The official position of the Congregational and the Episcopal
churches in 18th century Connecticut encouraged the education
of slaves in order to teach them to read the Bible and prepare
for conversion to Christianity. This mission, understood
as a religious duty for members of the church, applied to
the education and conversion of “Indians and Negroes”,
enslaved and free, particularly after it was agreed in 1729
that conversion did not make slaves free. The Episcopal
Church, for example, sent out 10,000 circulars on the religious
importance of teaching and converting slaves, along with
teachers and Bibles for the purpose. Theodore Morris, who
preached in Derby and Waterbury, reported that he had baptized
two adult Negroes. In 1738, the General Assembly in Connecticut
authorized the baptism of infant slaves.
Once admitted into the church, African Americans took part
in all church services, but did not vote on church discipline
after 1743 in the Congregational Churches. Segregation in
church seating and in burial sites within graveyards was
practiced in some communities, partly out of racial prejudice
and partly out of financial status.
In Waterbury, slave owners were prominent members of
both the Congregational and Episcopal churches; nearly
all of the ministers and several deacons owned slaves.
The Congregational Church was the first church in Waterbury
and was the only church until 1740, when Waterbury's Episcopal
Church was founded. Relations between members of the two
churches were generally amicable; during the 1750s, the
wives of the two ministers were sisters. During the Revolutionary
War, members of the Episcopal church sided with England,
creating a fair amount of strife in the town; following
the war, several Waterbury Episcopalians moved to Canada.
