Religion has been a fundamental aspect of human life since the emergence of the concept of an afterlife, which was practiced by burying the dead. This phenomenon was expressed through various means, such as rituals, ceremonies, and festivals. Each of the many religions worldwide has its own unique origin story.
The Americas has seen the arrival of various religions, contributing to its diverse religious landscape. Welcome to my first article on local history.
Midway Georgia, USA History
According to https://www.themidwaymuseum.org/midway-church/, “on August 28, 1754, a group of Congregationalists who had migrated from the Northeast to South Carolina, and then to the Midway District of Georgia, established the Midway Society and Church in a log meetinghouse. Congregationalism was a form of Protestantism in which each church is administered autonomously by its members. Despite the Congregationalist nature of the Church, it had strong ties to Presbyterianism. All of its ministers were Presbyterian, and its offshoot churches later became Presbyterian churches. The first permanent meetinghouse was built in 1756 west of the existing church, and the first service led by Rev. John Osgood on January 2, 1757. This meetinghouse was destroyed by the British during the Revolutionary War. In 1792, the present church building was built in a New England Style. The exterior of the church, now white, was painted red at that time to prevent decay. The church building was reoriented in 1849 to its current placement, and was moved 40 feet east in the 1950’s when Highway 17 was widened. Otherwise, it has never been modernized. It has been described as “one of the most scenic historic landmarks in Georgia.”
Charles Colcock Jones, born on December 20, 1804, at Liberty Hall in Liberty County, was the son of John Jones Jr., a merchant and planter deeply rooted in coastal Georgia. At 17, Charles made a profession of faith and began preparing for the Presbyterian ministry. He studied at Phillips Academy (1825–27), Andover Theological Seminary (1827–29), and Princeton Theological Seminary (1829–30). In 1846, Jones received an Honorary Doctor of Divinity Degree from Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. His paternal grandfather, Major John Jones Sr., was killed in the siege of Savannah twenty-five years before Charles’s birth.
Reverend Charles Colcock Jones rests in the cemetery at Midway Church in Liberty County, Georgia. As a historic site, Midway Church commemorates Jones, a prominent Presbyterian minister renowned for his dedication to the religious education of enslaved Africans.
The Transatlantic Slave Trade
The transatlantic slave trade was a vast and brutal system that forcibly moved and exploited millions of Africans between the 16th and 19th centuries. Africans were captured, transported, and sold primarily to the Americas as slaves for plantation labor and other industries.
The arrival of the first enslaved Africans in Virginia in 1619 is often considered the beginning of slavery in what would later become the United States. However, slavery was practiced in various colonies, and the specific timeline and legal status of slavery varied among them. In Massachusetts, the first recorded shipment of enslaved Africans to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, including Boston, occurred in 1638. Despite the Massachusetts General Court’s initial denouncement of slavery in 1645, the practice later became permitted and was practiced in the colony.
European traders would travel to Africa’s west coast, exchanging goods for Africans captured by African intermediaries. These individuals were then transported across the Atlantic in overcrowded and horrific conditions known as the Middle Passage, where many died from disease, malnutrition, and mistreatment.
In the Americas, enslaved Africans were sold at markets and subjected to harsh labor conditions. This trade devastated African societies, causing immense loss of life, community disruption, and cultural erasure.
Economically, the transatlantic slave trade was vital to the Americas’ development, particularly in industries like sugar, tobacco, and cotton. Its legacy is considered one of the darkest periods in history, with profound and lasting impacts on African-American societies and cultures.
The Religious Instructions of the Negroes
Printed in 1832 by D’Hart & Connolly in Princeton, N.J., the fourth edition of “The Religious Instruction of The Negroes: A Sermon Delivered Before the Association of Planters in Liberty and McIntosh Counties, Georgia” was the edition through which I was first introduced to this work.
Reverend Charles Colcock Jones authored “The Religious Instruction of the Negroes in the United States.” His efforts aimed to influence and convert enslaved individuals, many of whom practiced traditional African religions like Yoruba, to Christianity. Jones sought to replace their indigenous beliefs with Christian doctrine, sometimes offering concessions such as allowing some to learn to read and write to facilitate their conversion.
Amos Wilson says, “We must keep in mind that enslaved Afrikans were not Christians when they were brought to the New World. They were predominantly practitioners of their indigenous Afrikan religions and behaved in accord with the indigenous Afrikan code of ethics. Therefore, the Christian religion along with its ideological doctrines were taught to and imposed on enslaved Afrikans by their White masters. Obviously, the masters taught the slaves Christianity for their own conscious and unconscious self-serving reasons.”
What’s shocking, however, is that many African Americans in the Southern regions, particularly those in the surrounding areas, are unaware of who Reverend Charles Colcock Jones was. It’s also important to note that African churches existed before Reverend Charles Colcock Jones began his instructions.
But for the enslaved individuals at that time, Reverend Charles Colcock Jones became the “Apostle to the Blacks.”
Interesting Parts From The Book: The Religious Instruction Of The Negroes
“In Maryland acts were passed encouraging the importation of Negroes, in 1671; and in this same year they were first introduced into South Carolina. They were legally admitted into Georgia in 1747. The precise year of their admission into the remaining eight of the old thirteen Colonies is not accurately known.”
“That the people of the United States indulge prejudices in respect to the Negroes, both in favor of and adverse to them, as a distinct variety of the human family and as a subordinate class in society, is a fact not to be disguised. On the one hand their ignorance, vulgarity, idleness, improvidence, irreligion, and vice, are to be ascribed altogether to their position and circumstances; let these be changed for the better, and the African will immediately equal, if not greatly excel, the rest of the human family in majesty of intellect, elegance of manners, purity of morals and ardor of piety; yea, they will become the very beau ideal of character, the admiration of the world. On the other hand, the race has been from time immemorial just what it is and just what it must continue to be.”
“The consequence is, they do not seem worthy of our regard, they lose all our respect, and it is no marvel if our conduct towards them is dictated by our opinion of them.”
Until Next Time, Knowledge is Power
The fact that an organized Religion was into Slavery says enough. Talk about Polar opposites.