The people of the Piney Grove settlement, both white and black, had been
free for nearly a generation. The whites had been freed from the curse
of being slave-holders, and the blacks had been freed from the curse of
being held in bondage. But never in the history of this little town, in
the very heart of the so-called “Black Belt” of Georgia, had the people
known anything about the proper observance of Thanksgiving Day until
189--. And in that year the revolution was brought about by a young
colored woman named Grace Wilkins.
Grace Wilkins was the only daughter of Solomon and Amanda Wilkins.
Solomon and his wife were farmers--plain, simple, ordinary country folk.
Amanda was literally her husband’s helpmeet. She went along with him
every morning to the field, and, in season, chopped as much wood, picked
as much cotton, hoed as much corn, pulled as much fodder, and plowed as
much as her husband did. Up to her fourteenth year Grace had been reared
on a farm, and had learned to do all the things that any farmer’s child
has to do--such as milking cows, feeding hogs and chickens, hoeing
cotton and corn, picking cotton, pulling fodder and the like. In her
fourteenth year, acting upon the advice of an uneducated colored
preacher, her parents sent Grace away from home to attend one of the
great normal and industrial institutes for the training of the black
boys and girls of the South.
[Illustration: GRACE BEFORE GOING TO SCHOOL.]
At first her mother and father were filled with forebodings. It was the
first time that they had ever allowed their daughter to be away from
them, and they missed her so much and longed for her so constantly that
they thought that they had made a mistake in sending her off to
“boardin’ school.” Ignorant and superstitious neighbors, though they
knew as little about such matters as did Solomon and Amanda, were loud
in saying that “Sol” and “Mandy” would live to regret the step they had
taken in sending Grace away from home. The only rays of sunshine that
came in to brighten these periods of mental unrest and gloom on the part
of Mr. and Mrs. Wilkins were found in the letters which they received
regularly from their daughter. Grace invariably informed her parents,
whenever she wrote, that she was “well an’ doin’ well.” Thus reassured
from time to time, Solomon and Amanda managed somehow to undergo the
terrible strain of having their daughter absent from them for eight
months. But meantime they were firmly of the opinion that, once they got
their hands on her again, they would never allow Grace to return to
school.
With glad and thankful hearts Mr. and Mrs. Wilkins joyously embraced
their daughter when she came home at the close of her first year in
school. With keen and genuine interest, they listened to her wonderful
accounts of the great school and of the great man at the head of it.
Grace dressed differently and talked differently; and her mother said,
speaking one day in confidence to her husband shortly after Grace’s
return, “Dat gal’s sho got a new walk on her!”
Grace Wilkins brought back a toothbrush with her from school. That was
something which she had never had before. She used that toothbrush every
morning and night. That was something that she had never done before.
She was now careful to keep her hair well combed every day. That was
something that she had been accustomed to do on Sundays only or on
special occasions. She washed her face two or three times a day now, as
her mother and father noticed. Before she went to school she had been in
the habit of giving her face, as the old people say, “a lick and a
promise” early each morning. Besides, Grace kept the house cleaner than
she had kept it before. She brought home with her a brand new Bible
which she read regularly at home and always carried to church and Sunday
school. She also had a song book called “Jubilee Songs and Plantation
Melodies,” and it gladdened the hearts of the good “old folks at home”
to hear their daughter sing from a book some of the very songs that they
had sung all their lifetime and which were so dear to them.
All these things and others made a deep and abiding impression upon
Solomon and his wife. And finding that withal their daughter was just as
loving and kind as she had been before, and that she was just as
industrious and faithful as formerly, Mr. and Mrs. Wilkins were not long
in deciding that their daughter should go back to that school another
year, and that they would work hard and stint themselves in order that
they might keep her there until she had finished the normal course.
So back to school Grace Wilkins went--that year, and the next year, and
the next. It was the proudest day in Solomon’s and Amanda’s lives when
they sat in the magnificent chapel of the school and heard their
daughter read her graduation essay on “The Gospel of Service.” Glad
tears welled up in their eyes when they heard the principal call their
daughter’s name, and then saw Grace step up to receive her certificate
of graduation.
Coming back to Piney Grove to live, “Miss Gracie”--everybody called her
that after graduation--established a little school which she called “The
Piney Grove Academy.” It was the first public school for colored
children ever opened within the corporate limits of the little village.
Before that the schools were district schools or county schools, which
were taught about in different places for only three or four months in
the year, mainly during the summer. Miss Gracie began her school the
first day of October. By special arrangement she used the first three
months for the public term allowed by the state, and supplemented that
with a five-months term, for which the pupils were required to pay fifty
cents each per month. The plan worked well, the parents joining in
heartily in the movement, and the Piney Grove Academy soon became the
model school for the surrounding counties.
[Illustration: GRACE’S GRADUATION.]
Among other things Miss Gracie had learned at school what was the import
of our national Thanksgiving Day. At the opening of the second year of
the Piney Grove Academy she decided that she would inaugurate an annual
Thanksgiving service. Accordingly on the opening day of the second year
Miss Gracie informed the pupils of her plan, and told them that she
would begin the very next day to prepare a suitable program for the
exercises. Afterwards Miss Gracie secured the cooperation of the village
pastor--the same man who had been instrumental in having her parents
send her away to school. Through him she was permitted to talk to the
people at the church two or three times about the proposed celebration.
She was careful to tell them that the Thanksgiving festival was meant
specially to be a home festival in addition to being a time for the
people to come together in their accustomed places of worship to thank
God for the blessings of the year. She urged them, therefore, as far as
they were able without going to unnecessary expense, to have family
dinners and bring together at one time and in one place as many members
of the family as possible. She explained to them how this might be done
successfully and economically, and with pleasure and profit to all
concerned. She also urged them to be planning beforehand so that nothing
might prevent their attending church Thanksgiving Day morning. She was
going to hold the exercises in the church, because her little school was
not large enough to furnish an assembly hall for the people who would be
likely to be present.
On Thanksgiving Day nearly everybody in town went to the exercises.
Many white people attended, including the county school commissioner and
the school trustees. It was the first Thanksgiving service that any of
them had ever witnessed.
The program was made up, for the most part, of choice selections from
negro authors, composers, orators, and so forth. A selection from
Frederick Douglass on “Patriotism” was declaimed; one from Booker T.
Washington’s Atlanta Exposition speech was also delivered. Paul Laurence
Dunbar’s poem entitled “Signs of the Times” (a Thanksgiving poem) was
read by one of the pupils, and also “The Party,” another of Dunbar’s
pieces, was rendered. “The Negro National Hymn,” words by James W.
Johnson and music by his brother, Rosamond Johnson, was sung by a chorus
of fifty voices. At the opening of the service the president’s
Thanksgiving proclamation was read and appropriate remarks were made by
Miss Wilkins. The closing remarks were made by the Rev. John Jones, the
village pastor. The remarks of Mr. Jones were in the congratulatory
mood. He was naturally proud of Miss Gracie’s achievements, because he
had had something to do with putting her on the road to an education. He
spoke of the teacher as the leaven that was leavening the whole lump,
and the applause which followed the statement showed plainly the high
esteem in which the teacher was held by all the people. Everyone enjoyed
the service. None of the villagers had ever seen anything like it
before. After singing “America” all of them went away happy, many of
them, in obedience to Miss Gracie’s previous counsel, going home to eat
for the first time, well knowing what they were doing, a Thanksgiving
dinner.
At the home of Miss Wilkins there was an excellent spread of ’possum,
potatoes, rice, chicken, pickles, macaroni, bread, a precious
Thanksgiving turkey, and the inevitable mincemeat pie. Besides Miss
Gracie, there sat at the table that day her parents, Mr. and Mrs.
Solomon Wilkins, John and Joseph Wilkins, brothers of Solomon who had
come from a distance, Mary Andrews, a sister of Mrs. Wilkins, who also
came from a distance, Grandma Wilkins, Grandma and Grandpa Andrews, the
Rev. John Jones, his wife, his daughter, and his only son, Jasper Jones.
Jasper had gone to school at T---- one year after Gracie went, and, of
course, was one year later in finishing the course there. On this
Thanksgiving Day, nevertheless, he had been out of school long enough to
have successfully established himself in the business of poultry raising
and dairying.
Just before the dinner party was dismissed the Rev. Mr. Jones arose and
said:
“There is another little ceremony you’all is invited to witness befo’
you go out to see the baseball game. I am authorized by these
credentials which I hol’ in my hands to unite in the holy bonds of
matrimony Miss Grace Wilkins and Mr. Jasper Jones. If there is no
objection, these two persons will please stan’ up, an’ I’ll tie the
knot.”
Of course there were no objections. The knot was tied. And when the
villagers learned of the occurrence not long afterwards they had
additional reason for believing that they were right when they voted
that Piney Grove had never seen the like of such a Thanksgiving Day, and
that Miss Gracie Wilkins was one of the best women in all the world.