During the second session of a lecture series that I am currently giving at the University of St. Gallen, students learned about the details of American slavery. They were intrigued upon hearing about how slave owners altered Christianity and created special Bibles and Catechisms to control enslaved Africans.

Slave Bible From The 1800s Omitted Key Passages That Could Incite Rebellion (NPR-ARTICLE)

Control of the slave was exercised through religion whether encouraged as a type of escape from the trouble of the world or used as a form of indoctrination. The all-slave Church gave birth to the spirituals with their apparent emphasis on a promised land in the hereafter. The spirituals, however, may not have been so “otherworldly” as, at first blush, they sounded. They were susceptible of double meanings, and undoubtedly many slaves interpreted the language of the spirituals in a manner unsuspected to White listeners. In slave-attended Churches with White pastors, a special catechism, of which the following is an example, was prepared for the darker brother.

This particular catechism from the Episcopal Church is mentioned by Frederick Douglass who knew it by heart. His writings about it can be found in “The Black American: A Documentary Series” by Leslie H. Fishel, Jr. and Benjamin Quarles.

1. Who keeps the snakes and all bad things from hurting you? God does.
2. Who gave you a master and a mistress? God gave them to me.
3. Who says that you must obey them? God says that I must.
4. What book tells you these things? The Bible.
5. How does God do all his work? He always does it right.
6. Does God love to work? Yes, God is always at work.
7. Do the angels work? Yes, they do what God tells them.
8. Do they love to work? Yes, they love to please God.
9. What does God say about your work? They that will not work shall not eat.
10. Did Adam and Eve have to work? Yes, they had to keep the garden.
11. Was it hard to keep that garden? No, it was very easy.
12. What makes the crops so hard to grow now? Sin makes it.
13. What makes you lazy? My wicked heart.
14. How do you know your heart is wicked? I feel it every day.
15. Who teaches you so many wicked things? The Devil.
16. Must you let the Devil teach you? No, I must not.