228 _et seq_.] [Footnote 2: Van Evrie, _Negroes and Negro Slavery_, p.

215.] [Footnote 3: Smith, _Lectures on the Philosophy of Slavery_, p.

228.] Seeing even in the policy of religious instruction nothing but danger to the position of the slave States, certain southerners opposed it under all circumstances.

Some masters feared that verbal instruction would increase the desire of slaves to learn.

Such teaching might develop into a progressive system of improvement, which, without any special effort in that direction, would follow in the natural order of things.[1] Timorous persons believed that slaves thus favored would neglect their duties and embrace seasons of religious worship for originating and executing plans for insubordination and villainy.