Thread by @AlsoACarpenter

Anglican cleric George Whitefield (1714-1770) was one of the founders of Methodism and a Calvinist favorite in the 1st American Great Awakening. I would also argue that he was a perfect example of white charity trumping African dignity. 1/

2/ From the beginning of his ministry in the American colonies, Whitefield argued for the conversion of slaves. Many at the time feared that Christianity would lead to slaves seeking freedom or receiving manumission by baptism under British common law:

3/ “... if teaching slaves Christianity has such a bad influence on their lives, why are you generally desirous of having your own children taught? Think you, they are any way better by nature, than the poor negroes? No, in nowise. …

4/ … Blacks are just as much, and no more conceived and born in sin, as white men are: both if born and bred up here, I am persuaded are naturally capable of the same improvement. And as for grown negroes, I am apt to think, ...

5/ … whenever the gospel is preached with power amongst them, that many will be brought effectually home to God.”

“Near fifty negroes came to give thanks for what God had done to their souls .... Many of them have begun to read. …

6/ … One, who was free, said she would give me her two children, whenever I settle my school. I believe masters and mistresses will shortly see that Christianity will not make their negroes worse slaves.”

7/ (This, of course, is part and parcel of how slaves were to be taught the Gospel for another century—it would mean obey your masters, know your place in the social order, work hard, don’t complain, and hope for the afterlife.)

8/ Whitefield also desired to create a “negro” school, recognizing the same abilities present as in any white children:

9/ “Had I time and proper schoolmasters, I might immediately erect a negro school in South Carolina, as well as in Pennsylvania. Many would willingly contribute both money and land.”

10/ “…[the] negro children, if early brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, would make as great proficiency as any white people's children. I do not despair, if God spares my life, of seeing a school of young negroes singing praises …

11/ … of Him Who made them, in a psalm of thanksgiving.”
He also decried the poor treatment of slaves, promising eternal damnation to those who would treat their slaves like animals:

12/ “When passing along, whilst I have viewed your plantations cleared and cultivated, many spacious houses built, and the owners of them faring sumptuously every day, my blood has frequently almost run cold within me, to consider how many of …

13/ … your slaves had neither convenient food to eat, nor proper raiment to put on, notwithstanding most of the comforts you enjoy, were solely owing to their indefatigable labours.”

14/ Soon, Whitefield was taken with the idea of building an orphanage in Georgia and was able to purchase the land and begin the planning:

15/ “... God has put it into the hearts of my South Carolina friends, to contribute liberally towards purchasing, in [South Carolina] a plantation and slaves, which I purpose to devote to the support of Bethesda. Blessed be God! the purchase is made.”

16/ But he needed labor.

(Remember: the story of race is the story of labor.)

Believing that the “negro” was fit by God to work the Georgian soil, unlike the white man, Whitefield began his campaign to legalize slavery in Georgia—a formerly free colony, with illicit slavery:

17/ “... I am determined, that, not one of [my slaves] shall ever be allowed to work at the Orphan House till it can be done in a legal manner, and with the approbation of the Honourable Trustees. My chief aim in writing this is to inform you, that, …

18/ … I am as willing as ever to do all I can for Georgia and the Orphan House, if either a limited use of negroes is approved of, or some more indentured servants be sent from England. If not, I cannot promise to keep any large family, ...

19/ … or cultivate the plantation in any considerable manner.”

This supposed necessity, leading him to move from seeking the welfare of the “negro” to commanding his service was mocked by his own contemporaries.

20/ Stewart Henry would write of Whitefield: “...a year later the man who had made open attack on slaveholding colonists and written them grave admonition regarding the abuses to which the institution was liable was using all his influence to …

21/ … persuade the trustees of Georgia to allow legal slavery in the colony.”

And what we might have previously thought to be concern for the “negro” body and soul, was clearly a concern for soul alone— …

22/ … well, and concern for his white philanthropic endeavors. He had this disgusting bit of nastiness to say to those masters he had previously chided:

23/ “Your present and past bad usage of them [‘negroes’], however ill-designed, may thus far do them good, as to break their wills, increase the sense of their natural misery, and consequently better dispose their minds to accept the redemption wrought out for them by the ...

24/ ... death and obedience of Jesus Christ.”

Even so, Whitefield claimed to be ambivalent toward whether slavery should be legal (a venerable, while ignoble, tradition in the church; some are still unsure!):

25/ “Whether it be lawful for Christians to buy slaves, and thereby encourage the nations from whence they are brought to be at perpetual war with each other, I shall not take upon me to determine.”

26/26 Many have noted that the Great Awakening, with its emphasis on “soul winning,” was also the beginning of the American church’s predominant social philosophy: Word and Sacrament--all else is adiaphora to the Church.

(Sorry, had to fix some annoying typos.)