This year Methodism
was introduced into some parts of Louisiana. This territory had been recently
purchased by the United
States from the French government for the sum of fifteen millions of dollars,
and was admitted into
the Union in 1811. The country was originally settled by the Spaniards
and
French, the descendants
of whom, to distinguish them from other white inhabitants who have emigrated
to the country, are called Creoles. In a large portion of the country the
French language and manners prevailed, and their religious faith and practice
were regulated by the Roman Catholic Church; but as the country is fast
filling up by Anglo-Americans, and has been for some time connected with
the Union as an integral part of the great American family, the language,
manners, and institutions of Louisiana are becoming more and more conformed
to those generally prevailing in other sections of the republic.
At the time, however,
of which we now speak, there were comparatively but few American settlers
in
the country, and these
were scattered thinly in the wilderness or mingled among the French and
Spanish inhabitants. As to true religion, it was a stranger to most of
the people. Those who made any profession at all were chiefly of the Roman
Catholic communion, and these were exceedingly loose in their morals, and
much given up to sports and plays. The Sabbath was neglected as a day of
sacred rest, or only attended to as a religious festival, alternately for
devotional exercises and profane revelry. This being the general state
of society as formed by the Creoles of the country, it could not be otherwise
expected than that the emigrants who settled among them should gradually
assimilate to their manners, modes of thinking and acting. Hence it is
stated that profaneness of almost all sorts prevailed to an alarming extent,
when, in 1806, the Rev. Elisha W. Bowman made his entrance among them as
a messenger of the cross of Christ.
The Mississippi district
was this year under the presiding eldership of the Rev. Learner Blackman,
whose charge included
Nachez, Wilkinson, Claiborne, Ochitta, and Appalousas circuits, to the
last of
which Mr. Bowman was
sent, with a view, if practicable, to form societies and establish regular
preaching. He penetrated
into some of the English settlements on the banks of the Mississippi River,
amid many privations
and hardships, and in some places was received by the people with gladness,
while in others both
himself and his message were rejected. He succeeded, however, in collecting
congregations, and
in forming a regular circuit, and a few classes, made up principally of
members who had removed from the older states, who were happily reclaimed
from their backslidden state by his instrumentality. The Rev. Thomas Lasley
labored on the Ochitta circuit, which he found in a similar condition,
in respect to religion and morals, to that of Appalousas. The success with
which they cultivated this distant and wild field of labor may be estimated
from the fact that they returned forty members of the Church, and that
they opened the way for the successful prosecution of the work by those
who succeeded them, though it was some time before Methodism gained much
influence in that part of the country. |
| Notwithstanding what had been done to supply the destitute
portions of our country with the word and ordinances of Christianity, there
were yet many parts unprovided for, particularly in the southwestern states
and territories. The state of Louisiana, which contained at this time not
less than 220,000 inhabitants, about one fourth of whom were slaves, was
almost entirely destitute of evangelical instruction. About three fourths
of the population were French Roman Catholics, but few of whom could either
speak or understand the English language, and the greater proportion of
these had never heard a Protestant minister.
In this large territory there was a presiding elder's
district, including only two circuits, called Attakapas and Washataw, in
which there were one hundred and fifty-one white and fifty-eight colored
members, under the charge of three preachers, including the presiding elder.
How inadequate they were all to meet the spiritual wants of the people,
may be inferred from the fact, that one of these preachers traveled not
less than five hundred and eighty miles every five weeks, in order to preach
to as many of the people in their scattered settlements as he possibly
could. In this state of things the few whose hearts the Lord had touched
sent up a loud and urgent call to the rulers of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, and made their earnest appeals to the managers of our Missionary
Society for ministerial help. After consulting with Bishop McKendree in
reference to the best manner of answering these earnest appeals, the managers
selected a young preacher of promising talents, Ebenezer Brown, who was
approved of and appointed by Bishop George, and, with a view to qualify
himself for his work, he entered upon the study of the French language.
He went finally to his field of labor, but the enterprise proved a failure.
Such were the prejudices of the French population, fomented as they were
by priestly influence, that the missionary could gain no access to the
people; and hence, after spending some time in preaching to an English
congregation in New Orleans, he returned to the New York conference, in
which he continued until he located.
But though these efforts to send the gospel in that direction,
like many others of a similar character
which had been made to benefit the Catholic population,
were unsuccessful, the prospects in other
places, particularly among the aborigines of our country,
were more flattering. These long neglected
people, the original lords of the soil, began to attract
the attention of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and by one of those singular
providences which so strikingly indicate the wisdom and power of God in
selecting the means for the accomplishment of his purposes of mercy, a
work of grace had been commenced among the Wyandot Indians in Upper Sandusky,
in the state of Ohio.
That the reader may duly estimate the difficulties with
which the missionaries had to contend, in their
efforts to convert these savages to the Christian faith,
it is necessary that he should know something of their superstitions, customs,
and manner of living, as well as the great diversity of languages which
are spoken by the several tribes. |
Several attempts had been made, but with little success
hitherto, to establish Methodism in the city of
New Orleans, a place which needed the reforming influence
of the gospel as much, perhaps, as any on the continent.
This city, which is now equal in importance, in a commercial
point of view, to any in the United States, was first settled by the French,
toward the close of the seventeenth Century, and the Roman Catholic religion
was incorporated with its civil regulations. The progress of the settlement,
like all the others in that region of country, for a number of years was
extremely slow, owing to a variety of causes, but chiefly to the wars between
France and Spain, to the unhealthiness of the climate, and the want of
industry and enterprise among the original settlers. In 1763, that part
of Louisiana west of the
Mississippi and Pearl rivers, of which New Orleans was
the capital, was ceded to Spain, and so remained until 1801, when it passed
into the hands of the French republic, from whom it was transferred, in
1804, by purchase, to the United States. At this time the population, chiefly
French
Roman Catholics, numbered about twelve thousand; but
from that period the increase of its citizens was much more rapid, by emigrants
from various parts of the Union, so that, at the time of which we now speak,
there were probably not less than forty thousand. These Anglo-Americans,
mingling with the Creoles of the country, gradually introduced their habits
and modes of living, as well as their religious tenets.
But though New Orleans was thus early settled, and possessed
so many local advantages for
commerce, as before said, its progress was slow, and
the population were encumbered with all those
embarrassments arising out of the peculiarities of the
Roman Catholic religion. In 1815, three years after the memorable victory
of the American army under General Jackson, the City contained about thirty-six
thousand inhabitants, most of whom were descendants of the French and Spaniards.
And until about the year 1820, when a Presbyterian church was erected,
there was no place of worship besides the two Roman Catholic churches.
It is said, indeed, that the sabbath was generally desecrated by profane
sports and plays, the principles of morality exceedingly relaxed, pure
religion little understood, and its precepts less exemplified in practical
life.
Among others who were lured to New Orleans for the purposes
of traffic from the other states were
some members of our Church, who spent the winter months
in the city, but, on account of the insalubrity of the climate, retreated
to their former places of abode during the heat of summer. These, however,
beholding the degraded state of society, and feeling the deleterious influence
of such a general inattention to religion, called upon the authorities
of the Church for help. Accordingly, in the year 1819, the Rev. Mark Moore
was sent to New Orleans, and he preached, under many discouraging circumstances,
to a few in a room which was hired for that purpose, and some ineffectual
efforts were made to build a church. In 1820 the Rev. John Manifee was
sent as a missionary to New Orleans, and in the same year the place was
visited by the Rev. Ebenezer Brown, who, being disappointed in his attempts
to gain access to the French population in Louisiana, assisted Mr. Manifee
in preaching to an English congregation in t he city. From this time until
1824 New Orleans seems to have been forsaken by the Methodist preachers
thinking probably that it was useless to spend their strength to so little
purpose, for I find no returns of any members of the Church until the year
1825. In 1824 the Rev. Daniel Hall stands as a missionary for New Orleans,
but the prospect was yet but gloomy.
This year, 1825, the Mississippi district was placed in
charge of the Rev. William Winans, whose
eminent talents as a preacher, and indefatigable labors
as a presiding elder in that part of the country,
gave a more vigorous impulse to the work of God; and
New Orleans was blessed with the labors of the Rev. Benjamin Drake, who
was instrumental in reviving the hopes of the few pious souls who prayed
and sighed for the salvation of Israel in that place; for we find that
in 1826 there were returned on the Minutes of conference eighty-three members,
twenty-three whites and sixty colored. But still the work of God went on
slowly, the preachers having to contend with a host of opposition from
without and feebleness within the Church, with the unhealthiness of the
climate, and the want of suitable accommodations for holding their meetings.
The next year, however, the society had increased to one hundred in all.
From this time the work has steadily advanced, and they have finally succeeded,
by struggling bard with difficulties of various sorts, in erecting a large
and elegant house of worship, so that in 1835 they numbered six hundred
and twenty-five members, five hundred and seventy of whom were Colored,
chiefly, I believe, slaves. |
