site of Bennett College.

The outstanding reason was religious, that is, a desire to evangelize the unconverted.3 A report read during an l876 Methodist Episcopal Church General Conference meeting contained statements about the responsibility toflGod which the Methodists as Christians and as a

Christian denomination had.“ A second and related reason was humani-

tarian (in contrast to "religious"). Methodists appeared to be genuA

finely concerned about the plight of the freed slaves.5 The same l876 report contained such references to the Methodistsl responsibility to man as, "we [are] bound to make provision for the proper care of this element of our population."6 A very interesting third reason-— patriotism-—appears in the l876 report but not in the two secondary sources. MethOdists were afraid that the “noral and mental depres- sion'n of the Negro element of the population would affect the whole

nation. Negroes had their full political rights, but were not able

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3Frank Kenneth Pool, ”The Southern Negro in the Methodist Episcopal Church" (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Duke University, 1939), p. 300.

uGeneral Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Jour- nal (hereafter referred to as General Conference, M. E. C., Journal),

T876, p. 309.

5Pool,o _E‘ cit., p. 300. This priority of values--evangel- ism, then education--was also held by the Negro members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. See North Carolina Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Minutes (hereafter referred to as N. C. Conference, Minutes), l878, ET_TT——

6General Conference, Md E. C., Journal, l876, p- 309}