r)24 A SKETCH OF EDUCA'flOX IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 



also permitted to minister to their spiritual wants. Catechisms for the 

 special use of the blacks were carefully prepared by such able divines as 

 Dr. Winkler, of Charleston ; Dr. Jones, of Georgia ; and Bishop Capers. 

 At the solicitation of Bishop Capers, two missionaries were sent, in 1829, 

 by Conference to labor on the plantations. In 1855, there were twen- 

 ty-six Methodist missionary stations in South Carolina, tliirty-two mis- 

 sionaries, 11,546 members, and a revenue of $25,000. 



The reports of the Presbyterian Synod of South Carolina, for 1859, 

 give the colored membership as follows : South Carolina Presbytery, 861 ; 

 Bethel, 688; Harmony, 1,823; Charleston, 1,637. Total 5,009— five thir- 

 teenths of the entire membership. This constituted, of course, but a small 

 proportion of those who received religious instruction. 



From the parochial reports of the Protestant Episcopal Church, for the 

 year 1860, the following statistics are taken : 



Baptisms, Avhites, 491 ; colored, 1,156 ; marriages, whites, 105 ; colored, 

 209 ; communicants, whites, 3,166 ; colored, 2,960 ; confirmed, whites, 

 215 ; colored, 173 ; Sunday school scholars, white, 1,563. and colored, 604. 



Of fifty-six reports made by rectors, Ijut one contained no mention of 

 services among the colored people ; fifty-five rectors report baptisms, 

 burials, and marriages, or at least one of these services for the colored 

 people ; twenty report colored communicants in excess of whites ; twent}^- 

 five report Sunday schools, and twenty -two mention chapels for the use 

 of the blacks. Almost every church for whites contained galleries or 

 special seats for colored. Besides this, seven ministers were employed 

 specially as missionaries for the slaves. 



Other denominations did equalh' efficient work, though exact statistics 

 cannot be secured. All these members received more or less instruction, 

 and their mental, as well as material condition, compared favorably with 

 the loAver classes in many countries of Europe, at least. The statistics of 

 illiteracy of the colored race in South Carolina, previous to emancipation, 

 are incorrect, since, in those days, an acknowledgment on the part cf a 

 slave of an ability to read might have proven, at least, inconvenient. It 

 may be added here that these statistics are not proper criteria b}" which 

 to judge the standard of culture. The ability to write one's name, or to 

 trace illegible characters representing misspelled words, can be acquired 

 iri a few months, at most, and is sufficient to remove from one the stigma 

 of illiteracy. Yet, in manners, in morals, in integrity, and even in oral 

 expression, he may be greatly inferior to another, who has learned much 

 of these, and has been forbidden only to write and read. • A striking proof 

 of this is afforded by the many instances, just after the war, in which 

 newly enfranchised citizens, though classed as illiterate, made most ef- 

 fective speakers and skillful parliamentarians. 



