Produced by Suzanne Shell, Emmy and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
Women of Achievement
Written for The Fireside Schools
Under the auspices of the
Woman's American Baptist Home Mission Society
by
BENJAMIN BRAWLEY
Dean of Morehouse College
Author of "A Short History of the American Negro," "The Negro in
Literature and Art," "Your Negro Neighbor," Etc.
Copyright, 1919
by the
Woman's American Baptist Home Mission Society.
CONTENTS
I. Introduction.--The Negro Woman in American Life.
II. Harriet Tubman.
III. Nora Gordon.
IV. Meta Warrick Fuller.
V. Mary McLeod Bethune.
VI. Mary Church Terrell.
[Illustration: JOANNA P. MOORE]
THE FIRESIDE SCHOOLS
The work of the Fireside Schools was begun in 1884 by Joanna P. Moore,
who was born in Clarion County, Pennsylvania, September 26, 1832, and
who died in Selma, Alabama, April 15, 1916. For fifty years Miss Moore
was well known as an earnest worker for the betterment of the Negro
people of the South. Beginning in the course of the Civil War, at Island
No. 10, in November, 1863, she gave herself untiringly to the work to
which she felt called. In 1864 she ministered to a group of people at
Helena, Arkansas. In 1868 she went to Lauderdale, Mississippi, to help
the Friends in an orphan asylum. While she was at one time left
temporarily in charge of the institution cholera broke out, and eleven
children died within one week; but she remained at her post until the
fury of the plague was abated. She spent nine years in the vicinity of
New Orleans, reading the Bible to those who could not read, writing
letters in search of lost ones, and especially caring for the helpless
old women that she met. In 1877 the Woman's American Baptist Home
Mission Society gave her its first commission.
The object of the Fireside Schools is to secure the daily prayerful
study of God's word by having this read to parents and children
together; to teach parents and children, husbands and wives, their
respective duties one to another; to supply homes with good reading
matter; and also to inculcate temperance, industry, neighborly
helpfulness, and greater attention to the work of the church. The
publication of _Hope_, the organ of the Fireside Schools, was begun in
1885. Closely associated with the Schools are the Bible Bands, a single
band consisting of any two or three people in the same church or
neighborhood who meet to review the lessons in _Hope_ and to report and
plan Christian work. All the activities are under the general
supervision of the Woman's American Baptist Home Mission Society, though
the special Fireside School headquarters are at 612 Gay Street,
Nashville, Tennessee. The present work is dedicated to the memory of
Joanna P. Moore, and to the wives and mothers and sisters, now happily
numbered by the thousands, who are engaged in the work of the Fireside
Schools.
I.
INTRODUCTION.
The Negro Woman in American Life
In the history of the Negro race in America no more heroic work has been
done than that performed by the Negro woman. The great responsibilities
of life have naturally drifted to the men; but who can measure the
patience, the love, the self-sacrifice of those who in a more humble way
have labored for their people and even in the midst of war striven most
earnestly to keep the home-fires burning? Even before emancipation a
strong character had made herself felt in more than one community; and
to-day, whether in public life, social service, education, missions,
business, literature, music, or even the professions and scholarship,
the Negro woman is making her way and reflecting credit upon a race that
for so many years now has been struggling to the light.
It was but natural that those should first become known who were
interested in the uplift of the race. If we except such an unusual and
specially gifted spirit as Phillis Wheatley, we shall find that those
who most impressed the American public before the Civil War were the
ones who best identified themselves with the general struggle for
freedom. Outstanding was the famous lecturer, Sojourner Truth. This
remarkable woman was born of slave parents in the state of New York
about 1798. She recalled vividly in her later years the cold, damp
cellar-room in which slept the slaves of the family to which she
belonged, and where she was taught by her mother to repeat the Lord's
Prayer and to trust God at all times. When in the course of the process
of gradual emancipation in New York she became legally free in 1827, her
master refused to comply with the law. She left, but was pursued and
found. Rather than have her go back, however, a friend paid for her
services for the rest of the year. Then there came an evening when,
searching for one of her children that had been stolen and sold, she
found herself without a resting-place for the night. A Quaker family,
however, gave her lodging. Afterwards she went to New York City, joined
a Methodist church, and worked hard to improve her condition. Later,
having decided to leave New York for a lecture tour through the East,
she made a small bundle of her belongings and informed a friend that
her name was no longer _Isabella_, as she had been known, but
_Sojourner_. Afterwards, as she herself said, finding that she needed
two names she adopted _Truth_, because it was intended that she should
declare the truth to the people. She went on her way, lecturing to
people wherever she found them assembled and being entertained in many
aristocratic homes. She was entirely untaught in the schools, but tall
and of commanding presence, original, witty, and always suggestive. The
stories told about her are numberless; but she was ever moved by an
abiding trust in God, and she counted among her friends many of the most
distinguished Americans of her time. By her tact and her gift of song
she kept down ridicule, and by her fervor and faith she won many friends
for the anti-slavery cause.
It was impossible of course for any single woman to carry on the
tradition of such a character as Sojourner Truth. She belonged to a
distinct epoch in the country's history, one in which the rights of the
Negro and the rights of woman in general were frequently discussed on
the same platform; and she passed--so far as her greatest influence was
concerned--with her epoch. In more recent years those women who have
represented the race before the larger public have been persons of more
training and culture, though it has been practically impossible for any
one to equal the native force and wit of Sojourner Truth. Outstanding in
recent years have been Mrs. Booker T. Washington and Mrs. Mary Church
Terrell. The spread of culture, however, and the general force of the
social emphasis have more and more led those who were interested in
social betterment to come together so that there might be the greater
effect from united effort. Thus we have had developing in almost all of
our cities and towns various clubs working for the good of the race,
whether the immediate aim was literary culture, an orphanage, an old
folks' home, the protection of working girls, or something else
similarly noble. Prominent among the pioneers in such work were Mrs.
Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, of Boston, and Mrs. John T. Cook, of
Washington, D. C. No one can record exactly how much has been
accomplished by these organizations; in fact, the clubs range all the
way in effectiveness from one that is a dominating force in its town to
one that is struggling to get started. The result of the work, however,
would in any case sum up with an astonishing total. A report from
Illinois, fairly representative of the stronger work, mentioned the
following activities: "The Cairo hospital, fostered and under the
supervision of the Yates Club of Cairo; the Anna Field Home for Girls,
Peoria; Lincoln Old Folks' and Orphans' Home, founded by Mrs. Eva Monroe
and assisted by the Women's Club of Springfield; the Home for Aged and
Infirm Colored People, Chicago, founded by Mrs. Gabrella Smith and
others; the Amanda Smith Orphans' Home, Harvey; the Phillis Wheatley
Home for Wage-Earning Girls, of Chicago." In Alabama the State
Federation of Colored Women's Clubs has established and is supporting a
reformatory at Mt. Meigs for Negro boys, and the women are very
enthusiastic about the work. A beautiful and well ordered home for Negro
girls was established a few years ago in Virginia. Of the White Rose
Mission of New York we are told that it "has done much good. A large
number of needy ones have found shelter within its doors and have been
able to secure work of all kinds. This club has a committee to meet the
incoming steamers from the South and see that young women entering the
city as strangers are directed to proper homes." All such work is
touching in its tenderness and effectiveness. The National Association
of Colored Women's Clubs was founded in 1896. The organization has
become stronger and stronger until it is now a powerful and effective
one with hundreds of members. One of its recent activities has been the
purchase of the home of Frederick Douglass at Anacostia, D. C.
In education, church life, and missions--special forms of social
service--we have only to look around us to see what the Negro woman is
accomplishing. Not only is she bearing the brunt of common school
education for the race; in more than one instance a strong character,
moved to do something, has started on a career of success a good
secondary or industrial school. Representative are the Voorhees Normal
and Industrial School, at Denmark, S. C., founded by Elizabeth C.
Wright; the Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute for Negro Girls,
founded by Mrs. M. M. Bethune; and the Mt. Meigs Institute, Mt. Meigs,
Alabama, founded by Miss Cornelia Bowen. Noteworthy for its special
missionary emphasis is the National Training School of Washington, of
which Miss Nannie H. Burroughs is the head. One of the most important
recent developments in education has been the appointment of a number
of young women as supervisors in county schools under the terms of the
will of Anna T. Jeanes, a Quaker lady of Philadelphia who left a
considerable sum of money for the improvement of the rural schools of
the South. In church work we all know the extent to which women have had
to bear the burden not only of the regular activities but also of the
numerous "rallies" that still so unfortunately afflict our churches.
Deserving of special mention in connection with social service is the
work of those who have labored under the auspices of the Young Women's
Christian Association, which has done so much for the moral well-being
of the great camps in the war. In foreign mission work one of the
educational institutions sustained primarily by Northern Baptist
agencies--Spelman Seminary--stands out with distinct prominence. Not
only has Spelman sent to Africa several of her daughters from this
country, the first one being Nora Gordon in 1889; she has also educated
several who have come to her from Africa, the first being Lena Clark,
and for these the hope has ever been that they would return to their own
country for their largest and most mature service.
In the realm of business the Negro woman has stood side by side with her
husband in the rise to higher things. In almost every instance in which
a man has prospered, investigation will show that his advance was very
largely due to the faith, the patience, and the untiring effort of his
wife. Dr. B. T. Washington, in his book _The Negro in Business_, gave
several examples. One of the outstanding instances was in the story of
Junius G. Groves, famous potato grower of Edwardsville, Kansas. This man
moved from his original home in Kentucky to Kansas at the time of the
well-known "Exodus" of 1879, a migration movement which was even more
voluntary on the part of the Negro than the recent removal to the North
on the part of so many, this latter movement being in so many ways a
result of war conditions. Mr. Groves in course of time became a man of
large responsibilities and means. It is most interesting, however, to go
back to his early days of struggle. We read as follows: "Soon after
getting the crop planted Mr. Groves decided to marry. When he reached
this decision he had but seventy-five cents in cash, and had to borrow
enough to satisfy the demands of the law. But he knew well the worth and
common sense of the woman he was to marry. She was as poor in worldly
goods as himself; but their poverty did not discourage them in their
plans. * * * * During the whole season they worked with never-tiring
energy, early and late; with the result that when the crop had been
harvested and all debts paid they had cleared $125. Notwithstanding
their lack of many necessaries of life, to say nothing of comforts, they
decided to invest $50 of their earnings in a lot in Kansas City, Kansas.
They paid $25 for a milk cow, and kept the remaining $50 to be used in
the making of another crop." In the course of a few years Mr. Groves,
with the help of his wife, now the mother of a large family, gathered in
one year hundreds of thousands of bushels of white potatoes, surpassing
all other growers in the world. Similarly was the success of E. C.
Berry, a hotel-keeper of Athens, Ohio, due to his wife. "At night, after
his guests had fallen asleep, it was his custom to go around and gather
up their clothes and take them to his wife, who would add buttons which
were lacking, repair rents, and press the garments, after which Mr.
Berry would replace them in the guests' rooms. Guests who had received
such treatment returned again and brought their friends with them." In
course of time Mr. and Mrs. Berry came to own the leading hotel in
Athens, one of fifty rooms and of special favor with commercial
travelers.
Such examples could be multiplied indefinitely. It is not only in such
spheres that the worth of the Negro woman has been shown, however.
Daily, in thousands of homes, in little stores and on humble farms,
effort just as heroic has been exerted, though the result is not always
so evident. On their own initiative also women are now engaging in large
enterprises. The most conspicuous example of material success is
undoubtedly Mme. C. J. Walker, of the Mme. C. J. Walker Manufacturing
Company, of Indianapolis and New York, a business that is now conducted
on a large scale and in accordance with the best business methods of
America. Important also in this connection is the very great
contribution that Negro women--very often those without education and
opportunity--are making in the ordinary industrial life of the country.
According to the census of 1910, 1,047,146, or 52 per cent. of those at
work, were either farmers or farm laborers, and 28 per cent. more were
either cooks or washerwomen. In other words, a total of exactly 80 per
cent. were doing some of the hardest and at the same time some of the
most necessary work in our home and industrial life. These are workers
whose worth has never been fully appreciated by the larger public, and
who needed the heavy demands of the great war to call attention to the
actual value of the service they were rendering.
The changes in fact brought about within the last few years, largely as
a result of war conditions, are remarkable. As Mary E. Jackson, writing
in the _Crisis_, has said: "Indiana reports [Negro women] in glass
works; in Ohio they are found on the night shifts of glass works; they
have gone into the pottery works in Virginia; wood-working plants and
lumber yards have called for their help in Tennessee." She also quotes
Rachel S. Gallagher, of Cleveland, Ohio, as saying of the Negro women in
that city: "We find them on power sewing-machines, making caps, waists,
bags, and mops; we find them doing pressing and various hand operations
in these same shops. They are employed in knitting factories as winders,
in a number of laundries on mangles of every type, and in sorting and
marking. They are in paper box factories doing both hand and machine
work, in button factories on the button machines, in packing houses
packing meat, in railroad yards wiping and cleaning engines, and doing
sorting in railroad shops. One of our workers recently found two colored
girls on a knotting machine in a bed spring factory, putting the knots
in the wire springs."
In the professions, such as medicine and law, and in scholarship as
well, the Negro woman has blazed a path. One year after Oberlin College
in Ohio was founded in 1833, thirty years before the issuing of the
Emancipation Proclamation, the trustees took the advanced ground of
admitting Negro men and women on equal terms with other students. Of the
Northern colleges and universities Oberlin still leads in the number of
its Negro women graduates, but in recent years other such institutions
as Radcliffe, Wellesley, Columbia, and Chicago have been represented in
an increasing number by those who have finished their work creditably
and even with distinction in many instances. More and more each year are
young women at these institutions going forward to the attainment of the
higher scholastic degrees. In connection with medicine we recall the
work in the war of the Negro woman in the related profession of nursing.
It was only after considerable discussion that she was given a genuine
opportunity in Red Cross work, but she at once vindicated herself. In
the legal profession she has not only been admitted to practice in
various places, but has also been appointed to public office. It must be
understood that such positions as those just remarked are not secured
without a struggle, but all told they indicate that the race through its
womanhood is more and more taking part in the general life of the
country.
In keeping with the romantic quality of the race it was but natural that
from the first there should have been special effort at self-expression
in literature, music, and other forms of art. The first Negro woman to
strike the public imagination was Phillis Wheatley, who even as a young
girl wrote acceptable verse. Her _Poems on Various Subjects_ published
in 1773 at once attracted attention, and it was fitting that the first
Negro woman to become distinguished in America should be one of
outstanding piety and nobility of soul. Just a few years before the
Civil War Frances Ellen Watkins, better known as Mrs. F. E. W. Harper,
entered upon her career as a writer of popular poetry. At the present
time attention centers especially upon Mrs. Georgia Douglas Johnson, who
early in 1918 produced in _The Heart of a Woman_ a little volume of
delicate and poignantly beautiful verse, and from whom greater and
greater things are expected, as she not only has the temperament of an
artist but has also undergone a period of severe training in her chosen
field. In the wider field of prose--including especially stories,
essays, and sketches--Mrs. Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson is prominent. In
1899 she produced _The Goodness of St. Rocque, and other stories_, and
since then has continued her good work in various ways. The whole field
of literature is a wide one, one naturally appealing to many of the
younger women, and one that with all its difficulties and lack of
financial return does offer some genuine reward to the candidate who is
willing to work hard and who does not seek a short cut to fame.
In music the race has produced more women of distinction than in any
other field. This was natural, for the Negro voice is world famous. The
pity is that all too frequently some of the most capable young women
have not had the means to cultivate their talents and hence have fallen
by the wayside. Some day it is to be hoped that a great philanthropist
will endow a real conservatory at which such persons may find some
genuine opportunity and encouragement in their development in their days
of struggle. In spite of all the difficulties, however, there have been
singers who have risen to very high things in their art. Even before the
Civil War the race produced one of the first rank in Elizabeth Taylor
Greenfield, who came into prominence in 1851. This artist, born in
Mississippi, was taken to Philadelphia and there cared for by a Quaker
lady. The young woman did not soon reveal her gift to her friend,
thinking that it might be frowned upon as something too worldly. Her
guardian learned of it by accident, however, and one day surprised her
by asking, "Elizabeth, is it true that thee can sing?" "Yes," replied
the young woman in confusion. "Let me hear thee." And Elizabeth sang;
and her friend, realizing that she had a voice of the first quality,
proceeded to give her the best instruction that it was possible to get.
Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield had a marvelous voice embracing twenty-seven
notes, reaching from the sonorous bass of a baritone to the highest
soprano. A voice with a range of more than three octaves naturally
attracted much attention in both England and America, and comparisons
with Jenny Lind, then at the height of her great fame, were frequent.
In the next generation arose Madame Selika, a cultured singer of the
first rank, and one who by her arias and operatic work generally, as
well as by her mastery of language, won great success on the continent
of Europe as well as in England and America. The careers of some later
singers are so recent as to be still fresh in the public memory; some in
fact may still be heard. It was in 1887 that Flora Batson entered on the
period of her greatest success. She was a ballad singer and her work at
its best was of the sort that sends an audience into the wildest
enthusiasm. In a series of temperance meetings in New York she sang for
ninety consecutive nights, with never-failing effect, one song, "Six
Feet of Earth Make Us All One Size." Her voice exhibited a compass of
three octaves, but even more important than its range was its remarkable
sympathetic quality. Early in the last decade of the century appeared
also Mrs. Sissieretta Jones, whose voice at once commanded attention as
one of unusual richness and volume, and as one exhibiting especially the
plaintive quality ever present in the typical Negro voice.
At the present time there are several promising singers; and there are
also those who in various ways are working for the general advancement
of the race in music. Mrs. E. Azalia Hackley, for some years prominent
as a concert soprano, has recently given her time most largely to the
work of teaching and showing the capabilities of the Negro voice.
Possessed of a splendid musical temperament, she has enjoyed the benefit
of three years of foreign study and generally inspired many younger
singers or performers. Prominent among many excellent pianists is Mrs.
Hazel Harrison Anderson, who also has studied much abroad and who has
appeared in many noteworthy recitals. Mrs. Maud Cuney Hare, of Boston, a
concert pianist, has within the last few years given several excellent
lecture-recitals dealing with Afro-American music.
As between painting and sculpture the women of the race have shown a
decided preference for sculpture. While there are some students of
promise, no woman has as yet achieved distinction on work of really
professional quality in the realm of painting. On the other hand there
have been three or four sculptors of genuine merit. As early as 1865
Edmonia Lewis began to attract attention by her busts of prominent
people. Within the last few years the work of Mrs. May Howard Jackson,
of Washington, has attracted the attention of the discerning; and that
of Mrs. Meta Warrick Fuller is reserved for special comment.
Any such review as this naturally has its limitations. We can indicate
only a few of the outstanding individuals here and there. At least
enough has been said, however, to show that the Negro woman is making
her way at last into every phase of noble endeavor. In the pages that
follow we shall attempt to set forth at somewhat greater length the life
and work of a few of those whose achievement has been most signal and
whose interest in their sisters has been unfailing.
[Illustration:
IN MEMORY OF
HARRIET TUBMAN
BORN A SLAVE IN MARYLAND ABOUT 1821 DIED IN AUBURN, N.Y. MARCH 10TH,
1913
CALLED THE "MOSES" OF HER PEOPLE. DURING THE CIVIL WAR, WITH RARE
COURAGE, SHE LED OVER THREE HUNDRED NEGROES UP FROM SLAVERY TO FREEDOM,
AND RENDERED INVALUABLE SERVICE AS NURSE AND SPY.
WITH IMPLICIT TRUST IN GOD SHE BRAVED EVERY DANGER AND OVERCAME EVERY
OBSTACLE, WITHAL SHE POSSESSED EXTRAORDINARY FORESIGHT AND JUDGMENT SO
THAT SHE TRUTHFULLY SAID--
"ON MY UNDERGROUND RAILROAD I NEBBER RUN MY TRAIN OFF DE TRACK AND I
NEBBER LOS' A PASSENGER."
* * * * *
THIS TABLET IS ERECTED
BY THE CITIZENS OF AUBURN
.1914.
Used through courtesy of John Williams, Inc., Bronze Foundry and Iron
Works, New York, N. Y.]
HARRIET TUBMAN
II.
HARRIET TUBMAN[A]
Greatest of all the heroines of anti-slavery was Harriet Tubman. This
brave woman not only escaped from bondage herself, but afterwards made
nineteen distinct trips to the South, especially to Maryland, and
altogether aided more than three hundred souls in escaping from their
fetters.
Araminta Ross, better known by the Christian name _Harriet_ that she
adopted, and her married name of _Tubman_, was born about 1821 in
Dorchester County, on the eastern shore of Maryland, the daughter of
Benjamin Ross and Harriet Greene, both of whom were slaves, but who were
privileged to be able to live their lives in a state of singular
fidelity. Harriet had ten brothers and sisters, not less than three of
whom she rescued from slavery; and in 1857, at great risk to herself,
she also took away to the North her aged father and mother.
When Harriet was not more than six years old she was taken away from her
mother and sent ten miles away to learn the trade of weaving. Among
other things she was set to the task of watching muskrat traps, which
work compelled her to wade much in water. Once she was forced to work
when she was already ill with the measles. She became very sick, and her
mother now persuaded her master to let the girl come home for a while.
Soon after Harriet entered her teens she suffered a misfortune that
embarrassed her all the rest of her life. She had been hired out as a
field hand. It was the fall of the year and the slaves were busy at such
tasks as husking corn and cleaning up wheat. One of them ran away. He
was found. The overseer swore that he should be whipped and called on
Harriet and some others that happened to be near to help tie him. She
refused, and as the slave made his escape she placed herself in a door
to help to stop pursuit of him. The overseer caught up a two-pound
weight and threw it at the fugitive; but it missed its mark and struck
Harriet a blow on the head that was almost fatal. Her skull was broken
and from this resulted a pressure on her brain which all her life left
her subject to fits of somnolency. Sometimes these would come upon her
in the midst of a conversation or any task at which she might be
engaged; then after a while the spell would pass and she could go on as
before.
After Harriet recovered sufficiently from her blow she lived for five or
six years in the home of one John Stewart, working at first in the house
but afterwards hiring her time. She performed the most arduous labor in
order to get the fifty or sixty dollars ordinarily exacted of a woman in
her situation. She drove oxen, plowed, cut wood, and did many other such
things. With her firm belief in Providence, in her later years she
referred to this work as a blessing in disguise as it gave her the firm
constitution necessary for the trials and hardships that were before
her. Sometimes she worked for her father, who was a timber inspector and
superintended the cutting and hauling of large quantities of timber for
the Baltimore ship-yards. Her regular task in this employment was the
cutting of half a cord of wood a day.
About 1844 Harriet was married to a free man named John Tubman. She had
no children. Two years after her escape in 1849 she traveled back to
Maryland for her husband, only to find him married to another woman and
no longer caring to live with her. She felt the blow keenly, but did not
despair and more and more gave her thought to what was to be the great
work of her life.
It was not long after her marriage that Harriet began seriously to
consider the matter of escape from bondage. Already in her mind her
people were the Israelites in the land of Egypt, and far off in the
North _somewhere_ was the land of Canaan. In 1849 the master of her
plantation died, and word passed around that at any moment she and two
of her brothers were to be sold to the far South. Harriet, now
twenty-four years old, resolved to put her long cherished dreams into
effect. She held a consultation with her brothers and they decided to
start with her at once, that very night, for the North. She could not go
away, however, without giving some intimation of her purpose to the
friends she was leaving behind. As it was not advisable for slaves to be
seen too much talking together, she went among her old associates
singing as follows:
When dat ar ol' chariot comes
I'm gwine to leabe you;
I'm boun' for de Promised Land;
Frien's, I'm gwine to leabe you.
I'm sorry, frien's, to leabe you;
Farewell! oh, farewell!
But I'll meet you in de mornin';
Farewell! oh, farewell!
I'll meet you in de mornin'
When you reach de Promised Land;
On de oder side of Jordan,
For I'm boun' for de Promised Land.
The brothers started with her; but the way was unknown, the North was
far away, and they were constantly in terror of recapture. They turned
back, and Harriet, after watching their retreating forms, again fixed
her eyes on the north star. "I had reasoned dis out in my min'," said
she; "there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death. If
I could not have one, I would have de other, for no man should take me
alive. I would fight for my liberty as long as my strength lasted, and
when de time came for me to go, the Lord would let them take me."
"And so without money, and without friends," says Mrs. Bradford, "she
started on through unknown regions; walking by night, hiding by day, but
always conscious of an invisible pillar of cloud by day, and of fire by
night, under the guidance of which she journeyed or rested. Without
knowing whom to trust, or how near the pursuers might be, she carefully
felt her way, and by her native cunning, or by God-given wisdom she
managed to apply to the right people for food, and sometimes for
shelter; though often her bed was only the cold ground, and her watchers
the stars of night. After many long and weary days of travel, she found
that she had passed the magic line which then divided the land of
bondage from the land of freedom." At length she came to Philadelphia,
where she found work and the opportunity to earn a little money. It was
at this time, in 1851, after she had been employed for some months, that
she went back to Maryland for her husband only to find that he had not
been true.
In December, 1850, she had visited Baltimore and brought away a sister
and two children. A few months afterwards she took away a brother and
two other men. In December, 1851, she led out a party of eleven, among
them being another brother and his wife. With these she journeyed to
Canada, for the Fugitive Slave Law was now in force and, as she quaintly
said, there was no safety except "under the paw of the British Lion."
The winter, however, was hard on the poor fugitives, who unused to the
climate of Canada, had to chop wood in the forests in the snow. Often
they were frost-bitten, hungry, and almost always poorly clad. But
Harriet was caring for them. She kept house for her brother, and the
fugitives boarded with her. She begged for them and prayed for them, and
somehow got them through the hard winter. In the spring she returned to
the States, as usual working in hotels and families as a cook. In 1852
she once more went to Maryland, this time bringing away nine fugitives.
It must not be supposed that those who started on the journey northward
were always strong-spirited characters. The road was rough and attended
by dangers innumerable. Sometimes the fugitives grew faint-hearted and
wanted to turn back. Then would come into play the pistol that Harriet
always carried with her. "Dead niggers tell no tales," said she,
pointing it at them; "you go on or die!" By this heroic method she
forced many to go onward and win the goal of freedom.
Unfailing was Harriet Tubman's confidence in God. A customary form of
prayer for her was, "O Lord, you've been with me in six troubles; be
with me in the seventh." On one of her journeys she came with a party of
fugitives to the home of a Negro who had more than once assisted her and
whose house was one of the regular stations on the so-called Underground
Railroad. Leaving her party a little distance away Harriet went to the
door and gave the peculiar rap that was her regular signal. Not meeting
with a ready response, she knocked several times. At length a window was
raised and a white man demanded roughly what she wanted. When Harriet
asked for her friend she was informed that he had been obliged to leave
for assisting Negroes. The situation was dangerous. Day was breaking and
something had to be done at once. A prayer revealed to Harriet a place
of refuge. Outside of the town she remembered that there was a little
island in a swamp, with much tall grass upon it. Hither she conducted
her party, carrying in a basket two babies that had been drugged. All
were cold and hungry in the wet grass; still Harriet prayed and waited
for deliverance. How relief came she never knew; she felt that it was
not necessarily her business to know. After they had waited through the
day, however, at dusk there came slowly along the pathway on the edge of
the swamp a man clad in the garb of a Quaker. He seemed to be talking to
himself, but Harriet's sharp ears caught the words: "My wagon stands in
the barnyard of the next farm across the way. The horse is in the
stable; the harness hangs on a nail;" and then the man was gone. When
night came Harriet stole forth to the place designated, and found not
only the wagon but also abundant provisions in it, so that the whole
party was soon on its way rejoicing. In the next town dwelt a Quaker
whom Harriet knew and who readily took charge of the horse and wagon for
her.
Naturally the work of such a woman could not long escape the attention
of the abolitionists. She became known to Thomas Garrett, the
great-hearted Quaker of Wilmington, who aided not less than three
thousand fugitives to escape, and also to Grit Smith, Wendell Phillips,
William H. Seward, F. B. Sanborn, and many other notable men interested
in the emancipation of the Negro. From time to time she was supplied
with money, but she never spent this for her own use, setting it aside
in case of need on the next one of her journeys. In her earlier years,
however, before she became known, she gave of her own slender means for
the work.
Between 1852 and 1857 she made but one or two journeys, because of the
increasing vigilance of slaveholders and the Fugitive Slave Law. Great
rewards were offered for her capture and she was several times on the
point of being taken, but always escaped by her shrewd wit and what she
considered warnings from heaven. While she was intensely practical, she
was also a most firm believer in dreams. In 1857 she made her most
venturesome journey, this time taking with her to the North her old
parents who were no longer able to walk such distances as she was forced
to go by night. Accordingly she had to hire a wagon for them, and it
took all her ingenuity to get them through Maryland and Delaware. At
length, however, she got them to Canada, where they spent the winter. As
the climate was too rigorous, however, she afterwards brought them down
to New York, and settled them in a home in Auburn, N. Y., that she had
purchased on very reasonable terms from Secretary Seward. Somewhat later
a mortgage on the place had to be lifted and Harriet now made a
noteworthy visit to Boston, returning with a handsome sum toward the
payment of her debt. At this time she met John Brown more than once,
seems to have learned something of his plans, and after the raid at
Harper's Ferry and the execution of Brown she glorified him as a hero,
her veneration even becoming religious. Her last visit to Maryland was
made in December, 1860, and in spite of the agitated condition of the
country and the great watchfulness of slaveholders she brought away with
her seven fugitives, one of them an infant.
After the war Harriet Tubman made Auburn her home, establishing there a
refuge for aged Negroes. She married again, so that she is sometimes
referred to as Harriet Tubman Davis. She died at a very advanced age
March 10, 1913. On Friday, June 12, 1914, a tablet in her honor was
unveiled at the Auditorium in Albany. It was provided by the Cayuga
County Historical Association, Dr. Booker T. Washington was the chief
speaker of the occasion, and the ceremonies were attended by a great
crowd of people.
The tributes to this heroic woman were remarkable. Wendell Phillips said
of her: "In my opinion there are few captains, perhaps few colonels,
who have done more for the loyal cause since the war began, and few men
who did before that time more for the colored race than our fearless and
most sagacious friend, Harriet." F. B. Sanborn wrote that what she did
"could scarcely be credited on the best authority." William H. Seward,
who labored, though unsuccessfully, to get a pension for her granted by
Congress, consistently praised her noble spirit. Abraham Lincoln gave
her ready audience and lent a willing ear to whatever she had to say.
Frederick Douglass wrote to her: "The difference between us is very
marked. Most that I have done and suffered in the service of our cause
has been in public, and I have received much encouragement at every step
of the way. You, on the other hand, have labored in a private way. I
have wrought in the day--you in the night. I have had the applause of
the crowd and the satisfaction that comes of being approved by the
multitude, while the most that you have done has been witnessed by a few
trembling, scarred, and footsore bondmen and women, whom you have led
out of the house of bondage, and whose heartfelt 'God bless you' has
been your only reward."
Of such mould was Harriet Tubman, philanthropist and patriot, bravest
and noblest of all the heroines of freedom.
FOOTNOTE:
[A] While this sketch is drawn from various sources, I feel specially
indebted to Sarah H. Bradford's "Harriet, the Moses of Her People." This
valuable work in turn includes a scholarly article taken from the
"Boston Commonwealth" of 1863 and loaned to Mrs. Bradford by F. R.
Sanborn. This article is really the foundation of the sketch.--B. B.
[Illustration: NORA A. GORDON]
NORA GORDON
III.
NORA GORDON
This is the story of a young woman who had not more than ordinary
advantages, but who in our own day by her love for Christ and her zeal
in his service was swept from her heroic labor into martyrdom.
When Nora Gordon went from Spelman Seminary as a missionary to the
Congo, she had the hope that in some little way she might be used for
the furtherance of the Master's kingdom. She could hardly have foreseen
that she would start in her beloved school a glorious tradition; and
still less could she have seen the marvellous changes taking place in
the Africa of the present. She had boundless faith, however,--faith in
God and in the ultimate destiny of her people. In that faith she lived,
and for that faith she died.
Nora Antonia Gordon was born in Columbus, Georgia, August 25, 1866.
After receiving her early education in the public schools of La Grange,
in the fall of 1882 she came to Spelman Seminary. It was not long before
her life became representative of the transforming power of
Christianity. Being asked, "Do you love Christ?" she answered "Yes"; but
when there came the question, "Are you a Christian?" she replied "No."
It was not long, however, before she gained firmer faith, and two months
after her entrance at Spelman she was definitely converted. Now followed
seven years of intense activity and growth--of study, of summer
teaching, of talks before temperance societies, of service of any
possible sort for the Master. She brought to Christ every girl who was
placed to room with her. A classmate afterwards testified of her that
the girls always regarded Nora somewhat differently from the others. She
was the counsellor of her friends, ever ready with sweet words of
comfort, and yet ever a cheerful companion. In one home in which she
lived for a while she asked the privilege of having prayer. The man of
the house at first refused to kneel and the woman seemed not interested.
In course of time, however, the wife was won and then the man also
knelt. At another time she wrote, "Twenty-six of my scholars were
baptized to-day;" and a little later she said, "Ten more have been
added."
In 1885 Nora Gordon completed her course in the Industrial Department,
in 1886 the Elementary Normal, and in 1888 the Higher Normal Course. Her
graduation essay was on the rather old and sophomoric subject, "The
Influence of Woman on National Character;" but in the intensity of her
convictions and her words there was nothing ordinary. She said in part:
"Let no woman feel that life to her means simply living; but let her
rather feel that she has a special mission assigned her, which none
other of God's creatures can perform. It may be that she is placed in
some rude little hut as mother and wife; if so, she can dignify her
position by turning every hut into a palace, and bringing not only her
own household, but the whole community, into the sunlight of God's love.
Such women are often unnoticed by the world in general, and do not
receive the appreciation due them; yet we believe such may be called
God's chosen agents." Finally, "we feel that woman is under a twofold
obligation to consecrate her whole being to Christ. Our people are to be
educated and christianized and the heathen brought home to God. Woman
must take the lead in this great work."
After her graduation in 1888 Nora Gordon was appointed to teach in the
public schools of Atlanta. She soon resigned this work, however, in the
contemplation of the great mission of her life. The secretary of the
Society of the West wrote to Spelman to inquire if there was any one who
could go to assist Miss Fleming, a missionary at work in Palabala in the
Congo. Four names were sent, and the choice of the board was Nora A.
Gordon. The definite appointment came in January, 1889. On Sunday
evening, February 17, an impressive missionary service was held in the
chapel at Spelman. Interesting items were given by the students with
reference to the slave-trade in East Africa and the efforts being made
for its suppression, also with reference to Mohammedanism, the spiritual
awakening among the Zulus, and the mission stations established,
especially those on the Congo. Several letters were read, one from Miss
Fleming exciting the most intense interest; and throughout the meeting
was the thought that Nora Gordon was also soon to go to Africa. On March
6 a farewell service was held, and attended by a great crowd of people,
among them the whole family of the consecrated young woman; and she
sailed March 16, 1889.
First of all she went to London, tarrying at the Missionary Training
Institute conducted by Rev. and Mrs. H. Grattan Guinness. Under date
April 11 she wrote: "It has been so trying to remain here so long
waiting. I feel that this is the dear Lord's first lesson to me in
patience. I am thankful to say that I feel profited by my stay. * * * *
Yesterday coming from the city we saw a number of flags hanging across
the street, and among them was the United States flag. Never before did
the Stars and Stripes seem so beautiful. I am glad Miss Grover put one
in my box. * * * * I do praise God for every step I get nearer to my
future home. We expect to sail next Wednesday, April 17, from Rotterdam
on the steamer _African_, Dutch line. We hope to get to the Congo in
three weeks."
For two years she labored at Palabala, frequently writing letters home
and occasionally sending back to her beloved Spelman a box of curios.
Said she of those among whom she worked: "When the people are first
gathered into a chapel for school or religious services, it is sad and
amusing to see how hard they try to know just what to do, a number
sitting with their backs to the preacher or teacher. When the teacher
reproves a child, every man, woman, and child feels it his or her duty
to yell out too at the offender and tell him to obey the teacher. Often
in the midst of a sermon a man in the congregation will call out to the
preacher, 'Take away your lies,' or 'We do not believe you,' or 'How can
this or that be?' One of the first workers, after speaking to a crowd of
heathen, asked them all to close their eyes and bow their heads while he
would pray to God. When the missionary had finished his prayer and
opened his eyes, every person had stealthily left the place." Then
followed a detail of the atrocities in the Congo and of the encounters
between the natives and the Belgian officers, and last of all came the
pertinent comment: "The Congo missionary's work is twofold. He must
civilize, as well as Christianize, the people."
Early in 1891 Nora Gordon, sadly in need of rest and refreshment, went
from Palabala for a little stay at Lukungu. Hither had come Clara A.
Howard, Spelman's second representative, under appointment of the
Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the East. Lukungu is a station two
hundred and twenty miles from the mouth of the Congo, in a populous
district, and was the center from which numerous other schools and
churches sprang. The work was in charge of Mr. Hoste, an Englishman,
who, when Miss Gordon wrote of him in 1894, had spent ten years on the
Congo without going home. Other men were associated with him, while the
elementary schools, the care of the boys and girls, and work among the
women, naturally fell to the women missionaries. A little later in 1891
Nora Gordon left Palabala permanently to engage in the work at Lukungu.
Under date September 25 she wrote to her friends back home: "Doubtless
Clara has told you of my change to this place. You can not imagine how
glad we are to be together here. I have charge of the printing-office
and help in the afternoon school. I am well, happy, and am enjoying my
work. In the office I have few conveniences and really not the things we
need. Mr. Hoste has written the first arithmetic in this language and I
am now putting it up. I was obliged to stop work on it to-day because my
figures in type gave out, and you know we have no shops in this land.
My boys in the office are doing nicely."