In South Carolina. 4H1 



State in which he lives will admit of emancipation, and permit the 

 liberated slave to enjoy freedom. 



2. When any traveling preacher becomes an owner of a slave or 

 slaves, by any means, he shall forfeit his ministerial character in 

 our Church, unless he execute, if it be practicable, a legal emanci- 

 pation of such slaves, conformably to the laws of the State in which 

 he lives. 



3. All our preachers shall prudently enforce upon our members 

 the necessity of teaching their slaves to read the word of God, and 

 to allow them time to attend upon the public worship of God on our 

 regular days of divine service. 



4. Our colored preachers and official members shall have all the 

 privileges which are usual to others in the District and Quarterly 

 Conferences, where the usages of the country do not forbid it. And 

 the presiding elder may hold for them a separate District Confer- 

 ence, where the number of colored local preachers will justify it. 



5. The Annual Conferences may employ colored preachers to 

 travel and preach where their services are judged necessary ; pro- 

 vided that no one shall be so employed without having been rec- 

 ommended according to the form of Discipline. 



In formal interpretation of this section the same 

 General Conference (1840) adopted the following reso- 

 lution, viz.: 



Resolved, by the delegates of the several Annual Conferences in Gen- 

 eral Conference assembled, That under the provisional exception of 

 the general rule of the Church on the subject of slavery, the simple 

 holding of slaves, or mere ownership of slave property, in States or 

 Territories where the laws do not admit of emancipation and permit 

 the liberated slave to enjoy freedom, constitutes no legal barrier to 

 the election or ordination of ministers to the various grades of of- 

 fice known in the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and 

 cannot, therefore, be considered as operating any forfeiture of right 

 in view of such election and ordination. 



The address of this same General Conference (1840) 

 in response to the address of the British Conference 

 says: 



Of these United States (to the government and laws of which, 



