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gland . On the whole , their appearance and behaviour made a favourable impression on our minds , while , at the
same time , we could not help seeing much about them calculated to excite the deepest commiseration . We questioned them respecting- their families , their ages , their knowledge of godd and evil , of God , of Jesus Christ , arid of a life to come ; but most of their answers were of a very unsatisfactory and ambiguous nature . Their
ignorance on points of this kind , as may easily be imagined , is , certainly , very deplorable ; yet by no means so profound as they endeavoured to make us believe . One young woman , on
being asked a few questions by Mrs . C about the Supreme Being , humourously replied that her mother had been christened , and , therefore , she left such matters to her , and did not trouble her head about them . Before
they left us , tliey generally took care to drop a number of complaints , with respect to their temporal affairs , and to insinuate that they had a very hard overseer . But in ail this there was great art and much hypocrisy . We
soon discovered , that on subjects of this description they endeavoured to mislead us , in order that it miq-ht afterwards be in their power to make tools of us . They tried us , in every possible manner , and although we had been forewarned of their arts and
intentions , I must own that they did succeed in getting us to believe , for a considerable time , that they were really exposed to a number of unnecessary hardships and much wanton
cruelly . We , however , clearly saw , long before we returned to this conntry , that their testimony against persons employed to superintend them at their work is not to be relied on in
ninety-niire . cases out of a hundred ; un < l that nothing short of I he strictest discipline can cv-er keep them within any tiling like (\ ui ^ bounds . At the samo time , it is not to be denied that
their case is an extremely hard one perhaps much more so than is generally imagined . Where there is slavery there must be fear ^ ' w \ force , in spite of a thousand laws and
regulations to the contrary ; or even the most ardent wishes of the best masters and overseers . This will be more apparent in the sequel .
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Almost immediately on our arriv al on the estate , care was taken to info rm the slaves , that they were all at full liberty * to ask me any questions they pleased , on subjects of a religious nature , and to form themselves into a
society under my directions , as soon as they felt disposed to do so . Accordingly , about eighty of" them came to our house one Sunday morning for the purpose , as they said , of hearing me preach . They were all invited to come in ; and I concluded that I could not do better , on such an occasion
than explain to them , in the fullest manner , the object 1 had in view in taking up my abode amongst them ; and , at the same time , state a fewparticulars respecting the being and perfections of the Deity . They listened to me with more attention than
I expected ; yet they could not forego the temptation of , every now and then , stopping me to ask some question , or to make some observation on what was said . Those of them who had been baptized , or , as they always term it , christened , appeared to take a
deeper interest in the service than the rest : they were observed to kneel during the time of prayer , and they evidently felt their imagined superiority to the uninitiated . The whole company , indeed , expressed a willingness to attend on my instructions in a
regular manner : and much anxietv to obtain information on a subject o \ such vital importance as that of religion : but they declared , in the most positive and clamorous manner , that their master ( meaning the agent for
the estate ) must allow them time for these things . They begged me to intercede for them , alleging that it was not , and never would be , in their power to attend in what is termed their own time . I did what I could
to pacify them , and gave them to understand that I wished them to depart , and reflect on what they had heard ; but before they went out , they could not forbear uttering a variety of cornplaints against individuals , and seemed
strongly inclined to insist on the indispensable necessity of a redress ot grievances . At length the house w » us cleared , but immediately filled again , with a second congregation of pre cisely the same description with tl » j first . I repeated the service I lliKl
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218 Mr . Cooper on the Disposition of Negroes to embrace Christianity .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1822, page 218, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2511/page/26/
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