Heading: (1844 Slaves ‘permitted’ to join Baptist church, North Carolina)
Author:
Title: Slaves ‘permitted’ to join Baptist church, North Carolina
Place Published: Warren County, North Carolina
Publisher:
Date Published: July 11-13, 1844
Description:

3 Autograph Notes Signed, Warren County, North Carolina, July 11-13, 1844, all to Rev. Willoughby Hudgins from Sally Johnston, 2 x 7.5 ins., 1pg. (“The Boy Isham has always had a good Character, & has my leave to be Baptized.”), M.T.Hawkins, Jr., 4  x 8 ins., 1pg. (“Stephen, Harriett and [Gunney?] has my permission to join your Church”, with pencil note by Hudgins: “Mr. Hawkins told me…those persons were…of good moral character”) and John D. Fain, 3 x 7.5 ins., 1 pg. “Pamelie has my permission to be baptized and her character is as good as usual as far as I know”.

Some slave owners feared that slaves who “got religion” might become educated – and then rebellious. After the Turner insurrection, Blacks were not allowed to hold religious meetings unless they were “in control of respectable white people” – like Rev. Hudgins, a popular Baptist evangelist who preached at meeting houses throughout Warren County and delivered a monthly sermon to a group of enslaved plantation Blacks. With: January 6, 1842 issue of the Christian Mirror newspaper, Portland, Maine, which includes, on Pg. 2, a report of the dedication of a church building in Liberty County, Georgia, built “for the accommodation of colored people”; 300 Negroes attended to hear the preaching of Rev. Charles C. Jones, the Presbyterian Minister who wrote a classic “Religious Instruction of the Negroes in the United States”.

Some wear-otherwise good