By the Rev. Brooks Graebner and the Rev. Grey Maggiano
And that where any Slave shall be set free by his or her Master or Owner, otherwise than is herein before directed, it shall and may be lawful for the Churchwardens of the Parish wherein such Negro, Mulatto, or Indian…to take up and sell the said Negro, Mulatto, or Indian, as a Slave, at the next Court to be held for the said County, at public Vendue; and the Monies arising by such Sale, shall be applied to the Use of the Parish, by the Vestry thereof:
North Carolina Slave Code – 1729
Since before the United States was the United States, before North Carolina was a state, and before The Episcopal Church existed, our parishes have been profiting and benefiting from slavery. We begin here with one of the earliest written laws pertaining to slavery in what is now North Carolina to highlight how church governance, including vestries, wardens and clergy, were engaged in the trafficking and sale of enslaved people.
This may be surprising to you, but it is not entirely surprising. In order to govern their colonies, the British frequently used church governance to manage the flow of goods, money and enslaved people. Colonies were divided into parishes, each parish having land set aside for a ‘Glebe’ that is land set aside for a church and for the care and keeping thereof. Churches (and clergymen) bought and sold enslaved people and were often encouraged to “keep” escaped enslaved people to serve the upkeep of the parish.
When we talk about reparations in The Episcopal Church in North Carolina we are not talking about a nebulous idea based on broadly defined injustices that took place sometime in the past. We are talking about acknowledging the detailed historical account of how the church profited off of enslaved people from our founding before the Revolutionary War through and beyond the Civil War.
Here, we will focus on just three areas where harm has been done so that we, as a community, can consider the best ways to move forward, repair the breach and restore relationships. Those areas are harm done to Black communities, Black churches and Black clergy.
Black Communities
As the de facto government offices for the British colonial empire in the Carolinas, the now Episcopal Church was responsible for the administration of many ordinary things, including, on paper, the trafficking and sale of enslaved people and the return of escaped enslaved people to their enslavers. According to the slave codes governing the colonies, churchwardens collected fines and penalties from constables and others who did not do their duty to return enslaved people to servitude. A list of runaway slaves was to be published on the sabbath day “at the door of every Church or Chapel, or for want of such, at the place where Divine Service shall be performed in the said county by the Parish clerk” (Source)
The Diocese of North Carolina’s post-war efforts to support the growth of the free Black community should not go unmentioned here. The establishment of Saint Augustine’s University and St. Agnes Hospital are notable moments in the flourishing of the Black community in North Carolina. However, even church leaders at the time lamented that the funding was limited and the focus sporadic. More research is needed to understand fully the role that Episcopal lay and ordained leaders played in the fomenting of the legacy of the slavery during Jim Crow, segregation, red-lining and urban renewal.
Black Churches
The diocese lists 59 Black Episcopal churches in our history, with only eight remaining. The history of these churches echoes one to another. Many were started as missions at the behest of a bishop or nearby rector. They were not adequately resourced or provided for. (St. Phillip’s in Salisbury was actually given the storm damaged shell of another church that they moved on to the property.) Then, after a period of time, the mission was forgotten about or funding was reallocated somewhere else.
Often clergy were not appointed to serve these communities, but supply clergy were brought in from outside, or a nearby white rector might come and celebrate the Eucharist on occasion. These churches frequently fell under a separate “colored” convocation and separate Episcopal authority. This helpful document offers a brief history of many of those parishes and the struggles and indignities they had to face.
For a deeper history on the roots of the Black Episcopal Church in North Carolina this article is a good place to start.
Black Clergy
The Black Episcopal Church in North Carolina did not really begin to grow until after the Civil War. The national church established a Freedman’s Commission with limited funds to support the spiritual and secular education of the newly emancipated. Funds were made available to support the opening of schools including what is now St. Augustine’s University in Raleigh, as well as schools in New Bern, Wilmington and Fayetteville.
These centers for education also became spiritual centers and became the home for some of the first Black Episcopal churches in the state, as well as some of the first ordained Black clergy. The Rev. John W. Perry was among them, coming to St. Luke’s, Tarboro, in 1882 after graduating from St. Augustine’s University and serving for 12 years in Tarboro and in Wilson at St. Mark’s. In 1883, Perry’s classmate, the Rev. Primus P. Alston, was called to serve Black congregations in Charlotte, Lincolnton and Statesville.
Alston and Perry were the exception rather than the rule, and most Black churches in the diocese were supplied by white clergy from neighboring churches or visiting clergy from outside the diocese. There was little concerted support for Black churches or leadership. This pattern of waxing and waning support for Black leadership and Black churches in the diocese has continued more or less until the present day. For more on this you are encouraged to read this history.
All North Carolina Episcopalians should be familiar with Henry Beard Delany. Also a graduate of St. Augustine’s University, Bishop Delany was born into slavery and was eventually elected suffragan bishop of the diocese, but his remit was substantially limited to only “colored work.” This was devised by The Episcopal Church nationwide to serve Black communicants while allowing racist and white supremacist clergy and laity to avoid “mixing” with Black Episcopalians. Such positions were fought against bitterly by Black Episcopalians who demanded to be given full voice and vote at local and national conventions and to be represented and served by the bishop diocesan. But once the decision was made, Delany and others stepped into these roles and were able to do extraordinary work with extremely limited resources and in extremely contentious and racist circumstances.
REPARATIONS, RECONCILIATION AND HEALING
As the Diocese of North Carolina begins in earnest a conversation around reparations, reconciliation and healing, we should be mindful of our diocesan history. We do not come to this conversation seeking to resolve a wider national debate about racism and equality, or to make amends for harm done somewhere else by someone else, but rather to acknowledge sins committed by the clergy and laity of the Diocese of North Carolina against our own churches and members, and to repair and restore broken relationships in our midst.
