disputed, especially by
those who owned them as slaves. What is
plain to all now was dark and doubtful to
many then. 1t is easy to fancy that men
spoke OF 1T with bated breath, and saw in the
Negroes baptism menace to the peace and
stability OF society, as well as of slavery. For
to baptize the Negro and admit him to mem
| bersh!p in the Christian Church was to recog-
aze him as man, child of od an heir of
! Heaven, redeemed by the blood of Christ, q
temple of the Holy Ghost, standing type
and representative of the Savior of the world,
one who, according to the Apostle Paul, must
be treated no longer as a servant. but as n
brother, beloved. Viewed in this light, his
admission to baptism and to the church was
matter of the gravest consideration. 1t
| touched the money nerve of the Christians of
that day, for their wealth was largely in
vested in Negro flesh and blood. 1t was well
said that the proposition was novel, eXtraordi-
| nary and full of danger 1t would mpair the
value of the slave, and it would put in jeop-
oardy the authority of the master. They were
| right, and if the Negro was to be regarded as
a Christian, he could not be regarded as
| heathen, and as the Bible sanctioned only the
ens!avement of the heather, the Negro Chris
tan could not be bought and sold, ensiaved
| uuu hHlppeu, dcCCrQlnG 10 the
of the relation of master and slave. From
every view they could take of it the PROPOSE
ton to oaptize the Negro was rank radicaism
and deserved stern resistance at its inception.
TO the credit of the church and its minis
| ters, it must be said that one learned and able
divine, in the person of DR.. Goodwin, was equal
to the situation. He met the arguments of
the opposition to Negro baptism in o book of
200 pages, i'll which he endeavOred to show
! that baptism would not impair either the
value of the slave or the authority of the
master. His argument was a curious one. 1t
divided the Negro into two separate parts
| giving one to the Lord and the other to the
Shareholder. and leaving nothing TO himself.
Baptism he said, freed the Negro from the
bondage of the devil, but not from the bond
age of his earthly master, The controversy
over this problem was long and furious, and
the Negro only won partial victory after all
| The matter was finally settled, as usual, by Il
| kind of compromise. The Negro was bap-
tied and admitted to the church, but sort
OF second table was set for him. He could
take the Lords supper only after his white
/ brethren had finished eating the bread and
drinking the wine. He was not even allowed
| to enter the same door of the san ctuary by
which his white brethren entered. A separate
| door WAS cut for him in the wall leading to a
high and dark place in the gallery, where his
presence could give no otfense to the Lord s
white people on the floor.
] 1t is strange that this state of things did not
disgust and repel the Negro, and drive him
from religion altogether. but it did not. He
chung to religion all the same. Relieving
that half a loaf was better than no bread, he
| took what he could get of the church. kept
on praying and singing, and sometimes shout
| ing. He cOuld fprVentlY for the
version of the scoundrcl who tore his flesh
with the lash, as for his best friend He was
made to think that his offensive black skin on
earth would be changed for white one in
Heaven. 1t was strange fancy, but quite a
natural one when we see the Importance
given to color in the problems before us in
our day.
Another problem greatly disturbed the con-
scientious during the time of slavery. 1t was
this: Can Negro contract a valid marriage?
If he could, and could enforce his right to his
wife and children, it would prove an inconve-
nent limitation on the power of his master.
If what God had joined together no man shall
put asunder the right to sell the wife from
the husband aud the husband from the wife
must cease, In tie minds of the men who
had to deal with it such limitation i'll the
| right of the master could be allowed or toler-
ated for moment. The master must have
the right to buy and sell as he pleased, was
the solution of that problem. One terrible
evil or this solution of the marriage question
| is still seen in our land. Unable to contract
valid marriage the Negro felt unrestrained
and licensed to do as he pleased He was not
expected to limit his conduct by any rule or
| principle of morality or decency, but took to
| hims If the freedom of the beasts of the field
and the fowls of the air. He had in law no
wife, no family, no children and did not own
himself The consequence of this state of
| things may be seen very often in our own
! city at the police court and elsewhere, and
the very people who are responsible for this
immortality and crime make merry over our
wretcheoness and talk soiemnly about the
terrible Negro problem
Happily for us, and happily for our common
country as we shall see later on, the Southern
solution of this Negro problem has now been
unsolved by the act of emancipation and the
superior civilization of the loyal American
people over the people of the old slave hod-
ing States.
Another troublesome problem presented to
our Christian country was whether the Negro
! should have the he D of the Bible with which
to get to Heaven; whether in fact. the COM
mand to search the Scriptures imposed any
obligation or duty on him. Our Southern
brethren, with whom have always been
profoundly sympathetic even unto this day,
decided this problem against tho Bible. and
against the Negro, as usual They made it a
| crime to be punished with banishment, inn
prisonment and str pes, for anyone to teach
| the Negro to read Yet the descendants of
these same men, with the education of their
fathers, are now asking us in piteous tones to
allow them in their superior wisdom and
goodness Of heart to solve what they are
pleased to call the Negro problem of today.
They are crying out Justify TO the nation, like
demons tormented before their time, Hands
Off We want no Federal authority, and
want only local self-government. We want
4 to be let aloner' They tell us that they know
the Negro, and that they can manage him
better than can anybody else. They can
manage his wages, his voting and his educa-
ton, and all that pertains to him. l hope the
nation will not let them do any such thidg.
They have shown a strange aptitude for
such task.
But again, in the history of tho Negro we
had another perplexing problem. 1t was
this. and this was in some sense national