16

Tennessee. Moreover, he felt that, as Louisiana was
largely an agricultural State, he would exert the best
influence by himself continuing as a planter, as he was
in Tennessee. He purchased a sugar plantation on
Bayou Lafourche, and settled on it with his family and
four hundred Negroes to whom he was a most elight-
ened master.

In addition to creating humane working conditions
(Polk refused, for one thing, to let his Negroes work on
Sunday, even in the cane-crushing season, much to the
scandal of his nceighbors who complained that he was
spoiling his workers and would surely go bankrupt), he
gave every care to the Negroes' moral and religious
guidance, as he had in Tennessee. A visitor to Leighton
has described the Bishop instructing some of the Negro
men in one great room of the mansion, his wife doing
the same for the women elsewhere in the house, and
one of the Bishop's daughters conducing a class for
Negro children in yet another place.

In each case "questions on the elementary principles
of the Christian religion were put and answered with
readiness and accuracy. Hymns were sung and anthems
chanted, the whole service exhibiting the care with
which they had been instructed and their interest in the
exercises." This concern with the wellness of his own
Negroes, bishop Polk extended to the entire diocese, so
that by 1855, there were congregations of Negroes on
thirty-one plantations, and in every parish the clergy
were ministering to blacks as well as whites. To any-
one who spoke of the difficulty of teaching Christian
religion and morality to a people so recently trans-
ported from darkest Africa, the Bishop would reply,
"You may not save him, but you will save yourself."

12

Tennessee. Moreover, he felt that, as Louisiana was
largely an agricultural State, he would exert the best
influence by himself continuing as a planter, as he was
in Tennessee. He purchased a sugar plantation on
Bayou Lafourche, and settled on it with his family and
four hundred Negroes to whom he was a most elight-
ened master.

In addition to creating humane working conditions
(Polk refused, for one thing, to let his Negroes work on
Sunday, even in the cane-crushing season, much to the
scandal of his nceighbors who complained that he was
spoiling his workers and would surely go bankrupt), he
gave every care to the Negroes' moral and religious
guidance, as he had in Tennessee. A visitor to Leighton
has described the Bishop instructing some of the Negro
men in one great room of the mansion, his wife doing
the same for the women elsewhere in the house, and
one of the Bishop's daughters conducing a class for
Negro children in yet another place.

In each case "questions on the elementary principles
of the Christian religion were put and answered with
readiness and accuracy. Hymns were sung and anthems
chanted, the whole service exhibiting the care with
which they had been instructed and their interest in the
exercises." This concern with the wellness of his own
Negroes, bishop Polk extended to the entire diocese, so
that by 1855, there were congregations of Negroes on
thirty-one plantations, and in every parish the clergy
were ministering to blacks as well as whites. To any-
one who spoke of the difficulty of teaching Christian
religion and morality to a people so recently trans-
ported from darkest Africa, the Bishop would reply,
"You may not save him, but you will save yourself."

12