University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER XI.

VALUE OF CHURCHES, AND AMOUNT OF CONTRIBUTIONS FOR
CERTAIN BENEVOLENT OBJECTS.

The following tables, Nos. LVIII. and LIX. show the
amount contributed in the several States, for the Missionary,
Tract, and Bible cause, by all the principal Christian denominations,
except the Methodist. This denomination is not
included in the tables, from the fact that all receipts are returned
by conferences, which are frequently made up of several
parts of States, thus precluding the possibility of separating so

TABLE LVIII.
Showing the Amount contributed in the Slave States for purposes of Christian
Benevolence in 1855, together with the Value of Churches in 1850.

                                 

SLAVE STATES.	Amount contributed for the Bible cause.	Amount contributed for Missionary purposes.	Amount contributed for the Tract cause.	Value of Churches, 1850.
Alabama	$3,351	$5,963	$477	$1,244,741
Arkansas	2,950	455	110	149,686
Delaware	1,037	1,003	163	340,345
Florida	1,957	340	5	192,600
Georgia	4,532	9,846	1,468	1,327,112
Kentucky	5,956	6,953	1,366	2,295,353
Louisiana	1,810	334	1,099	1,940,495
Maryland	8,909	20,677	5,365	3,974,116
Mississippi	1,067	4,957	267	832,622
Missouri	4,711	2,712	936	1,730,135
North Carolina	6,197	6,010	1,419	907,785
South Carolina	3,984	15,248	3,222	2,181,476
Tennessee	8,383	4,971	1,807	1,246,951
Texas	3,985	349	127	408,944
Virginia	9,296	22,106	6,894	2,902,220
Total	$68,125	$101,934	$24,725	$21,674,581

TABLE LIX.
Showing the Amount contributed in the Free States for purposes of Christian
Benevolence in 1855, together with the Value of Churches in 1850.

                                   

FREE STATES.	Amount contributed for the Bible cause.	Amount contributed for Missionary purposes.	Amount contributed for the Tract cause.	Value of Churches. 1850.
California	$1,900	$192	$5	$288,400
Connecticut	24,528	48,044	15,872	3,599,330
Illinois	28,403	10,040	3,786	1,532,305
Indiana	6,755	4,705	1,491	1,568,906
Iowa	4,216	1,750	2,005	235,412
Maine[1]	5,449	13,929		1,794,209
Massachusetts[1]	43,444	128,505		10,504,888
Michigan	5,554	4,935	1,114	793,180
New Hampshire[1]	6,271	11,963		1,433,266
New Jersey	15,475	19,946	3,546	3,712,863
New York	123,386	172,115	61,233	21,539,561
Ohio	25,758	19,890	9,576	5,860,059
Pennsylvania	25,360	43,412	12,121	11,853,291
Rhode Island	2,669	9,440	2,121	1,293,600
Vermont[1]	5,709	11,094		1,251,655
Wisconsin	4,790	2,216	474	512,552
Total	$319,667	$502,174	$131,972	$67,773,477

as to give the amount from each State. Indeed, there is some
difficulty in dividing the amount justly between the slave and
free States; but this is not as great as in dividing it between
all the several States, since the sum collected in all the conferences,
made up partly of slave and partly of free Territory, is
but $35,000, which could make but little difference in the
result, however it might be divided. The amount collected for
the Tract cause and the support of missions, was, for the past
year, in the Northern conferences, $225,000, of which $35,000
was from conferences embracing both slave and free territory.
According to the Annals of Southern Methodism, for the year
1855, the amount raised in the Methodist Church South, in the
year 1854, was $168,931, "and for the year just closing, the
amount will fall somewhat below that," says the author.

Taking these facts and dividing the $35,000 according to
the best of our information, the amount contributed for these
purposes, in the Methodist Church, is a few thousand dollars
greater in the free than in the slave States. This of course
is exclusive of the operations of the "Book Concern," &c., &c.

The amount contributed by all other denominations is given
by States in the tables, which are compiled from the last
annual report of the several societies.

The amount contributed in the slave States, for the Bible
cause, was, during the past year, $68,125; in the free States,
$319,667; a ratio of over 4 1–2 to 1. The amount contributed
for the support of missions was, in the slave States, $101,934,
and in the free States, $502,174; almost exactly five dollars to
one. The amount contributed in the slave States for the publication
and distribution of Tracts, was $24,725; and in the
free States, $131,972; a ratio still greater, and over five dollars
at the North to one at the South. The amount contributed
in the State of Massachusetts, for the support of missions, is
greater than in all the slave States, while the amount contributed
in the State of New York, both for the missionary and
Bible cause, was nearly twice as great as in all the territory of
slavery.

It will be seen that the value of Churches in the slave States
is $21,674,581, and in the free States, $67,773,477; a ratio of
more than 3 to 1—the Churches of New York being equal in
value to those of the fifteen slave States.

The amount contributed in the several States for the various
benevolent objects which from time to time present themselves,
it is impossible to ascertain. But the report of the Portsmouth
Relief Association, just published, shows the amount received
from the different States "For the relief of Portsmouth, Va.,
during the prevalence of the yellow fever in that town in
1855." It is certainly gratifying to see that the call for help
was no promptly answered from the most distant States. The
amount of money contributed by the slave States, exclusive of

Virginia, in which State the sickness prevailed, was $12,182.
In the free States it was $42,547, or 3 and 1–2 times as much
in the free as in the slave States. Including the State of Virginia,
the amount given by the slave States was $33,398, or
$9,141 more given by the sixteen free States than by the fifteen
slave States. This is exclusive of provisions and other
valuable supplies, amounting to thousands of dollars, sent from
all parts of the Union.