The Religious Instruction of the Negroes in the United States is a four part book written as an appeal to slave owners and ministers to provide religious instruction to slaves. The book contains many interesting facts about the life at plantations written by a Presbyterian clergyman, educator, missionary, and planter. The first part of book gives a history of the African slave trade.

[What will be the benefit of giving enslaved Afrikans christianity?]"It is a matter of astonishment, that there should be any objection at all; for the duty of giving religious instruction to our Negroes, and the benefits flowing from it, should be obvious to all. The benefits, we conceive to be incalculably great, and [one] of them [is] there will be greater subordination . . .amongst the Negroes (page 52)."

The Religious Instruction of the Negroes in the United States by Charles Colcock Jones Sr. was published in 1843. The book includes four parts, the first giving a history of the African slave trade. Colcock, himself a minister and plantation owner, called on slave owners and ministers to provide religious instruction to slaves. Charles Colcock Jones Sr. (1804-1863) was a Presbyterian clergyman, educator, missionary, and planter of Liberty County, Georgia. The son of a merchant and planter with deep roots in coastal Georgia, Charles Colcock Jones, Sr. was born on December 20, 1804, at Liberty Hall, his father's plantation in Liberty County. While studying to be a minister in the North, Jones agonized over the morality of owning slaves, but he returned to Liberty County to become a planter, a fervent missionary to the slaves, sometimes called the "Apostle to Slaves," and a somewhat reluctant defender of the institution of slavery. Besides many tracts and papers, Jones published several books including The Religious Instruction of the Negroes in the United States (1842), an appeal to slave owners and ministers to provide religious instruction to slaves. His brother-in-law wrote that Jones "did more than any other man in arousing the whole church of this country to a new interest in the spiritual welfare of the Africans in our midst."

Charles Colcock Jones wrote The Religious Instruction of the Negroes in the United States as an extended sermon encouraging white clergymen and those who owned slaves to pay attention to religious instruction for their slaves and free black people in their areas. The first part focuses on Jones' perception of the development of the population of slaves and free men across each state. The second portion shows a fascinatingly paternalistic critique of both slaves and slave owners by first criticising the black population for their lack of Christian virtue but rounding on the owners of slaves for failing to provide adequate religious opportunities. Whilst he certainly feels that the black population are ultimately morally dependent on the goodness of white, Christian men, he clearly wrestles with the knowledge that something in the social system is responsible for the discord and difficulty he associates with vice. Charles C Jones is, whilst clearly and unacceptably biased to modern readers, a valuable insight into the cognitive dissonance maintained by prominent members of the slave owning establishment in the United States during his time. He argues systematically for a system of education for slaves whilst consistently underestimating the use that education has historically been put to by oppressed peoples. The awareness of his context's immorality lurks on the edges of his consciousness, never quite surfacing. All readers will come away from the book with a new determination to interrogate cultural norms, established traditions and conventional wisdom. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

In Charles Colcock Jones's 'The Religious Instruction of the Negroes in the United States', the author explores the importance of religious education for African Americans during the antebellum period. Jones delves into the impact of Christianity on the enslaved population, discussing how religious teachings were used to control and manipulate them. Written in a persuasive and informative style, the book sheds light on the complex relationship between religion, race, and power in American society. Jones also includes firsthand accounts and biblical references to support his arguments, making this work a valuable contribution to the study of African American history and religious practices in the United States. In addition, Jones's detailed analysis of the cultural and social factors influencing the religious education of African Americans provides readers with a deeper understanding of the complexities of race relations in early America. I highly recommend this book to those interested in the intersection of religion, race, and power dynamics in American history.