tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">129

Sampson White 140

Josiah Henson 148

Noah Davis 158

Samuel R. Ward 167

Alexander Crummell 175

J. W. C. Pennington 178

Henry Highland Garnett 180

Daniel A. Payne 185

Richard DeBaptiste 190

W. H. Miles; 196

Wilberforce University During the Civil War 202

William J. Simmons 206

James Poindexter 210

J. C. Price 214

H. M. Turner 220

B. W. Arnett 227

W. B. Derrick 231

J. W. Hood 236

L. H. Holsey 240

Rufus L. Perry 243

Charles T. Walker 247

John Jasper 255

E. K. Love 260

W. R. Pettiford 266

M. C. B. Mason 274

George W. Lee 286

Alexander Walters 300

A CHRISTIANIZED AFRICAN.

CHAPTER I THE EARLY MISSIONARIES AND THE NEGRO

ONE of the causes of the discovery of America was the translation into action of the desire of European zealots to extend the Catholic religion into other parts. Columbus, we are told, was decidedly missionary in his efforts and felt that he could not make a more significant contribution to the church than to open new fields for Christian endeavor. His final success in securing the equipment adequate to the adventure upon the high seas was to some extent determined by the Christian motives impelling the sovereigns of Spain to finance the expedition for the reason that it might afford an opportunity for promoting the cause of Christ. Some of the French who came to the new world to establish their claims by further discovery and exploration, moreover, were either actuated by similar motives or welcomed the coöperation of earnest workers thus interested.

The first persons proselyted by the Spanish and French missionaries were Indians. There was not any particular thought of the Negro. It may seem a little strange just now to think of persons having to be converted to faith in the possibility of the salvation of the Negro, but there were among the colonists thousands who had never considered the Negro as belonging to the pale of Christianity. Negroes had been generally designated as infidels; but, in the estimation of their self-styled superiors, they were not considered the most desirable of this class supposedly arrayed against Christianity. There were few Christians who did not look forward to the ultimate conversion of those infidels approaching the Caucasian type, but hardly any desired to make an effort in the direction of proselyting Negroes.

When, however, that portion of this Latin element primarily interested in the exploitation of the Western Hemisphere failed to find in the Indians the substantial labor supply necessary to their enterprises and at the suggestion of men like las Casas imported Negroes for this purpose, the missionaries came face to face with the question as to whether this new sort of heathen should receive the same consideration as that given the Indians. Because of the unwritten law that a Christian could not be held a slave, the exploiting class opposed any such proselyting; for, should the slaves be liberated upon being converted, their plans for development would fail for lack of a labor supply subject to their orders as bondmen. The sovereigns of