I was baptized by the Rev. David Moore, the pastor of the Washington
Avenue Church, who is one of the best beloved ones on this earth, for he
never overlooked me in the time that my soul needed the Lord Jesus
Christ to save me from my sins and make me a child of the King, which
makes me what I am to day. I bless God that he ever put it in my dear
mother's mind to come to this place, for she was not a Christian, and
the heaviest burden that I have carried was praying for one that was the
head of the great family where she should have been a leader of her dear
ones to the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world. But God
be praised for a little one to lead so many, for of all the people of
mothers there was not one that knew of this love of God, and how many
were the souls given for me to work for. I told my mother that I had
found Jesus and was going to follow Him. She said. "My child, you are
too young. I am afraid that you will not hold out." And I said, "Mother,
if I should look to myself I should fail, but I look to Jesus. I have
given my life and He can hold me in the power of His might and can keep
me from failing; so I can not go against your will, but I must follow
Him, for you know how He has saved me from sickness so many times, and
now the time has come for me to pay my vows unto Him for making me His
own." I went forward in the way that He marked out for me and then to
pray that she might be saved.
My grandma was almost one hundred years old, and when she heard that the
Lord had saved me and that I was praying for her she saw her own sins
and asked me to come on to visit all of my people, and I, getting ready,
got my oldest sister to go with me. I found that the way was opened for
work, as there we began the work, and they were looking to see something
that they would never see in this world, and sweetly they were all
brought to the Saviour. Grandma went home to carry the good news and
some of the rest have gone with the same good news.
Later years some of my sisters came and some did not come. Then some
got tired and went back to the world, but I have no joy like the joy
there is in the Lord.
My dear mother found the peace in Jesus before she went to that land of
song. When the Lord sent the death angel to call her name she was ready
to answer, "Here am I ready to go in, to come out no more."
My mother left us on the 28th day of February, 1894, in the triumph of
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. What a blessed thought that I shall soon
be with her on the other side of the river to help her "Crown Him Lord
of all."
To my story:
The subject of this sketch, as I said, was born again under the
preaching of Rev. David Moore, of the Washington Avenue Baptist Church,
which is one of the noblest churches of this city, and it has some of
the best people in it of any church in the world, for there is more done
for those in need in other lands. When I became a member of that church
I could not read in any book, for I did not know a letter. There was a
gentleman in the church by the name of Mr. Lansberry, who finding that I
was one of those that was going to learn, went to a store and bought me
a First Reader and gave it to me, and I did not lose any of my time at
nights. I went to the meetings every night and came back and got a lady,
who was a sister of Mr. Bailey, to be my teacher, and sometimes she used
to be so very sleepy that she could not keep her eyes open and I would
shake her and say that my lesson was to be learned, and it was always
well learned. Then I went to the Sunday-school to let my Sunday-school
teacher hear it on Sundays, and he, Mr. Ward, always said that he was
sure that I would learn so fast I would soon catch up with his Bible
Class. It was not long before I could lay my Reader down and take my
lessons in the Bible, and I can bless God for all of this, for the love
and the kindness that I received of all that knew me was a token of His
great love for me, and I know that He was near me all the time to bring
me nearer to the Light. My mind was then fixed that I should some day go
to school and I could not rest night or day I was so anxious to go to
school; but my dear mother could not send me. She had poor health and no
one to help her to take care of the younger children, and I had to work
and do the best I could with my books, hoping that the time would come
that I should see myself sitting in some school studying, the same time
asking mother to let two of the other children go to school every day.
She did let them go for awhile, but some one came and wanted her to let
them go to work out again and she let them go out to work:
Well, I said that I would go to school some day, and they had a fine
time laughing at my high ideas and I let them laugh all that they wanted
to, but I worked hard and long to get the means that I might be able to
go, as I said, to some pay school, where I could not be stopped at any
time. When I was almost ready to leave for some school the smallpox took
me, and I was laid aside for three or four years; that is, I was not
well, and thought that my plans were all broken. I still trusted in God,
for I knew that He would do all things for me as long as I put my trust
in Him.
Well, as time rolled on I found myself improving slowly and I was then
living with a dear, good lady by the name of Miss L. A. Pousland, who is
one of the loveliest ladies that ever lived, for she loves me to-day as
a mother, though she is in eightieth odd year and is doing well for an
old lady.
We were living in South Oxford street when I took sick of the smallpox
and she did not want me taken away from there, as she wanted to take
care of me herself, but I felt that it would be too much for her to
wait on me, so the doctor said that it was only a heavy cold that I had
taken and would be all right in a week or so. But I knew that I had a
fever of some kind, so I asked that I might go to my mother's house, and
she sent for the carriage and I went home.
When I had reached my mother's I felt somewhat better, only to grow
worse all the time, and my eyes getting so that I could not see when it
was day or night. I had a nurse that knew all about the disease and a
good doctor that the city health doctor let take charge of the case
after he had been out there to see me: and knowing that the case was
taking, that no one should get it he let me remain at home for nine
days, and then I went to the hospital and was there till the symptoms
were well dried.
When the doctor found out that I was able to come out he, Dr. Schenck,
wrote to my lady to send a carriage out. She did so at once and I was at
my mother's for awhile, and then my lady came to see me and told me how
the woman did the people in the house, so I told her how bad my limbs
were, and she said that if I could go home with her and tell her what to
do, she would get on without the woman and let her go. My mother made me
ready in a little while and I was soon at the dear old home, 344 Carlton
avenue.
God be praised for the way he has led me since I was three years old
until this day, for it was His hand that taught me to remember all of
these long years. I have in my mind the time at the old home when they
put me on the fine dressing table in front of the large mirror, while
the Rev. Mr. Walker baptized me in the name of the Father and the Son
and the Holy Ghost, according to the Methodist tests in those days, and
I always thought that was to give me my Christian name; but when the
Lord had spoken peace to my soul He led me to follow in his footsteps,
and I gladly followed Him to be buried to the world--that is, to be put
out of sight, and that is what the word means. I have found it to be one
of those times when the Father was pleased with His own dear beloved
Son, and I know that He will be pleased whenever we do please Him, for
God so loved the world of sinful men that He gave His only begotten Son
that whosoever believeth in Him should have everlasting life, for God
sent not His Son into the world to condemn it, but that through Him all
might believe in Him and have everlasting life.
I wish that I could know that the whole world was receiving this life,
and that we all could help to crown Him, as the angels are crowning Him,
the King of Kings and Lord of Heaven and of this earth.
It is a blessed hope to know that God is love, and they that worship Him
must worship Him in spirit and in truth.
I joined the church in 1866 and began to try and follow in this good old
way that leads from earth to glory, and it has not always been a path of
the sweetest flowers, but I have never failed to find my all in the Lord
Jesus Christ.
He led me on day by day, and after awhile I found that He had led me to
go away from home that I might get ready for the work that my heart was
so full of, for every time that I saw the newspaper there was some one
of our race in the far South getting killed for trying to teach and I
made up my mind that I would die to see my people taught. I was willing
to go to prepare to die for my people, for I could not rest till my
people were educated. Now they are in a fair way to be the people that
God speaks of in the Holy Word, as He says that Ethopia shall yet
stretch forth her hand and all nations shall bow unto her. I long to see
the day that the Ethiopians shall all bow unto God as the One that we
should all bow unto, for it is to Him that we all owe our homage and to
be very grateful to Him for our deliverance as a race. If we should fail
to give him the honor due there would a curse come to us as a race, for
we remember those of olden times were of the same descent of our people,
and some of those that God honored most were of the Ethiopians, such as
the Unica and Philop, and even Moses, the law-giver, was of the same
seed.
And not long ago darkness hung over the face of this race and God moved
upon the face of this dark earth and the light came forth.
How wonderfully solemn and yet grand are these inspired thoughts and
words of a race whose God is so loving and forgiving, and we,
contemplating the grand mystery of the world beyond this vale of tears,
for God does preserve all that He has planted on this earth.
No subject can surely be a more delightful study than the history of a
slave girl, and the many things that are linked to this life that man
may search and research in the ages to come, and I do not think there
ever can be found any that should fill the mind as this book.
This is a perfect representation of things as I can remember them, and
to think how wonderful are these most beneficent streams of God's
providence to all those of our race that have prayed that their loving
children might feel the warm streams of an education flowing through
every child. Tens of thousands of miles, North, South, West and East,
God has thrown His mantle of love all around us, and it is that which
should make us love and fear Him, who is able to destroy both soul and
body; for His searching eye rests on all of the negro race, to see what
use they are going to make of their time and talent, and I hope that
nature will teach them that all of our talent belongs to the great God
who gave us our being.
Nature awakens in our being a feeling that we must lay at His feet that
we may get the blessed approval, for we are so changeable, but God is
unchanging. He is omnipotent, and all else is transition. Yet God rules
the oceans, the mountains, the valleys, and all that walks the broad
earth.
Well, now I shall tell you something more of my working in the City of
Brooklyn. I lived with the Bailey family the first year, and when they
went away in the summer, as all of the rich used to do, I stayed in the
house for the summer and they went across the ocean and were away for
some time. The next year I did not like to stay in the house alone, so
Mrs. Bailey got me a place with a nice friend of hers, and when she came
home, thought that she was going to have me to come back to live with
her but I stayed with her friend as there were but three in the family
and the work was not hard, and it gave me more time to study, and Mrs.
Stafford's son, Willie, was so glad to have me as his pupil that I had
not any trouble to get my lessons ready for him. He went to school every
day and he could not get through his head how it was that I could not go
to school every day as he did. His mother told him how it was and his
eyes would fill with tears and he would ask his mother and father to let
him stay at home on Sundays to read the Bible to me while I should get
the dinner ready, and they would let him stay, for he wanted to see me
going to the House of God on Sundays as they did and was willing to have
anything to eat that I might have the opportunity of attending the
church and Sunday-school. His mother would let me go to the
Sunday-school on every Sunday, for they were good people and were of the
kind that delighted in their help and they were members of the Church of
The Messiah, and they were a very happy family. They did not think that
anything was too good for my enjoyment and that is the reason that I
stayed with them and did not go back to the lady as she wanted me to do.
I could not tell which seemed to love me most, and then her son was so
willing to teach me, as Miss Abbie Bailey had, so I made up my mind that
as I had more time there for study I would remain, and I had some of the
best days of my life when I began to learn so fast, and he would bring
me before his mother and father that they might hear me recite my
lessons and see how well I was doing under him as my teacher. They felt
the more glad to see how much he was interested in teaching me. Later on
in years I was taken sick with the smallpox and was carried away to the
hospital. He was taken sick while I was away and his mother said that he
would call for me about the last one on this earth, and she tried to
find me, but she did not know where I was for some time after his death,
and then she felt so bad to think that he was gone and did not see me,
for he always loved to be with me that he might hear me sing, as I was
always on the wings of song if I were at my work; and that is the way
that I have been all of my life.
When I got well of the smallpox, as I said, I went back to the place
where I was living when I took the malady, and there I tried to work,
but was very feeble for a long time and under the doctor's care all of
the time and spending more than I could make, for some of the doctors
charged me two dollars a visit, and that will use up a poor person's
earnings very soon.
But all of this time I kept in mind the idea that I should save every
cent that I could that I might send myself to school some day. That day
did come when it seemed as dark as any night I had ever seen, when I
should go away to boarding school and spend that little and should not
have enough to finish; but I went, taking the Lord as the guide of my
life, and the way began to grow bright before me and I could see all the
clouds rolling away and the brightness shining forth. I went to
Washington, D. C., and entered the Wayland Seminary, under the
leadership of Professor G. M. P. King, of Bangor, Maine, with his other
teachers and professors under him; all of whom are a noble band of
teachers. And the way the Lord did help me in my studies is a blessing
to the dear ones that I had under me for the eleven years that I was in
the school work, and the way they progressed.
I said that I attended the Wayland Seminary for three years, of eight
months, making it in all of my stay there twenty-four months, which may
seem long to some, but it seems short to me, though I am very glad that
I had that much time there for it was a fountain of blessing to my soul.
I left Washington, D. C., in the year of 1878 and came to Brooklyn and
went to work again to earn money to go off to school, and when I did go
it was another school in the Blue Ridge, Alleghany Mountains, where the
very air of heaven seemed to fan the whole hill sides, and there never
was a more lovely place on this earth for one to learn a lesson, for we
could see the key to all lessons where nature had designed for a grand
school of learning. At this place was to be found one of the best
schools of learning that has been built by man. And I think of the
hundreds and thousands of teachers and preachers and lawyers and doctors
that these two schools have turned out in the different parts of this
country, and many of them are in other parts of the world.
And all of this has been done through the churches, and God be praised
for those that have given of their means.
At Harper's Ferry I spent four years and they were years of hard labor,
but they were just as sweet as they could well be, for the Lord went
with me and I found favor with all of the teachers. When I had spent the
first eight months there I learned to have the greatest love for my
beloved teachers, and when the time came for me to leave the teachers I
thought that my poor heart would break. Though I was coming to my own
people in Brooklyn, I felt that I was leaving my best friends on the
earth and so did all of the students.
Well, now the Summer had passed and gone and the Fall came when God
permitted all of the loving ones to come together once more to take up
the cares of studies again. So the time of the winter season was always
a blessing to all, and some found it the happiest time of their lives,
for they found Jesus precious to their souls and could study so much
better than they could before.