The Religious Instruction of the Negroes in the United States by Charles Colcock Jones

Charles Colcock Jones wrote The Religious Instruction of the Negroes in the United States as an extended sermon encouraging white clergymen and those who owned slaves to pay attention to religious instruction for their slaves and free black people in their areas. The first part focuses on Jones’ perception of the development of the population of slaves and free men across each state. The second portion shows a fascinatingly paternalistic critique of both slaves and slave owners by first criticising the black population for their lack of Christian virtue but rounding on the owners of slaves for failing to provide adequate religious opportunities. Whilst he certainly feels that the black population are ultimately morally dependent on the goodness of white, Christian men, he clearly wrestles with the knowledge that something in the social system is responsible for the discord and difficulty he associates with vice. Charles C Jones is, whilst clearly and unacceptably biased to modern reade