The Church in the Southern Black Community, 1780-1925
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Historical Issues-Analysis and Decision Making
The Rev. William H. Robinson, in Chapter XIII of From Log Cabin to the Pulpit, or, Fifteen Years in Slavery, describes schemes slaves used to hold prayer services free from white supervision. Read Chapter XIV and consider the following questions:
- Why did slaves find the church services offered by the whites unsatisfactory?
- What schemes did the slaves use in order to hold prayer services and other get-togethers without being caught by the patrollers?
- Why do you think slaves decided to risk breaking rules in order to hold church services? What does this suggest about the importance of religion in the lives of enslaved peoples?
Chapter XV of Robinson’s book is devoted to the “religious fervor “of the Southern gentry and includes his version of a prayer of the slave owners:
Supremely great, and worthy of all adoration art Thou, O Lord, our heavenly Father. The cattle upon a thousand hills, and the negroes in a thousand fields are Thine. We thank Thee, Lord, for the manifold blessings with which Thou art supplying us, Thine humble and obedient servants, notwithstanding our merits deserve them all, for Thou hast said the righteous shall enjoy the good of the land. Now, Lord, we have not much time to pray, for Thou see’st how those devilish slaves are squandering away their time. Lord, revive Thy work in our midst. Grant us all a large increase of slaves for the traders this fall, that we may obtain the means, through Thy well directed providence, to rear Thee a magnificent temple in which Thou wilt love to dwell, and where Thou wilt love to pour out Thy spirit upon Thy Zion. O! Lord God, when we go into the fields among those ignorant, hard headed creatures, (over whom Thou hast made us to rule), may Thy glory so shine in our countenances that one of us shall subdue a thousand, and bind ten thousand upon the racks from the ungovernable malice of enraged negroes. Deliver us from the influence of a guilty conscience; deliver us from the abolition creeds, and from the slanderous tongues of enthusiastic politicians. Deliver us from insurrections and perplexity of minds, good Lord, deliver us. Give us and our dogs our daily bread, and our negroes their full pecks of parched corn or cotton seeds per week. Strengthen the horse and his rider, and make the limbs of the fugitive weak. Confound the cunning schemes of anti-slavery men….
From Chapter XV, From Log Cabin to the Pulpit, or, Fifteen Years in Slavery, pages 81-82
- How did William Robinson’s tone change between Chapters XIV and XV? How does this prayer parody reflect that tone?
- What was the point of including this fictitious prayer in the narrative? What other methods could the author have used to make his point?
- What is the effect on the reader of the author’s decision to change tone from chapter to chapter?