VOL. XXXIV. NO. 10.
THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
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“To the Poor the Gospel is Preached.”
* * * * *
OCTOBER, 1880.
_CONTENTS_:
EDITORIAL.
OUR ANNUAL MEETING—PARAGRAPHS 289
PARAGRAPHS 290
JUBILEE SINGERS 291
ATLANTA’S COLORED PEOPLE—COMMON SENSE FOR COLORED MEN 292
OUR SCHOOLS AND THE COMMON SCHOOL SYSTEM 293
A NEW SOUTH, NOT A NEW ENGLAND IN THE SOUTH 294
MTESA AND THE RELIGION OF HIS ANCESTORS 296
BEGGING LETTER 297
AFRICAN NOTES 299
ITEMS FROM THE FIELD 300
THE FREEDMEN.
COLORED CADETSHIP 302
NORTH CAROLINA, MCLEANSVILLE—Revival Interest 302
SOUTH CAROLINA, GREENWOOD 303
GEORGIA—Midway Anniversary 304
GEORGIA—Atlanta University and Temperance 305
ALABAMA—Shelby Ironworks 305
ALABAMA—FLORENCE—Outside Work 306
MISSISSIPPI—Tougaloo University 307
THE INDIANS.
S’KOKOMISH AGENCY: Rev. Myron Eells 308
SISSETON AGENCY: Chas. Crissey 309
THE CHINESE.
SERMON BY JEE GAM 310
CHILDREN’S PAGE.
CHINESE AND CHINESE CUSTOMS 312
RECEIPTS 313
CONSTITUTION 317
AIM, STATISTICS, WANTS 318
* * * * *
NEW YORK:
Published by the American Missionary Association,
ROOMS, 56 READE STREET.
* * * * *
Price, 50 Cents a Year, in advance.
Entered at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., as second-class matter.
* * * * *
AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION
56 READE STREET, N. Y.
* * * * *
PRESIDENT.
HON. E. S. TOBEY, Boston.
VICE-PRESIDENTS.
Hon. F. D. PARISH, Ohio.
Hon. E. D. HOLTON, Wis.
Hon. WILLIAM CLAFLIN, Mass.
ANDREW LESTER, Esq., N. Y.
Rev. STEPHEN THURSTON, D. D., Me.
Rev. SAMUEL HARRIS, D. D., Ct.
WM. C. CHAPIN, Esq., R. I.
Rev. W. T. EUSTIS, D. D., Mass.
Hon. A. C. BARSTOW, R. I.
Rev. THATCHER THAYER, D. D., R. I.
Rev. RAY PALMER, D. D., N. J.
Rev. EDWARD BEECHER, D. D., N. Y.
Rev. J. M. STURTEVANT, D. D., Ill.
Rev. W. W. PATTON, D. D., D. C.
Hon. SEYMOUR STRAIGHT, La.
HORACE HALLOCK, Esq., Mich.
Rev. CYRUS W. WALLACE, D. D., N. H.
Rev. EDWARD HAWES, D. D., Ct.
DOUGLAS PUTNAM, Esq., Ohio.
Hon. THADDEUS FAIRBANKS, Vt.
SAMUEL D. PORTER, Esq., N. Y.
Rev. M. M. G. DANA, D. D., Minn.
Rev. H. W. BEECHER, N. Y.
Gen. O. O. HOWARD, Oregon.
Rev. G. F. MAGOUN, D. D., Iowa.
Col. C. G. HAMMOND, Ill.
EDWARD SPAULDING, M. D., N. H.
DAVID RIPLEY, Esq., N. J.
Rev. WM. M. BARBOUR, D. D., Ct.
Rev. W. L. GAGE, D. D., Ct.
A. S. HATCH, Esq., N. Y.
Rev. J. H. FAIRCHILD, D. D., Ohio.
Rev. H. A. STIMSON, Minn.
Rev. J. W. STRONG, D. D., Minn.
Rev. A. L. STONE, D. D., California.
Rev. G. H. ATKINSON, D. D., Oregon.
Rev. J. E. RANKIN, D. D., D. C.
Rev. A. L. CHAPIN, D. D., Wis.
S. D. SMITH, Esq., Mass.
PETER SMITH, Esq., Mass.
Dea. JOHN C. WHITIN, Mass.
Hon J. B. GRINNELL, Iowa.
Rev. WM. T. CARR, Ct.
Rev. HORACE WINSLOW, Ct.
Sir PETER COATS, Scotland.
Rev. HENRY ALLON, D. D., London, Eng.
WM. E. WHITING, Esq., N. Y.
J. M. PINKERTON, Esq., Mass.
E. A. GRAVES, Esq., N. J.
Rev. F. A. NOBLE, D. D., Ill.
DANIEL HAND, Esq., Ct.
A. L. WILLISTON, Esq., Mass.
Rev. A. F. BEARD, D. D., N. Y.
FREDERICK BILLINGS, Esq., Vt.
JOSEPH CARPENTER, Esq., Ill.
Rev. E. P. GOODWIN, D. D., Ill.
Rev. C. L. GOODELL, D. D., Mo.
J. W. SCOVILLE, Esq., Ill.
E. W. BLATCHFORD, Esq., Ill.
C. D. TALCOTT, Esq., Ct.
Rev. JOHN K. MCLEAN, D. D., Cal.
Rev. RICHARD CORDLEY, D. D., Kansas.
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.
REV. M. E. STRIEBY, D. D., _56 Reade Street, N. Y._
DISTRICT SECRETARIES.
REV. C. L. WOODWORTH, _Boston_.
REV. G. D. PIKE, _New York_.
REV. JAS. POWELL, _Chicago_.
H. W. HUBBARD, ESQ., _Treasurer, N. Y._
REV. M. E. STRIEBY, _Recording Secretary_.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
ALONZO S. BALL,
A. S. BARNES,
GEO. M. BOYNTON,
WM. B. BROWN,
C. T. CHRISTENSEN,
CLINTON B. FISK,
ADDISON P. FOSTER,
S. B. HALLIDAY,
SAMUEL HOLMES,
CHARLES A. HULL,
EDGAR KETCHUM,
CHAS. L. MEAD,
WM. T. PRATT,
J. A. SHOUDY
JOHN H. WASHBURN,
G. B. WILLCOX.
COMMUNICATIONS
relating to the work of the Association may be addressed to the
Corresponding Secretary; those relating to the collecting fields to
the District Secretaries; letters for the Editor of the “American
Missionary,” to Rev. C. C. PAINTER, at the New York Office.
DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS
may be sent to H. W. Hubbard, Treasurer, 56 Reade Street, New
York, or when more convenient, to either of the Branch Offices, 21
Congregational House, Boston, Mass., or 112 West Washington Street,
Chicago, Ill. A payment of thirty dollars at one time constitutes a
Life Member.
THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
* * * * *
VOL. XXXIV. OCTOBER, 1880. NO. 10.
* * * * *
American Missionary Association.
* * * * *
OUR ANNUAL MEETING.
The Thirty-fourth Annual Meeting of the American Missionary
Association will be held in the Broadway Church (Rev. Dr.
Chamberlain’s), Norwich, Ct., commencing Oct. 12, at 3 P. M., at
which time the Report of the Executive Committee will be read by
Rev. M. E. Strieby, D.D., Corresponding Secretary. The Annual
Sermon will be preached by Rev. Wm. M. Taylor, D.D., of New York
City, Tuesday evening. Reports, papers, and discussions upon
the work of the Society, may be expected throughout Tuesday and
Wednesday. The following persons have promised to be present and
participate in the exercises, with others: Rev. Lyman Abbott, D.D.,
Gen. Clinton B. Fisk, H. K. Carroll, of New York City; Rev. A. F.
Beard, D.D., Syracuse, N. Y.; Rev. Alex. McKenzie, D.D., Cambridge,
Mass.; Prof. Wm. J. Tucker, D.D., Andover, Mass.; Prof. Cyrus
Northrop, New Haven, Ct.; Rev. Sam’l Scoville, Stamford, Ct.; Rev.
Joseph Anderson, D.D., Waterbury, Ct.; Rev. Wm. H. Willcox, D.D.,
Malden, Mass. We also have invited Pres. Julius Seelye, Amherst,
Mass., and Hon. John P. Page, Rutland, Vt., and hope for favorable
responses. For reduction in railway fares and other important
items, see fourth page of cover.
* * * * *
In addition to the speakers from the North announced above, much
interest will be added to our Annual Meeting by addresses from some
of the prominent workers in the Southern field.
* * * * *
During the vacation of our schools and workers, there is a dearth
of intelligence from “the field,” which must be the MISSIONARY’S
apology for its leanness. The next number will be made fat with the
good things prepared for us at Norwich, and may be delayed on that
account, after which there will doubtless be abundance from our
teachers and pastors, who will by that time have their work well in
hand once more for another year’s labor.
* * * * *
The St. Louis School Board has added oral lessons in etiquette to
its course of studies. A few scholars read in turn five pages from
a manual of etiquette, and then a conversation is held on the topic
by teacher and pupils. We do not see why good manners are not as
essential as good grammar.
So says the _Congregationalist_, and so says the AMERICAN
MISSIONARY. In several of our Institutions at the South, a small
text-book on good manners is used with accompanying oral lessons.
Colored pupils take well to such instruction.
* * * * *
Chicago is the freest city in this country. There is no
discrimination except in brains and money. Every place is open to
the colored man. The schools of the city have white and colored
children on the same seats and in the same classes, and no
“kicking” is heard. But what is the strangest of all, there are
two colored ladies who teach schools composed of white as well as
colored.—_Ex._
* * * * *
It is possible we may yet go to the negro to learn many things,
especially the virtues allied to, and growing out of, patience
under provocations, of which certainly he has been a wonderful
example. The editorial fraternity of the country would do well to
imitate the example of the colored brethren, who at the meeting
of the Colored National Press Association, recently held in
Louisville, disposed cheaply of what has hitherto been regarded
as the editors’ inestimable and inalienable right by resolving,
“That when differences arise among us, we will eschew vituperation
and personal abuse, and that the columns of our papers shall be
kept free from everything calculated to detract from the tone and
character of journalism.”
* * * * *
The defense Roman Catholicism makes against Protestant ruffianism
varies according to environments; in Uganda it takes one form, in
the United States another; but it is good to see the necessity of
some form of it, as stated in one of the Roman Catholic journals
in Mexico as follows: “It is necessary that the Catholics rise
resolutely and make a rapid and voluntary movement in defense of
their belief. To-day, unfortunately, the Protestants come with
a subvention, and their teachings are extending throughout the
whole country. They circulate their writings at the lowest prices,
even give them away, sometimes in tracts, sometimes in papers,
which is the favorite method of sowing the bad seed; and, sad to
say, in exchange, the Catholic weeklies are dying off for lack
of subscribers to sustain them. Protestantism is becoming truly
alarming among us.”
* * * * *
The colored Baptist churches of Virginia and South Carolina,
believing the time has come when they should go forth to the
millions of their fatherland with the Gospel, have sent out two
missionaries; and now the churches of Virginia unite in calling a
convention to meet at Montgomery, Ala., on the 24th of November.
This call is as broad as all the colored Baptist churches and other
religious bodies of the colored Baptists of the United States, and
is “for the purpose of eliciting, combining and directing the
energies of all the colored Baptists in one sacred effort for the
propagation of the Gospel in Africa.”
This may seem to some a somewhat narrow call, but it is for a broad
work—a work that shall yet elicit the energies of all our Father’s
children of whatever color and denomination, until the dark
continent shall be made glorious by the Sun of Righteousness.
* * * * *
Mohammedanism, whatever its affinity for Africa as it has been, and
its baleful power because of this, has no outlook for the future
of that sad, but soon to be made glad, continent. The _Foreign
Missionary_ well says: “If we consider only the physical condition
of success, it must be allowed that Islam has an immense advantage
in its central position and its vicinage to the field to be won.
There is much also in the greater similarity of character between
the Moslem and the heathen tribes as compared with Europeans, whose
habits are so utterly different from those of all African tribes.
But on the other hand, the forces of Christianity have now well
nigh surrounded Africa, and are pushing through a hundred avenues
into the interior. Discovery, time, commerce and civilization, are
handmaids of the Gospel as they are not of Islam. That can only
endure the dim light which survives from a past age. It belongs to
an age which has passed away, and to a type of civilization which
is everywhere sinking into decay.”
* * * * *
JUBILEE SINGERS.
These singers of world-wide fame will once more enter the “service
of song” for Fisk University. They have devoted their wonderful
voices to its benefit for six years, during which they left their
marvelous impress on vast and select audiences in America, Great
Britain, and the Continent, including the highest and humblest
in rank, and have reared as their monument the substantial and
beautiful Jubilee Hall, at Fisk University. The past two years they
have taken for needed rest, and in giving concerts for their own
benefit; and in dedicating themselves to the up-building of the
University, it is now for endowment, as it was then for building.
During all these years, their voices have been more and more highly
cultivated, without losing their freshness and originality, or
their power to move most deeply the hearts of vast audiences, as
was so signally manifested in the enthusiastic gatherings they met
recently at Chautauqua.
The name and fame of these Singers have been repeatedly
appropriated by unworthy imitators. This true Jubilee Troupe, when
again heard, will need no credentials except their own voices to
certify to the public that they are the original Jubilee Singers.
* * * * *
Gen. Garfield heard the Jubilee Singers when he was at Chautauqua,
and closed his eloquent speech with this beautiful tribute:
“I heard yesterday and last night the songs of those who were
lately redeemed from slavery, and I felt that there, too, was one
of the great triumphs of the republic. I believe in the efficiency
of forces that come down from the ages behind us; and I wondered
if the tropical sun had not distilled its sweetness, and if the
sorrows of centuries of slavery had not distilled its sadness, into
voices which were touchingly sweet—voices to sing the songs of
liberty as they sing them wherever they go.”
In his speech responding to a serenade by the “Boys in Blue” in
this city, he expressed this noble sentiment in reference to our
colored fellow-citizens—a sentiment which must become a fact
established beyond the possibility of successful assault before
there can be either peace or safety for the nation:
“We will stand by them until the sun of liberty, fixed in the
firmament of our Constitution, shall shine with equal ray upon
every man, black or white, throughout the Union. Fellow-citizens,
fellow-soldiers, in this there is all the beneficence of eternal
justice, and by this we will stand forever.”
* * * * *
_Atlanta’s Colored People._—Atlanta, and the world outside that
Chicago of the South, will doubtless be surprised to learn that her
colored people give in $250,000 of taxable property. There are over
six hundred who pay tax on values ranging between $100 and $1,000;
some forty ranging from $1,000 to $6,000 and over. In business
pursuits, there are 40 boot and shoe makers, 40 retail grocers, 75
draymen, 25 hackmen, 20 blacksmiths, 12 barbers, 2 tailors, several
boarding-house keepers, 2 caterers, 5 confectioners, 3 dealers in
fruits, 1 dentist, 1 undertaker, 1 veterinary surgeon, 1 mattrass
maker, and 1 billiard-table keeper. Of bootblacks, newspaper
venders, porters, peddlers, drummers, messengers, hostlers,
waiters, and those engaged in mechanical pursuits, we have no
special data, for they are numerous.
There are eighteen churches in the city, with an average membership
of 350, the three largest having each over 1,500. Over 5,000
children and adults are in the Sabbath schools, and 1,278 children,
about one-half in the public schools of the city. There are three
lodges of Good Templars among them, having a total membership of
about 200. Two lodges of Good Samaritans and Daughters of Samaria
have a membership of some 500. The Brothers Aid Society number
some 250, and the Brothers of Love and Charity 75. The Gospel Aid
Society, Daughters of Bethel, and Daughters of Jerusalem—benevolent
institutions—number a total of about 600. The Masonic lodge has
some 50 members. There are lodges of Odd Fellows whose combined
membership exceeds 600. These institutions have encouraged them to
form habits of sobriety and economy, and imbued them with feelings
of charity and benevolence. There are five military companies, and
they show great proficiency in the manual of arms.
* * * * *
COMMON SENSE FOR COLORED MEN.
[The following letter with the above caption is from the New York
_Evangelist_, and was written by the Rev. Moses A. Hopkins, a
colored preacher of Franklinton, N.C. It contains so much truth,
and good, hard, common sense, that the MISSIONARY is constrained to
send it along. This is done with a slight but emphatic caveat in
regard to one paragraph, to which exception is taken as misleading.
To say “the pinching poverty which drove a few idle and ignorant
Freedmen to Indiana, Kansas, and Africa” does not come up to
the proportions, as the writer would imply that it does, of a
satisfactory explanation of this great movement which has taken
more than 40,000 colored people from their old to new homes, at
great expense, both of suffering and money.
From Florence, Ala., many of the most intelligent and well-to-do
of these people exodized. Among those who went to Africa were many
intelligent and thrifty men, sufficiently so to send out an agent
and arrange for the movement, with means to place themselves in
their new home, and they were unanimous in assigning reasons which
justified them in the experiment.—ED. MISS.]
Many designing men, “filled to the brim” with sledge-hammer
rhetoric and campaign eloquence, for more than a decade have “used
sorcery and bewitched the colored people” with their “cunning
craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive,” till many of the
Freedmen thought that the time had fully come when the last should
be first and the first last, and were waiting and watching for
their turn in the White House and Congress.
But having hoped against hope, till hope deferred and poverty had
saddened their hearts, most of them have turned their minds to
the soil, which now promises “seed to the sower and bread to the
eater.” On every hand “the valleys are covered over with corn,”
and God, the poor man’s Friend, has just granted the tillers of
the ground “a plentiful rain,” which causes “the outgoings of the
morning and evening to rejoice.”
The present prospect of a bountiful harvest has greatly inspired
our people to labor and to appreciate honest toil, and to remember
that the great mass of the Freedmen will make better plowmen than
Presidents, and better sowers than Senators. The pinching poverty
which drove a few idle and ignorant Freedmen to Indiana, Kansas
and Africa, has taught those who had the good sense to stay at
home, that God will not bless idleness and ignorance among any
people. Most of the Freedmen have decided to buy land and labor on
it; to build houses and dwell in them, “and to plant gardens and
eat the fruit of them”; to seek the peace of the country and the
cities where God has caused them to be carried away captives; and
to remember that in the peace and prosperity of this country shall
they have peace.
* * * * *
OUR SCHOOLS AND THE COMMON SCHOOL SYSTEM.
The settlers of New England showed their uncommon common sense by
the early establishment of Harvard and Yale—the nursing mothers of
the common school system which has made these States what they are.
These colleges are not the ripened fruit of the common schools,
but the creators of them. For these colleges, we are indebted
to a class of men among the Pilgrim Fathers, educated in the
universities of the old world, a class not to be found among the
colored people of the South, and because of which alone, if for no
other reason, their condition differs immensely from that of the
Freedmen, who have no ability to create the instruments by which
they can be lifted up from the degraded condition in which slavery
left them.
The deep-seated prejudice of the Southern white against the fact
of negro education, his bitter unwillingness to see the experiment
tried, coupled with his scornful incredulity that anything worth
the effort could be accomplished, made it certain that those
most deeply concerned, because of the new relation these people
sustained to them, in the elevation, through schools, of the negro,
would originate no efforts to this end. This gospel, like every
other, must be sent to those who are to be specially benefited by
it, and must be sustained, like all missionary enterprises, by
those who know its value, until it can vindicate itself to those to
whom it is sent.
It is not rash to say that, but for outside pressure, few, if
any, of the Southern States would now have a system of common
schools, provided for by State legislation, even for the whites;
even less bold is the assertion that, but for the proved results
of missionary schools for the education of the colored people,
the South, and a large proportion of those in the North, would
be utterly incredulous as to the possibility of making scholars
of the negroes; and that the common schools forced upon the
unwilling South by the constitutions formed by conventions in
which the Southern sentiment found no expression, would never have
gained favor as they have with the people, but for the trained
teachers which our schools and the schools of other societies have
furnished. As in New England, so in the South, the trained teacher
makes the schools, which are thus the children of the colleges and
normal schools.
Wherever we have been able to send competent colored teachers, the
whites are in favor of sustaining the common school system; and it
may with modesty be said, that the A.M.A., perhaps more than any
other agency, has won for it a place in the future of these States,
ten of which, according to the latest reports, appropriate $49,829
for normal instruction in colored schools, a large share of which
goes to institutions established by Northern charity, to carry on
a work the value of which had been fully proven by these schools
before these States contributed a dollar for such a purpose.
In 1878, out of a total school population in the recent slave
States, including the District of Columbia, of 5,187,584, 2,711,096
were enrolled, being nearly 62 per cent. of the whites, and
something more than 47 per cent. of the blacks. Nearly twelve
millions of dollars was expended upon the schools for that year,
and for the most part it has been very equitably divided between
the races, except in Kentucky and Delaware, in which States the
school tax collected from the colored people alone is appropriated
to colored schools.
Thus the teachers of negro schools have fought a great fight, and
have won substantial victories, for a system of education which is
to regenerate the South, and, more than any other and all other
agencies, is to convert elements of danger, which, neglected,
would soon have proved the ruin of our republic, into elements of
strength and greatness.
* * * * *
A NEW SOUTH, NOT A NEW ENGLAND IN THE SOUTH.
There is a general feeling outside of, and it is encouraging to
believe even in, the South, that a new state of things is desirable
for that section of the country. No one who has seen its homes,
schools, churches, industries (or want of them), its literature—in
short, whatever at once marks and constitutes its civilization, and
knows how meager and unworthy it is, but assents to the proposition
that the South needs to be regenerated, and heartily wishes that
“old things might pass away and all become new.” In one way or
another, New England has supplemented her earnest wish for it
with most earnest efforts to accomplish this regeneration. To say
nothing of legislative attempts by the Government, thousands of
missionaries, at an expense of millions of dollars, during the past
fifteen years, have, with great self-denial and laborious effort,
attempted the task, and the reports are abundant and uniform that
these efforts are beginning to have their effect. Old prejudices
are yielding; new industries and new institutions, the outcome
of new ideas, are springing up; society is changing, and the
country is beginning to put on a new aspect. Never before have the
societies and laborers engaged in this work been so cheered and
encouraged by the outlook.
It may be well at this point to ask, toward what ideal we are
working, and fairly to consider the forces that are co-operating
with, or working against, us in this effort. The most potent factor
in the creation of a new South must be, of course, the South
itself, as of necessity she will be chiefly the architect of her
own fortunes, good or bad.
It would be unwise, and the effort would prove futile, to attempt
its reconstruction by outside influences and agencies, in utter
disregard of the fact that to her belongs the right, and upon her
devolves the duty, as she alone possesses the power, of shaping
her own destiny. This being the case, it becomes evident that the
new South is not to be a New England in the South, and our Yankee
egotism should not measure the progress made in that section simply
by its observable approximation to Northern ideals. New England, as
it is, could not have been built except upon New England’s hills,
and we shall never see it in the cotton fields, rice swamps and
everglades of the sunny South.
Other influences than those that are merely ethnic and moral help
to mold the character of a people, and to develop the industries
by which it shapes its civilization. We dare not think what the
result to our Republic would have been had the Mayflower found the
mouth of the Mississippi River instead of Plymouth harbor, and had
the Pilgrim Fathers settled on the savannahs of Louisiana instead
of the bleak hills of New England. The intelligent and thrifty
New England farmer, transplanted to Florida, may not, indeed,
degenerate into an everglade “cracker,” whose “strength is to sit
still” and chew tobacco; but he cannot be a New England farmer in
Florida, for the reason that he has neither the climate, soil nor
products of his old farm, and none of the conditions which partly
prompted, and partly compelled, the thrift which has characterized
the farmers of New England.
New England has emptied itself, probably more than once, into
the West; she has sent her sons and daughters out into the great
prairies with the school-house and the church, and they have built
them homes hallowed and made beautiful by these influences, but
they have not reproduced Yankee New England, and they never can.
In the new South, the ugly mud-daubed log huts will give place
to neat cottages; the school-houses will be multiplied until all
her children shall possess facilities for acquiring education;
churches, supplied with an educated ministry, will be accessible
to all inhabitants; roads will be built, over which it will be
possible to travel with comfort; the immense tracts of land
now impoverished and running to waste will be brought under
cultivation; a Christian conscience will displace a false code
of honor among the people as a rule of conduct, and methods more
civilized than the pistol and bowie-knife will be resorted to in
adjusting misunderstandings among neighbors. All this will be, and
of this there are evident tokens that it is now coming in. But the
wide diversity of soil and climate and other conditions of life,
the antipodal ideas which have shaped the character of the people,
the heterogeneous elements which more and more are entering into
the make-up of the population of the different sections—in short,
the necessities of the case, make it absolutely certain that New
England is to be confined to New England, and greatly modified even
there, and that the civilizations of the South and the West are to
be in many respects widely different, possessing characteristics
as marked, and doubtless as valuable, as those which have made
the influence of New England so beneficent upon the country at
large. It is wise, as it is also incumbent upon us, to supply the
educational influences which shall change the whole aspect of
Southern society, but foolish to undertake to cast it in the exact
form of that which we are proud to call New England.
* * * * *
MTESA AND THE RELIGION OF HIS ANCESTORS.
In 1875, Stanley wrote in the _London Telegraph_ of the wonderful
opening in Uganda, at the court and among the people of Mtesa, for
missionary effort. Within three days after the publication of his
letter, the Church Missionary Society received, from an unknown
giver, $25,000, which was soon increased by the same person to
$50,000, for opening a mission among the Waganda.
The reception of the mission, which was soon sent out, was most
encouraging. The opposition of the Mohammedan Arabs, bitter as it
was, did not materially interfere with its prospects. The king
seemed intelligently alive to the fact that there was something,
at least, in a Christian _civilization_ infinitely superior to
what was offered in Mohammedanism or heathenism. For a time,
everything progressed most encouragingly; the king and all his
people gave themselves assiduously to the new doctrines, and the
work of the mission was interrupted only temporarily by a suspicion
on the part of the king that the missionaries were emissaries of
the Khedive of Egypt, and were intriguing in his interest. This
jealousy was soon allayed, friendly relations were restored, and
the work was fully resumed, when there appeared upon the scene ten
Jesuit missionaries, sent out by the Archbishop of Algiers, with
instructions to occupy every station of the Protestant missionary
societies in the region of Victoria Nyanza and Tanganika, with the
intention of carrying the French language and influence into the
depths of Central Africa.
Their coming endangered for a time the life of the mission, and
their settlement near the palace by the king proved to be a serious
obstacle to the prosecution of its work. They gladly bribed the
king with gifts of arms and ammunition, articles eagerly sought by
him, but refused by the Protestant missionaries. They immediately
assumed a most hostile attitude toward the mission; denounced
the missionaries as liars, and threw the king and court into the
greatest perplexity. “What am I to believe?” cried the king.
“Who is right? First, I was a heathen, then a Mohammedan, then a
Christian; now some more white men come and tell me these English
are liars. Perhaps if I follow them, other white men will come and
tell me these are liars also.”
After a time, matters had settled down to comparative quiet.
The missionaries appealed to the word, which they were rapidly
teaching the people to read. King and people were learning with an
eagerness like that manifested by the Freedmen of the South after
the surrender. The king had the prayers written out in Arabic
characters, and ordered many copies, so that all might join in the
Sunday services; and such was the evident interest of all, that
neither the efforts of the Moslems, made after the fast of Ramadhan
last autumn, to have their creed introduced, nor the opposition of
the Jesuits, availed to hinder the work.
But there was a danger greater than the joint opposition of Arab
and Frenchman, of Islam and Loyola, with their confederates of the
slave trade—an adversary more to be dreaded, because indigenous to
the country, not foreign, and entrenched more deeply and strongly
in the African nature than any possible influence by which he could
be swayed.
Messrs. Mackay and Litchfield were in November last anxiously
awaiting the return of Mr. Felkin from England, whither he had gone
with the Uganda chiefs, being in sore need of more paper to meet
the demand made for printed cards and pages of the Scriptures. Mr.
Pearson was at Kagei, where he had gone to bring some machinery
from that point to Rubaga. This he was not able to do and was
compelled to return without it. On arriving at Buganga his request
to be allowed to go on was refused, because Mokassa, one of the
Lubari of the Nyanza, had possession of a part of the lake, and no
one could pass over it. At the same time a number of half-caste
traders were kept waiting at Rubaga, not allowed to proceed to
Unyanyembe until this Neptune, god or devil of the lake should
return home. Messrs. Mackay and Litchfield heard from time to time
that the Lubare was expected at court to cure the king of his
sickness. One day they ventured to introduce the subject of his or
her (for in this case the Lubare is an old woman who personifies
the spirit or devil of the lake), coming. The king entered heartily
into the subject and translated to his chiefs all that was said by
the missionaries. They said to him, if Lubare is a god, then there
are two gods in Uganda—Jehovah and Mokassa. If he is a man, then
there are two kings in Uganda—Mtesa, who has given permission for
these traders to depart, and Mokassa, who has forbidden it.
The next day, an order was sent for the traders to depart, and the
king proposed to his court that some cattle should be given to the
Lubare and she should be ordered to go back the way she came.
Weeks passed, and it seemed doubtful whether the king would triumph
or the old chiefs and the king’s mother, who insisted that the
Lubare should have houses erected for her in the king’s inner
court. Mtesa himself said to Mr. Mackay, “I believe what you say is
true, and that every Lubare is a liar, and deceives the people only
to get food.”
There was a gathering of the old chiefs, and the king was advised
by them that the missionaries had come to take possession of the
country, and were laboring to change its customs as a preliminary
step to conquering them altogether. Evidently the king was afraid
of the chiefs. The missionaries were at length summoned to court,
where were gathered the chiefs and a vast concourse of people. At
length the king announced the result of the council: “We shall now
have nothing more to do with either the Arabs’ or the white men’s
religion; but we shall return to the religion of our fathers.”
Every one assented with a simultaneous motion of hands. The next
day, the beating of drums announced the great procession which
accompanied the Mokassa to the palace.
The pupils have all ceased to come to the mission; a time
of persecution is anticipated by those who have inclined to
Christianity; and everything looks dark for the mission, which
had been planted at great expense, with so much hope. It is
emphatically Satan’s hour of triumph; but we feel assured that the
hour of the Son of Man also draweth near, and this darkest is the
hour before the dawning of the day.
* * * * *
BEGGING LETTER.
[We give a prominent place in our pages to Mrs. Chase’s letter,
hoping it may meet with speedy and abundant answers. These calls,
dear friends, are frequent, and they are urgent; but they are the
calls of our Divine Lord in the person of His poor children, that
we give them a fair chance to rise up from the degradation into
which they have been thrust, and in which wicked prejudice and
selfishness would keep them. We earnestly hope Mrs. C.’s experience
of ten years ago will be by as much more blessed in your responses,
as our encouragement in this work, and apprehensions of its value,
are enlarged.—ED. MISS.]
ATLANTA, GA.
Begging letters! How you hate them! so do we! How often have we
been deluded with the hope that there was to be no more need of
this unpleasant duty. Friends unexpectedly come to the rescue of
needy students. Often since 1869 large donations have set our
feet upon mountain tops when we had expected to remain years
in the valleys. But every little while we have to meet our old
bug-bear. After one year’s absence we had been back but a few
days when President Ware said, “These twenty-six new rooms are to
be furnished; you’ll write some letters for us, won’t you, Mrs.
Chase?” Now that means begging; but those of you who know anything
of the type of President Ware’s devotion to Atlanta University,
know that the only reply possible for his friends to make would be,
“Certainly, sir.” So here I am doing the thing you and I hate.
This begging money to furnish rooms brings up so many memories, I
must ask you to indulge me in a few reminiscences.
* * * * *
Eleven years ago we had but one building—teachers, scholars,
sleeping-rooms, dining room, etc., all crowded into that one.
Enough furniture was sent from an abandoned school in Augusta to
make the teachers’ rooms comfortable. In the students’ rooms, a
barrel with a board on it did the double duty of washstand and
table. In the summer of 1870, a new building for young men was
well on its way. It was our first summer in Atlanta. Some one
suggested that it would be pleasant to have individual friends,
Sunday-schools and churches furnish the dormitories, and keep with
us a memento of their generosity by placing the donor’s name over
each door.
How well I remember with what enthusiasm I sat down, ten years
ago, to write my first begging letter. I gazed then upon this same
charming view that I am feasting my eyes upon at this moment, and
drank in hope and courage from this wide north view, with the
strong old Kenesaw towering in the distance.
Soon responses came. You little realize how much joy has
been brought to weary teachers on opening letters with a
twenty-five-dollar check for a room. One such occasional letter
compensated for many chilling ones, and lightened the weary hours
spent in timidly addressing this friend and that. Nearly all of
us turned beggars, and soon had the name of our home church or
Sunday-school, our native town or some dear friend, beaming down
upon us as we walked through the buildings. At length, every
student’s room became sacred to the memory of some faithful friend
of the Freedmen. Some donations came as thank-offerings for dear
ones restored to health. At the end of one corridor is a group of
four rooms where three are named for three sisters whose husbands
have all been engaged in Southern work, and the fourth bears
the name of their sainted grandfather, whose prayers and tears,
mingling with multitudes all over our land, doubtless hastened on
the glad day his eyes were never here permitted to see.
In the wing of the young men’s building is a room furnished by
a gentleman who named it for a dear brother stricken down by
consumption when nearly through his studies, and who gave great
promise of usefulness. This gentleman has had a book-case placed in
that brother’s room, and sends frequent donations of books for the
use of the occupants of “Ferrier” room.
An Andover schoolmate, an Abbott Academy girl, named a room for
her father, a devoted friend of the slave, and sends for its walls
pictures, brackets, etc. Abbott Academy, as a school, has furnished
a room in each building. One room is named for Dr. Gurley, of
Washington, Abraham Lincoln’s beloved pastor. Just beside it
is “Alice Carey,” in memory of an only daughter, a precious bud
opening under brighter skies. Opposite is the name of the devoted
father.
“Celeste,” my dearest companion in girlhood, though so angelic
then, speaks to me _now only_ of her celestial home.
“Little,” the young physician, brave soldier, and devoted husband
of another dear friend, reminds me of the sweet promise that the
darkness shall some time be made light.
So each of the hundred rooms has some history, many doubtless very
precious to the donors, while unknown to us.
I must write of one more name, “Clarke,” which always deeply moves
me. In 1862, our lamented E. P. Smith, whose earthly life went out
in the Dark Continent, was laboring with his efficient and devoted
wife in the hospitals of Nashville, Tenn., under the Christian
Commission. Their first-born and only son, Clarke, sickened and
died. Instead of leaving their post, heartbroken, they remained at
the side of those wounded and dying soldiers, enclosed the precious
dust in its little casket, and sent it to their dear Northern home.
In 1870, without any personal appeal, but in response to a letter
in the MISSIONARY, soliciting aid in furnishing rooms, came a
precious note, calling down upon us and our work benedictions, of
which so many have felt the inspiration, and closing with, “Please
find enclosed $40 for a room in Atlanta University; please name it
Clarke.
Yours, for the Master,
E. P. SMITH.”
* * * * *
This summer, through the generosity of R. R. Graves, a large
wing, which has been so much needed, is being added to the girls’
building. $25 will buy a neat, plain set of furniture for each of
the rooms. I am sure there are some friends who will be glad to
know of this further opportunity of sending $25 and some dear name.
Yours very truly,
MRS. T. N. CHASE.
* * * * *
AFRICAN NOTES.
—_Lovedale_: THE MISSIONARY, a few months since, gave facts to
substantiate the assertion that the Free Church’s Industrial and
Mission School at Lovedale was one of the busiest in the world. A
magnificent pile of new buildings, which will cost £10,000, will
soon meet the demand for enlargement which has been most urgent.
The old school buildings will still be used, and these, with the
new, the girl’s boarding-house, and the shops required for the
various trades, will form a collegiate establishment of which
Scotland may well be proud.
Lovedale is the centre and source of healthful educational and
saving influences which are reaching out into a large portion of
Southern Africa—a true missionary centre. It has a large native
church under charge of a native pastor, who has studied the
Scriptures in their original language. A missionary association has
connected with it several Kaffir young men who preach in all the
kraals of the vicinity, and Evangelists who have carried the gospel
to Nyassa, and even to Tanganyika. It has also a literary society,
a training society, a Young Men’s Christian Association, and other
societies such as the best-working churches of this country find
necessary for best efficiency.
—The Free Church of Scotland, since the death of Capt. Benzie, of
the _Ilala_, and of Mr. Gunn, last April, are making explorations
with a view to a removal of their Station from Livingstonia to a
more healthful location. The probable site is Bandawi, midway on
the western shore of Nyassa, and contiguous to the promising tribes
of the Atonga and the Mangoni, who have reproached the missionaries
for not settling among them. The Royal Geographical Society has
published in its proceedings the letter of Mr. Stewart, the civil
engineer of the Mission, describing his explorations in search of
this site, with two maps showing his route on the western coast.
* * * * *
—A Mission of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States
on the West Coast of Africa, at Cape Mount, among the Vey people,
has been commenced under the supervision of a young man of such
energy, talent and Christian spirit, as give promise of successful
prosecution.
It will be remembered that the Veys are distinguished as the only
tribe on the continent of Africa which has invented an alphabet,
and a missionary of the Church Missionary Society has made a
grammar of their language. The natives are able to communicate with
each other by written letters of their own invention.
Those interested in the evangelization of Africa will rejoice in
the establishment of this Mission, and will watch with unusual
interest its success among these, the most interesting of all the
tribes on the west African coast.
* * * * *
—The success of the Belgian Exploration Company in the use of
elephants imported from Asia, for the transportation of its
baggage, has doubtless suggested the formation of a company at
Monrovia for the capture of native elephants for the same purpose.
Vice-President Warner is president of the company, and a hunter
of great experience is in charge of an expedition which has been
equipped and sent out for the purpose of capturing some of these
noble animals, and there is hope that they will prove so valuable
that they will be esteemed for more than their tusks, and their
wholesale slaughter will cease.
* * * * *
—_Malugsy needle-work_ is so superior to that of the English that
it does not pay to send to Madagascar made-up goods, as the natives
speak with contempt of the bad sewing, and insist that the cost of
picking it out shall be deducted from the price of such articles.
* * * * *
—The London Missionary Society announces the safe arrival at
Zanzibar, on the 29th of May, of the Revs. A. J. Wookey and D.
Williams, with Dr. Palmer, on their way to the Central African
Mission.
* * * * *
—_The Stanley Pool Expedition_ of the Livingstone Island Mission,
under the leadership of Mr. Adam McCall, is supposed to have
reached the Congo about the 20th of April. The last tidings were
written within three days of landing, and were very favorable.
Donkeys and kroomen had been secured, and of the latter several
were warm-hearted native Christians, who will, it is hoped, render
good service as fellow-laborers in the Gospel.
* * * * *
ITEMS FROM THE FIELD.
MARIETTA, GA.—On the Sabbath, June 6th, the new church, which
is also to be used as a school building, at Marietta, Ga., was
dedicated. The sermon, by Superintendent Roy, was upon the
rebuilding of the Temple by the ex-captives. A Presbyterian
minister from Pennsylvania being present, offered the prayer of
dedication. The house is 24×40 feet, well finished and painted, and
furnished with desks that answer the double purpose of church and
school use. The people raised $200 toward the building. Prof. T.
N. Chase gave the people a Sunday supply, reporting his visit to
Africa. Two young business men in Illinois put each $25 into this
Christian investment.
* * * * *
TALLADEGA, ALA.—The students are doing good service during
vacation, teaching in day and Sabbath Schools, and keeping up with
their studies so as not to fall behind if unable to return at the
beginning of the term. One who is teaching for the third season at
Hackneyville, Ala., has his sister, also a pupil from this college,
associated with him. At a recent picnic on the school grounds,
held for the purpose of creating an interest in education, leading
citizens, both white and black, made addresses.
Swayne Hall, of which we have seen a fine photograph, is too good
a building to be allowed to rot down, as it is doing, for want of
$3,000 needed to save it and put it in proper shape for the most
efficient service. Will not some one save $15,000 to Talladega
College by sending his checque for $3,000?
* * * * *
ATHENS, ALA.—The Trinity School at this place is going forward with
its new building. Last summer the colored people by volunteer labor
made and burned a kiln of 120,000 bricks, and have made another
this summer. If time is money, it takes a great deal of it to do
a work for which there is no money, but under the inspiration of
Miss M. F. Wells, who for a dozen years has been principal of the
school, and is the good angel of this enterprise, the people are
slowly but steadily moving forward to its accomplishment.
* * * * *
LAWSON, ALA.—Rev. Spencer Snell rejoices in some eighteen hopeful
conversions as the fruit of a series of meetings held in August.
* * * * *
FISK UNIVERSITY, TENN.—The Jubilee Singers at Chautauqua have been
attracting attention to this Institution, and to themselves as
cultivated persons, almost, it may be said, irrespective of color.
Their singing was one of the most fortunate and popular features of
the wonderful gathering at that famous place.
* * * * *
PARIS, TEXAS.—The Rev. J. W. Roberts, who is located at Paris,
Texas, an enterprising and growing city on the Texas and Pacific
Railroad, writes of a pleasant series of meetings resulting in some
ten additions to the two churches under his charge. He has since
been delivering a series of Biblical lectures which attracted in
members and pastors from other colored churches and a sprinkling
of white people. He is soon to be reinforced by Mr. S. B. White,
a graduate of the Normal Department in Talladega, who is to teach
the parish school. This church was organized in 1868 by a man who
at another place had his life sacrificed to the turbulence of those
times. He makes an appeal for a much needed communion service. If
some one of our churches has supplied itself with a new service,
its old one would be thankfully received; or if some one will
contribute a new one, it would be at once a graceful and grateful
thing to do.
* * * * *
HELENA, TEXAS.—Rev. M. Thompson, on the first Sabbath of August,
had the joy of receiving to his church six persons who had recently
found the Saviour. The school in this place is now to be taught by
Miss Henderson, a graduate of the Normal Department of Straight
University.
* * * * *
AUSTIN, TEXAS.—The Tillotson Collegiate and Normal Institute at
Austin, Texas, has been built during the year. Including the
basement above ground and the mansard roof, it has five stories and
is a commodious and comely structure, crowning one of the finest
sites about that beautiful city in the valley of the Colorado.
* * * * *
THE FREEDMEN.
REV. JOS. E. ROY, D.D.,
FIELD SUPERINTENDENT, ATLANTA, GA.
* * * * *
COLORED CADETSHIP.
REV. L. C. LOCKWOOD
[In giving the following letter it will, of course, be understood
that neither the A. M. A. nor Gen. Armstrong, nor even the Editor,
is committed to the plan suggested. Whether it is policy for the
friends of the negro to take up the gauntlet and cross swords in
his behalf on all occasions, or to possess their souls in patience
while they quietly wait for old prejudices to die, and a more
Christian spirit to prevail, may be a doubtful question.