The news & observer., 1905-11-19
EARLY METHODISM AND SLAVERY.
By REV. R. III. WHITAKER.

ences, that cost more money than a
preacher and his wife received for. a
whole years faithful work. one hun
dred years ago when Methodism was
Methodism, and when the wife, as well
as the preacher, let it be known, by
simplicity of dress, and meekness of
spirit, that religion was thing of
the heart and not of dress.
| have already remarked that the
North Carolina Conference remained
in the union only six years after its
organization, and now I'll tell the
reader how that happened.
From the formation of the Metho-
dist Episcopal church in America, the
slavery question gave trouble. In
the very first Conference held there
were evidences of a coming conflict,
and It was not great while before
it became apparent that a crisis would
be reached sooner or later that might
jeopardise the future of the young
organization. The fact that the then
larger portion of members lived in
the South and were slave owners made
the matter of slavery a most delicate
one for the young church to deal with.
In his History of MethodiSm,'
Bishop McTyeire says: 'The first
allusion to emancipation occurs in an
informal conference called to meet in
Baltimore in $780," when it was de-
c1ared, in an informal way, of course,
that preachers who owned slaves
should give promise to set them free.
This was three years before Massa-
chusetts, and four years before Rhode
Island and Connecticut had emanci-
pated their slaves or rather before
In q OH oh cd in
States.
In 1889 this clause occurred in the
first printed edition of the General
Rules of the church: 1.-THE buying or
selling the bodies and souls of men,
women or children, with intention to
enslave them is prohibited" No one
knew, nor does history tell, by whom or
how this clause was introduced. But
it clearly" says Bishop McTyeire, "re-
ferred to the African slave trade"
For a hundred and fifty years. says
the same writer. "the ships of Bristol,
Liverpool and Boston had been un-
loading captive slaves on the shores of
what IS now the United States.
But. we find that, at what is known
in history as the Christian Confer
ence.' some very extraordinary en-
actments in the way of rules, were
adopted which rules had been pre-
pared beforehand by four or five Eng
lish preachers, and which Bishop Coke
endorsed. In those rules all members
of the church We're required TO emau-
cipate their slaves within a certain
time, according to age; and every per-
son who failed to comply with the re-
quirements should be excluded from
the society; and, person who with
drew from the society rather than
free his slaves, should ever partake of
the supper of the Lord with the Meth
odists until he did comply: and no per
son who owned slaves should be ad-
mitted into the society
Considering the fact that about
three-fourths of all the members of
the entire Methodist connection lived
in the slave-holdlng South, the reader.
will conclude that the Christmas Con-
ference rather lost it's head.
The preachers went from that Con-
ference and mingled with the people,
and heard them talk, and when, six
months later they met in Conference
again, and wiser counsels prevailing,
the Christmas Conference rules were
virtually repealed, and in their stead
the following, in substance, was adop-
ted: THAT nothing be left undone
by the preachers, within their re-
spective circuits. to instruct the col
ored people, and to unite in society
those who appear to have a real desire
to flee the wrath to come
That was all right-just as they
should have said, and doubtless would
have said. in the Christmas Confer
ence, but for the English preachers
They might have been very smart and
good men; but like many other men,
the world over who think they ought
TO have their own way, they went at
the matter in the wrong fashion, when
upon an unwilling people-especiany
a people who had just won their in
dependence from the tyranny of the
mother country. Speaking of the mat
ter. Bishop McTyeire in his History of
Southern Methodism makes the policy
not on page $50: Had this foot
note on page $50: Had the policy
so promptly abandoned (referring to
the Christmas Conference Rules)
been persisted in, there would have
been no Methodism in the Southern
States. At that time there was very
little any where else in America. And
so Methodism would have been akol-
ished in the United States as the first
result of abolitionism.
Following the course of events, in
early Methodist history, we find that
in 1926, when the General Conference
proposed to elect a fraternal delegate
to the British Conference. and DR..
William Capers had received the NOM
ination for that position. Bishops
George and Hedding raised the OBJ
lection that DR.. Capers was a slave !