Aspects of Slavery and Freedom Seeking in North Carolina
Wind-Beliefs
In the early days, Africans in the Carolinas maintained their religious identities, thereby making their conversion to Christianity relatively slow. Justifying slavery based on their inherent belief that Africans were uncivilized heathens, some White European slave owners struggled to reconcile their moral order with the immorality of the institution. Some slave masters were hesitant to convert their slaves, as it was illegal to hold a Christian in bondage. If enslaved persons were to become Christians, then they would no longer be uncivilized. Therefore, slave masters would have to recognize their humanity. In 1671, the colony of Maryland passed a law stating that conversion or baptism should not be taken to mean that slaves would be granted freedom. In 1677, an English court ruled that converted slaves were “infranchised,” which meant that they would remain enslaved.
The Lords Proprietors, who were responsible for governing the Carolinas, declared in the Fundamental Constitutions that while slaves had the right to practice religion as a form of individual expression, it did not mean that they were free:
“Since charity obliges us to wish well to the souls of all men, and religion ought to alter nothing in any man's civil estate or right, it shall be lawful for slaves as well as for others to enter themselves and to be of what church or profession any of them shall think best, and thereof be as fully members as any freeman. But yet no slave shall hereby be exempted from that civil dominion his master hath over him, but be in all things in the same state and condition he was in before.”
In 1709, James Adams, a clergyman of the Established Church, complained that masters offered slaves instruction in the principles of religion but “by no means permit [their slaves] to be baptized, having a false notion that a Christian slave is by law free.” Slaves of non-Christian masters who made either limited or no attempts to offer religious instruction were denied an opportunity to receive spiritual nourishment. For the most part, Africans remained cynical of Christianity’s slave-speciļ¬c messages, which targeted the scriptures that emphasized salvation in exchange for moral behavior and earthly obedience. At the very least, even those slave masters who were not practicing Christians insisted that their slaves be familiar with the Gospel. More often, ministers delivered scriptures such as Ephesians 6:5 to direct slaves to “obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ.” Trapped in a hostile environment where honesty and obedience could mean hunger or death, the rules of Christianity taught them that lying and stealing were wrong and resistance would be punishable by violence.
Laws that restricted teaching slaves to read were the most prevalent obstacles that hampered enslaved Africans’ access to Christianity. The core of understanding religion and spirituality is based on belief. As a central feature of Christianity, slaves widely believed that conversion was necessary to become full church members. Conversion of emotional and psychological power manifested overwhelming feelings that transformed sadness, fear, and rejection into joy, confidence, and acceptance. Religious conversion centered on baptism, praying, dancing, and singing was fundamentally based on the text of Biblical scriptures. Literacy would have made conversation quicker, but reading, teaching testament, and memorizing scriptures were tedious. Most slave owners obeyed the literacy laws, and the burden of conversion mainly fell on the slaveholders themselves. In 1716, Mr. Taylor from Duckinfield in Bertie County recounted the slow, lengthy process of conversion to Christianity, thereby illustrating how he used oral catechism as a means of converting African Americans:
"I took a method with the negro young man and the mustee young woman, whom I baptized…I made them get our church catechism perfectly without a book, and then I took some pains with them to make them understand it, and especially the baptismal covenant, and to persuade them, faithfully and constantly, to perform the great things they were to promise at their baptism, and ever after to perform to God; and then I caused them to say the catechism one Lord's Day and the other another Lord's Day before a large congregation, which they did both distinctly and so perfectly that all that heard them admired their saying it so well, and with great satisfaction to myself I baptized these two persons."