was fear of growing Roman Catholicism° According to the Methodist rem port in l876, the Roman Catholic missions among Negroes were success— ful. “They are filling their schools with the children and their asy— lums with the orphans of the colored people. .no . It is very well understood that whoever shall educate the freedmen shall aISO posSeSS

,,ll+

them ecclesiasticallm . . v This attitude of ecclesiastical compe— Ltition led logically to the last and eighth reason for the Southern outreach: a desire to increase the strength and success of the Metho— dist Episcopal Church, The report of 1876 continued its plea for sup- port of Negro education by the Northern Church with the following statement: “The duty of educating and evangelizing this people be- longs peculiarly and eminently to ourselves—-to the Methodist Episco- pal Church. A large proportion of the best religious element among

the freedmen belongs to us. . . . They . . . gravitate . a . toward our denomination.fi]5 Thus, a complex of reasons compelled the Northern

Methodists to enter such Southern areas as Greensboro, North Carolina,

after the Civil War.

The Methodist Episcopal Church in North Carolina. Representan tives of the Methodist Episcopal Church came to North Carolina about ten years before the establishment of Bennett College. J. EB Round, author of a January 2l,l864,article in the Christian Advocate, spoke

of a day school and three Sunday Schools conducted by Methodist

Il'iGeneral Conference, M. I. C., Journal, 1876, p. 3l0. 15 ’

Ibid. Also see Thrift, op. 215., p. 28].