Page:A defence of the negro race in America from the assaults and charges of Rev. J. L. Tucker.djvu/10

 black race in the South is still in a state of semi-barbarism, slightly veneered by a Christian profession. Their religion (I use his own words) is "an outward form of Christianity with an inward substance of full license given to all desires and passions." (Page 18.)

Let us take Dr. Tucker at his word; and what, I ask—what is the inference to be drawn from this state of things? I state the conclusion with the greatest sorrow; but it seems irresistible, i. e., that the Christian Church in the South, with the grandest opportunity for service for Christ, and with the very best facilities, has been a failure! It has had one of the widest missionary fields! It has had this field of service open before it two hundred years, and it has hardly attempted to enter it! It has been full of missionary zeal for the peoples of Greece and Asia, for India, and even the West African Negro, but it has lacked the missionary heart for millions of Negroes on its own plantations and in its own households!

I do not deny that there is wide-spread demoralization among the southern black population. How could it be otherwise? Their whole history for two hundred years has been a history of moral degradation deeper and more damning than their heathen status in Africa. I am speaking of aggregates. I grant the incidental advantages to scores and hundreds which have sprung from contact with Christian people. I am speaking of the moral condition of the masses, who have been under the yoke; and I unhesitatingly affirm that they would have been more blessed and superior as pagans in Africa than slaves on the plantations of the South.

Bishop Howe, of South Carolina, calls slavery "a schoolmaster to the black man." Bishop Gregg declares