Dafunkdoc_Unlimited
Theological Noncognitivist Since Birth
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The Real said:Actually, many slave owners encouraged a very particular form of Christianity among their slaves for the purposes of inculcating docility, especially during the Awakenings. That much is pretty well-documented. Thankfully, many slaves didn't just accept it wholesale and put their own spin on religion/pursued it independently.
Yeah, because there was no escape by converting, anyway......
September 1667
Whereas some doubts have risen whether children that are slaves by birth, and by the charity and piety of their owners made partakers of the blessed sacrament of baptism, should by virtue of their baptism be made free, it is enacted and declared by this Grand Assembly, and the authority thereof, that the conferring of baptism does not alter the condition of the person as to his bondage or freedom; that diverse masters, freed from this doubt may more carefully endeavor the propagation of Christianity by permitting children, though slaves, or chose of greater growth if capable, to be admitted to that sacrament.
~William Waller Hening, Statutes at Large; Being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia (Richmond, Va, 1809-23), Vol. 11