To maintain a truncated Christianity required a truncated message as well. Thus, aids such as Jones’s 1837 Catechism of Scripture Doctrine and Practice, designed specially for “oral instruction of colored persons,” carefully selected which Scriptures to teach and which not. The book was wildly popular, running into at least six editions in its first year alone. Some whites openly admitted they truncated biblical instruction to slaves as a means of social control. They did not want slaves to have a deeper grasp of the truths of Scripture.
