Note 366 — Chapter XI

"Slavery," says Oglethorpe, "is against the Gospel, as well as the fundamental law of England. We refused, as trustees, to make a law permitting such a horrid crime."—Memoirs of Sharpe, vol. i., p. 234; Stephen's Journal, quoted by Bancroft. In 1751, however, after Oglethorpe had finally left Georgia, his humane restrictions were withdrawn. Whitefield, who believed that God's providence would certainly make slavery terminate for the advantage of the Africans, pleaded before the trustees in its favor. At last even the Moravians (who in a body emigrated to Georgia in 1733) began to think that negro slaves might be employed in a Christian spirit, and it was agreed that if the negroes are treated in a Christian manner, their change of country would prove to them a benefit. A message from Germany served to crush their scruples: "If you take slaves in faith, and with the intent of conducting them to Christ, the action will not be a sin, but may prove a benediction."—Urlsperger, vol. iii., p. 479, quoted by Bancroft, vol. iii., p. 448.