Prejudice against Colored People (1846)

The Charter Oak New Series 1 35 2 Sept 3 1846

[For the Charter Oak.]

LETTERS MISCELLANEOUS.

Number ix.

The Society connected with the Congregational church worshiping in Temple street, of which Rev. A. G. Beman is pastor, held a Fair in the Exchange Saloon a few weeks ago, for the purpose of raising funds to pay the debt incurred in building their meeting-house—a near, substantial edifice of brick.—They realized $300 from the Fair, reducing their debt from $1100, to $800. The Saloon was tastefully arranged, and well attended for three evenings. I am sorry for the honor of Colonization that more was not raised. The Congregational Churches of this city—all of which maintain the “negro pew,” are opposed to caste in India—have colonized the colored people of their own denomination, and ought, at least, to defray the expense of the operation, and pay off the debt resting on them.

            The treatment shown to this Society is a fair illustration of the

Prejudice against colored people.

Cherished by churches and ministers, and is a disgrace to the name of Christianity. Mr. Beman, their pastor, was ordained and installed over this Church and Society by the New Haven East Association, some eight years ago, and yet during all this time not one of the pastors of the Congregational churches in the city have offered to exchange with him, or have called to visit him. (And I believe the ministers of Hartford have treated Mr. Pennington in the same way, at least so far as exchanges are concerned.) It is due to Rev. Messrs. David Root of Guilford, Judson Root of Westville, and Leicester A. Sawyer, supplying the Howe street church, to say that they, and they only, Mr. Beman informs me, have offered to exchange with him.

            Having stated the facts let me add a few

Remarks.

1. Mr. Beman is or is not fit to be a minister of the Gospel, and if he is not fit to be a minister, the ministers of this Association, including those belonging to it in this city, had no right to ordain him, and ought to institute process against him forthwith to deprive him of office. If they did right in ordaining him as a minister, they ought to treat him as a minister. Their neglect of him shows that they have “respect to persons.”
2. Most of the ministers of this Association—and I may add, of this State—are Colonizationists, and profess great love for the colored man abroad, or when removed from this country to Africa, but their treatment of the colored man at home proves their professions to be a sham, for “if they love not their [colored[ brother [here,] whom they have seen, how can they love their [colored[ brother [in Africa] whom they have not seen?”
3. The Ministers and Churches of this State condemn caste in India, and with few exceptions maintain the negro pew  in their respective places of worship. There is this difference, however, in favor of the heathen observers of caste, that the heathen maintain caste in obedience to the precepts of their religion, while Christians maintain caste only by subverting one of the fundamental principles of the religion of Christ—equality of rights and privileges among Christians. Most of the readers remember what a commotion was stirred up among the members of Dr. Bacon’s (centre) church because James Covey, the interpreter to the Amistad Africans, took a seat in the gallery, being invited by Rev. Mr. Chapman, I think, at that time a theological student. The newspapers in this called it a gross outrage, and appeared shocked to hear that the centre church had been profaned, and the devotional feelings of the worshipping assembly disturbed by the presence of a colored man in the congregation, and they expressed the hope that such an outrage would not be repeated. That’’ Christianity for you! That’s the religion to send to Africa to teach the heathen that all mankind are brethren! Wonder if the Centre Church Bible has the second chapter of James in it, or if the members of that church ever read it, or if they regard it as part of the sacred canon? (It is but justice to say, that Rev. Mr. Dutton, pastor of the North Church, in his Sabbath exercises, has frequently rebuked, in the most pointed manner, this wicked treatment of the colored man, in the house of God, in the stage coach, steamboats and railroad cars.)

The feelings of Christians in this city towards the colored people, are an index of their regard for the colored heathen of this country. Mr. Beman’s church and the Wesleyan church—Rev. Mr. Hardy’s—are the only churches in this city in which the monthly concert of prayer for the slave can be held, or even notices read of such meetings. The history of the treatment of colored people by the ministers, Christians, and people of this State, would be instructive, and explain, in part, the reason of the slow progress of the Anti-Slavery cause in Connecticut. In my next I may give a Chapter.             S.M.B.