Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. The Religious Instruction of our Colored Populations. A Pastoral Letter from the Presbytery of Tombeckbee to the Churches and People Under its Care. Columbia, South Carolina: R.W. Gibbes, 1859. 

8vo. Original wrappers, stringbound. Presumed second edition. An edition was published in Starkville, Mississippi, the same year and is presumed to have preceded this edition. 

An important pastoral letter issued by the Presbytery of Tombeckbee (alt. Tombigbee) of eastern Mississippi. The letter is a complex work in which slave holders are told to view their role over their slaves in patronizing terms, treating them in a fatherly manner, and caring for their spiritual welfare. It attempts to thread the needle, empowering Presbyterian enslavers to retain a system that was inherently misaligned with human dignity, yet to somehow manhandle it into the baptismal waters of the Kingdom.

A truly unique insight into Southern religious engagement with slavery in the run-up to the Civil War.

VERY SCARCE. No copies have ever sold at auction. OCLC locates only 4 copies of the Columbia edition. 

[African Americana, African American History, Black History, Slavery, Enslavement, Abolition, Emancipation] [Pamphlets, Publications, Ephemera, Books, Rare Books, Tracts]