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.ÿþtween 1725 and 1732, John Garzia claimed to have baptized 354 slaves of whom103 belonged to Col.Robert Carter.His report implied that most were olderchildren and adults who had been instructed first.23 Alexander White, parsonof St.David s Parish, got in trouble with some of his parishioners in1748 by hisregular practice of baptizing white and black children together.He refused toback down, insisting that God was no respecter of persons.24 All that under-stand English, & are but tolerably convenient to Church, bring their Childrento be baptised, James Marye reported in 1764, while acknowledging that ofthe one thousand adult slaves in his parish only about thirty to forty attendedchurch regularly.25Bruton Parish s parsons between1740 and1775 successfully encouraged slave-owners in and around Williamsburg to support the instruction and baptismof their slaves.The parish s extant baptismal register is fragmentary but none-theless affords evidence that well over one thousand slaves were baptized dur-ing those decades.26 Lorena S.Walsh, in her pathbreaking multigenerationalhistory of African Americans on Burwell family farms, documents from theAbingdon and Bruton Parish registers a distinctive support for slave baptism: for the late 1740s and early 1750s, when the two parish registers cover all threeof these plantations [Carter s Grove, Foaces Quarter, and King s Creek], thenumber of baptisms is substantial between ten and twenty-seven a year. 27Jonathan Boucher, soon after arriving at Hanover Parish in 1762, reportedbaptizing upwards of one hundred black children and thirty to forty adultsin the space of six months.28 When shortly he moved to St.Mary s Parish(Caroline), he made a more dramatic gesture.Taking a leaf out of GeorgeWhitefield s book, Boucher held an outdoor service in1766 on the Monday fol-lowing Whitsunday, by Virginia tradition a holiday for slaves.Before a crowdestimated in excess of three thousand gathered in and around the churchyard,he read prayers and delivered a Lecture of about an Hour s Length, afterwhich he baptized 315 black adults.For the moment at least he found himselfcaught up in the Pentecost spirit: It was the hardest Day s Service I ever hadin my Life: yet I know not that I ever felt such a pleasing Exultation of Heartas I then did: for I could not but think my Employment then truly primitive& Apostolical. 29By any measure, this was an extraordinary event.Boucher, it is true, wouldhave been the first to admit that he was no Whitefield: I must confess I wasseriously grieved to observe that, having but a weak Voice, but a Few cou d hearMe. Moreover, if Lecture accurately described his hour-long discourse, heprobably would have lost his audience even if it could hear him.Anglican re-.African Americans 265
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