CHURCHES. 



553 



In 1785, the Methodists made their first appearance as a religious 

 society, and increased with great rapidity. In 1800, camp-meetings were 

 organized, slielters being extemporized out of bagging the planters had 

 for baling their cotton. In 1801 there were 12 circuits, 26 traveling and 

 93 local minioters, preaching in all 17,784 sermons in the year. There 

 were 200 charches and stations erected at a cost of $27,000. 



In 1791, the Roman Catholic Church was organized, under the care of- 

 Bishop Carrol, of Baltimore, the Reverend Doctor Keating officiating in 

 Carolina. 



The Christian culture and instruction of the negroes was at first ob- . 

 structed by a notion prevalent " from New England to Carolina, that 

 being baptized is inconsistent with a state of slavery." In 1712, the 

 Legislature of South Carolina passed an Act declaring " that it was lawful 

 for any negro to receive and profess the Christian faith, and to be there- 

 unto baptized." The Rev. Mr. Taylor, in 1713, examined a considerable 

 number of negroes in St. Andrew's Parish, who had been instructed in 

 the Christian religion by Mrs. Haige and Mrs. Edwards, fourteen of 

 whom gave him so great satisfaction that he baptized them. In 1742, 

 the Rev. Mr. Gcirden had a school house for negroes built in Charleston, 

 and for twenty-one years a number of children, varying from thirty to 

 sixty, with sometimes as many as fifteen adults, were instructed there. 

 Other schools were organized and churches erected for the colored popu- 

 lation, and their religious instruction became a matter of the first con- 

 sideration with all the Christian denominations in the State. The 

 following illustration, one of many that might be cited, will show how 

 wide-spread and groundless the misapprehensions on this point have 

 been. When the Federal Army took possession of Beaufort, they found, 

 in gilt letters over the pulpit of one of the largest churches in the town, 

 PREACH THE GOSPEL TO EVERY CREATURE. Some of them 

 tore down the last word and put in its place, in derision of course, WHITE 

 MAN. Now this church was built by the Rev. Richard A. Fuller, in 1843, 

 and for many years had about 300 white and about 2,000 colored mem- 

 bers. So great were the numbers of the latter that the communion 

 service sometimes occupied three hours. They were received into the 

 white churches, but in most instances they had separate church organi- 

 zations, under the care of wliite ministers, and not unfrequently under 

 that of preachers of their own race. And it is estimated that not only 

 now, but for several generations past, the percentage of members of 

 Christian churches has been greater among the colored population than 

 among the white. Since emancipation they have withdrawn almost 

 entirely from all connection with the churches of the whites, and have 

 established everywhere numerous organizations of their own. The largest 

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