Page:Autobiography of Rear Admiral Charles Wilkes.djvu/58

32 condition and it overthrew the impression that it probably ought to have made upon me. It was melancholy, and made, and still has served to keep up, the same feeling whenever I have heard their chantings since, and has made me imbibe a great & lasting impression of the cruelties that the slave trade has furnished.

On Sundays the whole scene at Wilmington seemed changed. Then all the Slaves appeared dressed in their gaudiest colours & decked out in turbans & showy skirts. There was, however, no happy face and I recollect being struck greatly by the gulf which appeared to separate the whites from the blacks. Toward Evg the blacks congregated in large "Meeting Houses" and were most boisterous in the loud screechings and groanings as well as ejaculations of terror and frenzy as the preachers in most violent language denounced them. The services appeared to [be] led by white men but some blacks assumed the platform and the yellings were at times frightful.

I was told it was of the Methodist persuasion which generally made the gathering. No connected discourse was given but the psalm was, or appeared, familiar to the gathered crowd and the shouts almost deaffening. There were but a few whites present and probably from 1,500 to 2,000 blacks, a large proportion of grown men & women. The whole was more like pandemonium than anything that I have referred to. I had an opportunity of visiting several of their meetings but there was little difference in them. The effect was somewhat at times ridiculous. On one occasion the preacher had armed himself with a very large Bandanna handkerchief which was employed with effect in snapping it—a loud and cutting snap of minor thunder consigning all his heavens to perdition and damnation which was followed by low, loud groanings & [illegible] yellings for the Mercy & protection of "de Lord." It appeared to me, so far as I could judge, that little or no attention was being paid by their Masters to religious instruction and that in their gatherings it was too evidently perceptible. There did not appear any religious impression made upon them. Hell and the Brimstone fire was alone held forth and the moderating effect of trust religions had no existence.

I also contrasted them with the Services in the churches where the whites and Masters frequented; there was here great ceremony and a distinction of classes kept up [that] I was unprepared for. The dominant church as far as appearances went was the Episcopal and frequented by the higher class of planters and established families. The congregations were, however, sparse. A few coloured people were present in the seats allotted to them & were the most striking of the congregation, far more so than their Masters & Mistresses, and of that class of orderly and appropriately dressed servants whose manner and conduct was conspiciously respectful, some of them whose heads were quite white & evidently the remains of a former generation. They were of the olden time and retained as members of the family in the household. None of them were free.

There appeared but very little church going in the afternoon, the