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[Illustration:
VOL. XXXVI. OCTOBER, 1882 NO. 10.
THE
American Missionary
“THEY ARE RISING ALL ARE RISING, THE BLACK AND WHITE TOGETHER”
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.]
CONTENTS.
* * * * *
PAGE.
EDITORIALS.
ANNUAL MEETING—Last Word, Financial 289
PARAGRAPHS 290
NATIONAL AID FOR NATIONAL EDUCATION 292
NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSEMBLY 293
ADDRESS OF MR. BUTLER R. WILSON 294
BENEFACTIONS 296
GENERAL NOTES—Africa, Indians 297
ITEMS FROM THE FIELD 298
THE FREEDMEN.
STUDIES IN THE SOUTH 299
NEGRO PRAYER-MEETING (Cut) 301
AFRICA.
DR. LADD’S JOURNAL 303
THE CHINESE.
GOD ANSWERS PERSEVERING PRAYER 310
MISSIONARY CLASS IN CHINA (Cut) 312
CHILDREN’S PAGE.
LETTER FROM AN AFRICAN BOY 313
A QUESTION OF COLOR 314
RECEIPTS 314
THE PROPOSED CONSTITUTION 318
* * * * *
American Missionary Association,
56 READE STREET, NEW YORK.
* * * * *
PRESIDENT, HON. WM. B. WASHBURN, Mass.
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.
Rev. M. E. STRIEBY, D.D., _56 Reade Street N.Y._
TREASURER.
H. W. HUBBARD, Esq., _56 Reade Street, N.Y._
DISTRICT SECRETARIES.
Rev. C. L. WOODWORTH, _Boston_.
Rev. G. D. PIKE, D.D., _New York_.
Rev. JAMES POWELL, _Chicago_.
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. G. D. Pike, D.D., at the New York
Office.
DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS
may be sent to H. W. Hubbard, Treasurer, 50 Reade Street, New York,
or, when more convenient, to either of the Branch Offices, Rev. C.
L. Woodworth, Dist. Sec., 21 Congregational House, Boston, Mass.,
or Rev. James Powell, Dist. Sec., 112 West Washington Street,
Chicago, Ill. A payment of thirty dollars at one time constitutes a
Life Member. Letters relating to boxes and barrels of clothing may
be addressed to the persons above named.
FORM OF A BEQUEST.
“I BEQUEATH to my executor (or executors) the sum of —— dollars, in
trust, to pay the same in —— days after my decease to the person
who, when the same is payable, shall act as Treasurer of the
‘American Missionary Association’ of New York City, to be applied,
under the direction of the Executive Committee of the Association,
to its charitable uses and purposes.” The Will should be attested
by three witnesses.
The Annual Report of the A. M. A. contains the Constitution of the
Association and the By-Laws of the Executive Committee. A copy will
be sent free on application.
THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
* * * * *
VOL. XXXVI. OCTOBER, 1882. NO. 10.
* * * * *
American Missionary Association.
* * * * *
ANNUAL MEETING.
The Annual Meeting of the American Missionary Association will
be held in Plymouth Church, Cleveland, O., commencing Tuesday,
Oct. 24, at 3 P.M. Tuesday afternoon the report of the Executive
Committee, including the Treasurer’s report, will be presented,
and on Tuesday evening the sermon will be preached by Rev. C. L.
Goodell, D.D., of St. Louis, Mo.
On Wednesday morning the report of the Committee on the Amendments
to the Constitution will be presented. The succeeding sessions
of Wednesday and Thursday will be occupied with papers and
reports of committees, with addresses. On Wednesday and Thursday
evenings, addresses will be given by Rev. A. J. F. Behrends, D.D.,
Rev. Atticus G. Haygood, D.D., ex-President Hayes, and other
distinguished speakers. The names of other speakers and further
details will be published in the religious papers. The Thursday
evening meeting will be a mass meeting at the Cleveland Tabernacle,
with addresses upon “The National Problem of Southern Education.”
For report of the Committee on the Revision of the Constitution see
page 318.
Rev. C. T. Collins, of Cleveland, is Chairman of the Committee of
Arrangements; Rev. H. M. Tenny, Chairman of Committee on Reduced
Railroad Rates. Applicants for entertainment will address Mr. S. H.
Cowell, Plymouth Church, Cleveland, before Oct. 12. Applicants for
reduced hotel rates will apply before Oct. 19.
* * * * *
LAST WORD.—FINANCIAL.
As we go to press, Sept. 12th, we find that the treasury is lacking
$24,028.11 of the $300,000 which was asked for at the last Annual
Meeting, and which the work absolutely demands. We yet have time to
wipe out this deficit if our friends will respond promptly. October
and the next year will have their own burdens to bear, and so, as
usual, our books will close with the remittances of September.
“AN ARITHMETICAL PROBLEM.”
Our District Secretary Powell has the art of putting things, and
this is the way he puts the question, how to “reduce 1172 to
0000,” _i.e._, to reduce the number of churches from which _no_
contribution has been received since last September for the A.
M. A. within the States of the Interior, to zero. The answer is,
transfer each church to the list of those contributing.—Q. E. D.
* * * * *
A superintendent of our educational work has been appointed by the
Executive Committee, the plan having been approved by a conference
of our leading workers, held last winter. Professor Albert
Salisbury, of the Wisconsin State Normal, at Whitewater, is the
man. In the growth of this department, and in the purpose of the A.
M. A. to do the very best work in its institutions, it was found
needful to secure one who, as an expert in school processes, should
help to the most approved methods of organization, of discipline,
of instruction and of unification. Professor Salisbury had been
assigned by his State to the specialty of conducting teachers’
institutes. In the same way he will serve our teachers and the
native teachers whom they have raised up. Prominent educators and
the Wisconsin and Boston journals of education have commended
him as the right man for the place. Dr. Roy will continue in his
service as Field Superintendent, giving yet more attention to the
church work.
* * * * *
A mission at Hong Kong had been proposed to this Association as
a means of gathering into fellowship the Chinese who may have
returned from this country to their native land as Christians. It
seemed to some that such a work would be cognate to ours on the
Pacific Coast. But as it is the purpose of the A. M. A. not to
extend its missionary operations abroad, our Executive Committee
proposed to the American Board that it take up the mission at Hong
Kong, and so work in harmony with our operations on the coast. We
are glad to report that this overture has been cordially acceded
to, and that the American Board accepts this “sacred trust.” And
hence the rejoicing of Mr. Pond in his letter, to be found at the
proper place. Now, will not our good friends bear in mind our
mission on the Pacific, which is to be a feeder for that one on the
opposite coast, and send us such additional funds as will enable us
to enlarge our work, and so to help feed the millions of China with
the bread of life?
* * * * *
A series of missionary meetings similar to those held in
Connecticut several years ago, and in Ohio three years ago, has
been held in sixteen of the leading Congregational Churches of
central New York during September. The places were Penn Yan,
Norwich, Walton, Utica, Antwerp, Norwood, Sandy Creek, Oswego,
Elmira, Ithaca, Canandaigua, Fairport, Lockport, Homer, Binghamton
and Poughkeepsie. The A. B. C. F. M. was represented by Dr. H. C.
Haydn, the A. H. M. S. by Rev. C. C. Creegan, the Cong. Union by
Dr. L. H. Cobb, and the A. M. A. by Drs. O. H. White and J. E. Roy.
Pastors and leading laymen bore a good share. A fuller account will
be given next month.
* * * * *
A series of articles, worthy of attention, has recently appeared in
the _Atlantic Monthly_ under the title of “STUDIES IN THE SOUTH.”
The name of the author is not given, but internal evidence shows
that he is a Northern man who went South to study its problems with
an honest purpose to get at the facts rather than sustain any pet
theories. He was free in his intercourse with people of all classes
and colors, and is very frank in his report of what he says. His
statements as to the political situation are somewhat startling,
yet correct, as we think. It is, however, his view of the deeper
questions of the condition and prospects of the masses of the
people, white and colored, that we are most concerned about, and we
give a few extracts on these points.
* * * * *
It is with profound sorrow that we note the death by drowning
of two adult sons of Rev. J. A. R. Rogers, now the pastor of a
Presbyterian Church at Shawano, Wis. All our readers are familiar
with the heroic labors and endurance of Mr. Rogers before and after
the war, in building up the college and church at Berea, Ky. The
names and birthplaces of the sons are historic. William Norris was
born at Berea in 1859, and Lewis Fairchild was born in Ohio, while
the family were in exile on account of the war. The eldest was a
graduate of Berea and was a teacher there the last year, active,
useful and greatly beloved. Lewis Fairchild at the time of his
decease was a member of the senior class in Olivet College. “Lovely
and pleasant in their lives; in their death they were not divided.”
Multitudes of our friends will be afflicted in this bereavement of
our brother and his companion.
* * * * *
One of our old friends writes: “Do the colleges and literary
institutions supported by the A. M. A. prohibit the use of tobacco,
as well as of intoxicating liquors, among their students, as
Oberlin does?” We are happy to inform him and all other friends
that this is the rule in all of our schools, and that they would be
delighted to observe the freedom of all our school buildings from
the pollution of tobacco. It is a fine element in the formation of
character, as well as a matter of health and of economy.
* * * * *
NATIONAL AID FOR NATIONAL EDUCATION.
The title is its own argument. It is the instinct of
self-preservation. If one member suffer, the whole body suffers.
Congress has adjourned without passing the proposed law. It was to
appropriate $10,000,000 annually for five years, and to distribute
the same among the States and Territories in the proportion of
illiteracy. There is no doubt that some such bill will yet be
passed. At this ratio, the former slave States would receive seven
and a half millions out of the ten. That the North heartily agrees
to this has been a grateful surprise to the South. The scheme would
not have been thought of, except for the need of it in that section.
The question may, then, be raised: What would be the relation of
such aid to the work of this Association? It would greatly increase
the demand for the training of common school teachers in our normal
schools and colleges. The three months of country schools would
be raised to six. The increased facilities would tend to lead the
people to call for a better quality of teachers. Dr. Barnas Sears,
the late Secretary of the Peabody Fund, learned that one competent
teacher introduced, led to the displacement of a half-dozen
incompetents. The training of the teachers is the wholesale
business in the process of education. Then, it is of the utmost
importance that these teachers of the millions should themselves
have that moral and religious preparation which our missionary
institutions seek to impart, so that the lessons of morality, and
virtue and piety shall be taught, along with the elements of a
common education. The House committee, in their report, state that,
according to the census of 1880, 4,715,395 persons at the South
over ten years of age, or 70.56 per cent., are not able to write.
To raise up the qualified teachers for this illiterate mass will
tax the resources of all the institutions founded in that region by
the benevolence of the North.
Government aid will still leave another demand upon our style of
schools, viz., that which shall furnish industrial training. The
old-time colored mechanics, who had been taught trades, which
greatly increased their value in the market, are passing away.
Scarcely any of the young men are now learning trades, for the
reasons that white mechanics will not take them, that the colored
tradesmen have not capital enough to employ them, and that too
many of them have seen enough of working for board and clothes in
the case of father and mother, not taking into the account the
large and steady wages to come by and by. As it is going now, let
the old colored mechanics pass away, and the skilled artisans
coming from Europe will press in to fill the demand; and then the
Africo-American citizens will be driven to the wall and forced
back to be mere hewers of wood and drawers of water. The first
demand upon our schools was to open the doors of knowledge to
millions of starving intellects; but now, more and more, must we
push industrial training to help the people in the coming crisis,
which they do not forecast as readily as do their friends who have
studied the problem of their bondage and their freedom. So then,
along with books and the art of school teaching, we must train
the girls to the trades of cooking, of dressmaking, of nursing,
of type-setting, of running knitting and sewing machines; we must
teach the boys carpentry, blacksmithing, shoe and harness making,
agriculture, the raising of improved stock and the running of
machinery.
National aid for public schools will still leave upon our
institutions and the like the great business of the higher
education. For a portion of the people this is demanded. If they
are to maintain themselves in their citizenship they must have the
first quality of education in their preachers, professors, lawyers,
doctors, journalists, scientists. In their general advancement
they are already requiring more and more of cultivation in their
preachers. With some congregations even now only the most thorough
classical and professional training can satisfy the demands of
their pulpits, while in the other professions nothing else can
succeed. The public schools will prepare the material, and make
the greater demand for the higher institutions, such as we are
developing. And so we find that national aid, if granted, will only
be a national call for our scheme of advanced education. Then, if
such a law is passed, it is proposed to run only five years. And
yet the generations of children will still be sweeping on and we
must make our patriotic and missionary propagandism to keep up with
them.
* * * * *
An important meeting of the National Education Assembly was held at
Ocean Grove, N.J., Aug. 8, 9. The audiences were large, and many
prominent educators were present from various parts of the country.
The opening address was by Hon. John Eaton, U.S. Commissioner of
Education, in which it was held that the national government is
the only agency able to cope with illiteracy in the country. A
feature of special interest was the showing of the work of the
Northern churches in the South since the war. Dr. Strieby, of New
York, represented the Congregationalists; Rev. Dr. J. M. Gregory,
of Illinois, the Baptists; Rev. Dr. R. H. Allen, of Pennsylvania,
the Presbyterians; and Rev. Dr. J. C. Hartzell, of Louisiana,
the Methodists. It appeared that more than $10,000,000 have been
spent by this agency, and that more than 15,000 students are now
in schools of higher grade, thus supported. Bishop Simpson, Dr. H.
A. Butz, president of Drew Theological Seminary, and Senator Blair
of New Hampshire, made addresses. The sentiments of the Assembly
were formulated in a memorial to Congress. A National Education
Committee was organized to continue the effort to secure national
aid. The secretary of the committee will reside in Washington, and
efforts to influence public opinion in favor of the end in view
will be earnestly prosecuted.
The following is an extract from a letter sent to the president of
the Assembly, Rev. J. C. Hartzell, D.D., from Hon. H. M. Teller,
Secretary of the Interior:
“The great mass of the people must depend on the public school
system for the education of their children. An efficient public
school system, extending to all the State, and affording equal
facilities for education to all classes of children, free from rate
bills, cannot be too highly prized. * * * I recognize it to be the
duty of the State to provide for the education of the children
within its borders; but if the State neglects or refuses so to do,
I think it is clearly within the power of the general government to
provide such school facilities. But, fortunately, there is no State
in which no provision for public education is made, and therefore
the occasion for the exercise of this power does not exist, except
as auxiliary to that of the State. I believe that in all the States
the sentiment in favor of educating the children is so strong that
the action required by the general government would be simply to
make and wisely disburse proper appropriations, so as to encourage
and stimulate the States that are the least able to carry on the
work by themselves. To do this without seeming to discriminate in
favor of certain States, such appropriations ought to be based on
the degree of illiteracy as shown by the last census.
“If a system of public schools can be maintained for ten or fifteen
years in any State, there will be no danger of its abandonment.
“An educated community will demand suitable educational facilities
for the education of all classes of children. So that we may
reasonably hope that the appropriation from the national treasury
need not extend beyond a period of ten or fifteen years.”
* * * * *
ADDRESS OF MR. BUTLER R. WILSON
AT THE BOSTON ANNIVERSARY, MAY 31, 1882.
If I fail to be a good specimen, do not attribute it to my race;
for my people were converted from a condition of chattel slavery
into that of American citizenship, depending almost entirely upon
themselves. What has been the result? In spite of nearly 20,000
political murders since the war, they have not all been killed;
nor, at the present rate of increase, is it reasonable to suppose
that they all will be. The prophecy of many good people, many
worthy people, many earnest people, that the ballot in the hand of
the negro was a stick with which to break the government’s head,
finds its answer in the fact that the most loyal and law-abiding
citizens south of Mason and Dixon’s line, to-day, are the ex-slaves.
With not enough land for a burial ground, had they all died
immediately after the war, they now pay taxes on millions of
dollars worth of real estate and personal property, being assessed
for nearly $10,000,000 in the State of Georgia alone. Prior to the
war there was a law throughout the South prohibiting a colored
person from learning to read and write on penalty of losing the
thumb or index finger, so that what they now know in that direction
they have acquired since the war; and to-day ten per cent. of the
entire colored race in the South can read and write. This ability,
on the part of the colored man, is a great step in his progress,
for it introduces a new rule of computation in the Southern
arithmetic—the old rule being, as you probably know, in Southern
vernacular:
“A naught is a naught and a figger is a figger;
Put down the naught and carry the figger.
A naught is a naught and a figger is a figger.
All the cotton for the white man and none for the nigger.”
What has produced these results? Mainly two things: The inherent
desire of the colored man to better his condition, thus differing
from his poor white neighbor; and the work of the American
Missionary Association. Taking up the work for which your honored
dead died, the Association planted schools and churches in the
South, and supplied these schools and churches with men and women,
who had pluck enough and backbone enough to defy Southern prejudice
and ostracism; and wherever one of these schools has been planted,
the change is marked. Lawlessness disappears, property increases in
value, and the colored people purchase homes. An ex-mayor of the
city of Atlanta, at the dedication of the Congregational Church,
said that the thrift, orderly habits and acquisition of property in
a certain portion of that city were mainly due to the school and
church of the American Missionary Association. Does the colored man
sit with folded arms, while the North, Great Britain and Africa—let
me repeat _Africa_—contribute for his civilization? I say Africa,
because, sitting in the old Midway Church, in Liberty County, Ga.,
sometime ago, I heard read, in the list of donations, “One dollar
contributed by a church in South Africa for the civilization of the
heathen in America;” and there was nothing said in that donation,
either, about the _color_ of the heathen! But are the colored
people idle? In one of the classes which graduated from the Atlanta
University not long ago, were two married women who did their own
house-work, walked more than three miles through the red mud of
Georgia to school, were punctual in attendance and graduated with
honor. In the same class was a married man who earned money to
support his family, kept up with his class in school, preached
for three country churches, helped edit a readable newspaper,
and graduated with honor. In one of the schools across the city,
an American Missionary Association school, there is a woman who
entered the night school, finished that, entered the day school,
has plodded on from class to class, to-day in the graduating class
holding a place of honor, and she has earned her living and has
purchased a home by sewing at the same time. This school has done
a great work; yet the loyal people of that city, of whom you heard
not long ago such a beautiful report on this platform, for some
reason took a great antipathy to that school, and, in order to
break it down, established another school on the next corner, a
public school. Did the A. M. A. school suspend operations? The
400 students, paying one dollar a month, increased to 600; two
new teachers were called from the Oswego training school and a
kindergarten school is soon to be annexed. But, in order that this
school on the next corner might not suspend operations, a woman who
does her own washing and ironing, cooks the meals of her husband,
and sends him off to his work early in the morning, goes to the A.
M. A. school till 2 o’clock in the afternoon, and sends two of her
children to the public school. Hundreds of such examples might be
given, even in the district schools taught by the students—examples
of work and of sacrifice upon the part of both parents and
scholars. What would you think of a man fifty years old going to
school that he might learn to read the Bible, earning his living
by bottoming chairs at night by the light of a pine-knot fire? No,
my friends, the colored man is not idle; if he were, filibustering
would not to-day be an item of business in the United States
Congress.
We know the American Missionary Association in the South; we feel
toward her as a man should toward his mother. I remember that the
Association picked up from the streets of Atlanta an intimate
friend of mine, followed him through the grammar school, the
training school and college; taught him the lesson of Yankee push
and independence; started him out with a prayer for his safety;
and to-day stands with out-stretched hands bidding him God-speed
in his way onward and upward. The work has not all been done. Our
schools need to be increased ten-fold. Each school needs a training
department as an annex, for mechanical ability is to play no small
part in the progress of the colored man. Some people in the South
say, “Keep the colored man where his vote will be useful.” The
American Missionary Association has recognized him as a brother,
and says, “Give him a man’s chance.” We thank the American
Missionary Association for that; and under the inspiration of just
such treatment we mean to stay in the South and fight it out. We
are there “to the manner born.”
* * * * *
BENEFACTIONS.
Mr. Enoch Pratt, of Baltimore, has given $1,000,000 for a public
library in that city.
Col. C. G. Hammond has given $20,000 towards the Professorship Fund
of Chicago Seminary.
A fund of $100,000 has been received by the Perkins Institute for
the Blind—the same to be used in printing books for the blind.
Mr. J. H. Deane, of New York, offers to give $10,000 towards
$50,000 for the library of Richmond College (Baptist), provided
that $25,000 of the whole sum be raised south of Mason and Dixon’s
line, and that $25,000 be invested, and its income be used for the
replenishing of the library.
Hon. J. B. Grinnell has received a gift of $15,000 for Iowa College
from John L. Blair, of Blairsville, N.J., a prominent railroad man.
The will of the late C. D. Talcott, of Talcottville, Conn.,
bequeaths $5,000 to be expended in building a free public library
in that village.
Mr. James W. Scoville, of Chicago, in addition to his previous
generous gifts to the Chicago Theological Seminary, has just paid
over $10,000 for the endowment of the “Scoville Professorship of
Elocution.”
_President De Forest has secured $21,000 towards the endowment of
Talladega College, Alabama. This is a good beginning. All of our
State chartered institutions need such foundations._
* * * * *
GENERAL NOTES.
AFRICA.
—Rev. C. T. Wilson and Mr. C. W. Pearson, of the Nyanza Mission,
on account of impaired health are obliged to retire. Rev. G.
Litchfield is also invalided but hopes to engage again in
missionary work. Mr. Wilson’s resignation leaves Mr. Mackay the
only one now in the field of the original party of eight who went
out in 1876. Four are dead and three have retired.
—All the missionaries of the United Presbyterian Church in Egypt
got away safely, except Mr. Ewing and Dr. Watson, who remain at
their posts. Most of them are at present in England and Scotland, a
few being on the Continent. As the hot season had begun to come on,
the missionaries in Upper Egypt had generally come down and were at
Ramleh on the way for their usual vacation and rest. All those in
Cairo, Mansoura and Alexandria were at their posts and their usual
work until after the outbreak at Alexandria, on the 11th of June,
when word was shortly afterward received from one of the United
States judges in the International Court of Egypt warning them to
leave at once.
—The Belgian Government reports that Mr. Henry M. Stanley is
continuing, without relaxation, to develop his great enterprise
of establishing a line of stations from the embouchure of the
Congo River, in Africa, and carrying them as far forward as his
resources will permit. He has completed the four stations of Vivi,
Isangila, Manyenga and Stanley Pool, the first-named being below,
and the last above the rapids. These have already their dwellings,
gardens and flags. Each is under a white Governor, with three white
assistants, but the rest of the population consists of Zanzibar
negroes.
THE INDIANS.
—At the Indian Training and Industrial School at Carlisle have been
gathered together, during the last year, 295 Indian boys and girls
from 24 different tribes, speaking as many different languages. In
age these children range from eight years to maturity, the average
being about 15 years. From 60 to 70 of the older children give
evidence of sincere conversion to the Christian religion, and most
of those who have professed conversion give evidence, in improved
life and manners, of a change of heart. About 30 have joined the
different churches in Carlisle.
—The Pawnees say larks on the prairies sing Pawnee; that they
hear the brooding lark sing out from her nest, as the shades of
night deepen around her, “Ku-chae, kan-kee, koo-de-do—kan-kee,
koo-de-doo; Ka-chee, kan-kee, koo-de-do,” which interpreted is, “I
am not afraid; truly, I am not afraid.”
* * * * *
ITEMS FROM THE FIELD.
LULING, Texas.—Rev. T. E. Hillson’s people have hung upon their new
church a sixty-dollar bell that is a delight to them.
BEREA, Ky.—The Berea College people have secured from the
legislature of Kentucky a law forbidding the sale of intoxicating
liquors within a radius of three miles from the College. The law
has been printed on a handbill and is now enforced. A druggist
in order to sell liquor must have a prescription of a regular
physician. It was well this law was thus early secured, for, as
Berea is to become a railway town, the need of it will be yet more
pressing.
EUREKA, Kansas.—The Second Congregational Church of this place
within the first year of its existence has built a plain house of
worship at a cost of $850, and it will be ready for use at the
first of October. Rev. W. W. Weir is the pastor. The Council which
organized this church thus find that their faith in it is justified.
CEDAR CLIFF, N.C.—In May last, Rev. A. Connet assisted Rev. J. N.
Ray in organizing a church of 12 members at this place. Recently
the church received 21 new members.
MCLEANDSVILLE, N.C.—We hear of a revival now in progress in Rev. A.
Connet’s church, nine having found the Saviour, and thirteen more
being among the inquirers.
DUDLEY, N.C.—Rev. J. E. B. Jewett, of Pepperell, Mass., has
accepted an appointment to the missionary pastorate at this place.
His wife will assist him in the care of the school. Their former
experience in an academy will make them greatly useful in our work.
We have one daughter of Mr. Jewett as a teacher in Wilmington, and
one in New Orleans.
NEW ORLEANS, La.—Rev. S. N. Brown, a student of Fisk University,
who supplied the Central Church of this city very acceptably during
the vacation of Dr. Alexander, proved himself also a good night
watchman for our university premises. Hearing a burglar at work
in the main college building, he sallied out without collar or
shoe-tying and pursued the house-breaker, who soon put down the two
clocks he had taken. But the pursuer wanted more and kept up the
chase until he caught the thief. On his way to the police station
he met a policeman, who took the prisoner in charge and put him in
jail. The criminal proved to be a white man, and it is hoped that
the court will give him his dues.
* * * * *
THE FREEDMEN.
REV. JOSEPH E. ROY, D.D., FIELD SUPERINTENDENT, ATLANTA, GA.
* * * * *
STUDIES IN THE SOUTH.
FROM THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY.
A BLACK PLANTER.
There is a class of colored men in the South who are laying the
foundations of a better state of things than now prevails, by
sheer industry and devotion to money-making. I found a conspicuous
illustration of this type in the person and work of a negro in one
of the old Southern States. He could not read, but had learned
within a few years, by instruction from his young wife, to write
well enough to enable him to “keep the time” of his hands by
recording it in his book of farm accounts. He had “begun without
nothin’,” he said. At the end of the war he gathered up some “lame
and sick gov’ment mules that had been turned out fuh de crows, an’
doctor’d ’em up.” Then he worked on the plantations near him, at
first by the day, but soon began to rent land and “hire hands.”
He said he “lived on nothin’, or what other folks frowed away;
but I reckon I fed my mules mighty well.” He had bought land, a
little at a time, and when I visited him owned many hundred acres
of the best land in that region. He still worked hard himself, and
exacted, most rigidly, the amount of labor which he thought his
hands ought to perform. “I don’t lay out fuh ’em to do as much
as I does, boss; but dey mus’n’t shirk.” His residence was but a
few miles from a considerable town. The year before I was there a
neighboring planter had wanted a twenty-acre wood-lot cleared off.
It was heavily timbered, and this black man offered to clear the
ground for the wood which was to be removed. This was accepted, and
he “had de choppin’ done in de wintah, when dey wusn’t no wuk, an’
han’s wus cheap.” The wood was drawn out and piled up on a vacant
lot near the road. “Nex’ summah eberybody’s out o’ wood in town;
dey allays is; dey nebber luks ahead mo’ ’an twel’ dinnah time.
Nobody hain’t no time to haul wood _den_. Eberybody’s in de cotton.
But ebery night, ahtah we done done de day’s wuk in de fiel’, den
my wagons every one takes loads o’ wood to town. De bigbugs pays
good price _den_, ’cause dey ain’t no wood fuh to be hed. So _dah_,
den [becoming animated], _hi_, boss, I sells de wood, _see_! An’ I
pays all de spences fuh cuttin’ it, an’ in de nex’ place I buys de
lan’ what de wood come off, an’ I hab suffin lef’ in de bank.” The
guttural chuckle with which he ended I am powerless to represent.
The principal citizens of the town said this story was true.
This man reared cattle, sheep, and hogs, and had better blooded
animals than any other planter near him, white or black. He was
saving all the manure that his farms yielded, and drawing more from
the town—“de profit’s on de back load.” His fences were good, and,
what is rare in the South, the fence-rows were kept clean, and free
from weeds, briars and bushes.
THE FORTUNES OF THE NEGROES.
Many of the negroes are acquiring land, and are farming
successfully and profitably, in nearly all parts of the South,
while multitudes of others still work as “hired hands,” and save
nothing, consuming a large portion of their wages for intoxicating
drinks. The general inclination of the negroes to leave the
plantations and congregate in the towns is injuring the race
seriously, in many ways. There is not sufficient employment in the
towns for those who are already there, and great numbers become
idle, dissipated and vicious. Most of the colored people are better
adapted to farm-work than to other occupations, though many are
doing well as mechanics, blacksmiths, carpenters, bricklayers, and
plasterers. In the towns and cities nearly all the cartmen and
porters are negroes. Whatever may be the extent to which idleness
prevails among them, it is certain that the negroes perform a vast
amount of labor which is not only necessary or convenient for their
employers, but highly profitable as well. The labor of the colored
people is at present an important and, indeed, indispensable
factor in the chief wealth-producing industries of the South. If
the negroes could be brought to understand existing conditions
and tendencies in the regions which they inhabit, they might soon
greatly improve their fortunes, and secure for themselves and their
children most important advantages from opportunities which are
likely soon to pass away, never to be presented again, or at any
rate, not during the reign of the influences which are now becoming
dominant in the South.
BLACK MINISTERS.
Some of the colored preachers in most parts of the South are
ignorant, fat, lazy and licentious. Many of them use intoxicating
liquors freely. The influence of such men is of course a curse
to the colored people, and is the cause of much immorality among
the married women who are members of the “colored churches.”
But it would be most unjust to allow my readers to infer that
colored ministers generally belong to this class. Here, as in the
description of all classes of people in the South, discrimination
is necessary. The new order of things is manifesting itself in a
conflict between opposing tendencies in the negro churches, and
among their ministers. Except in the larger towns, most of the
older ministers depend on mere noise and excitement to influence
their hearers. They work themselves into incoherent fury, stamp
and yell, and appeal only to the “feelings” of their uninstructed
followers. These old men denounce “de high-flyin’ preachin’ we has
dese days.” They say “it’s all book-l’arnin’; dey ain’t no Holy
Ghos’ in it, at all. Dis new religion mighty smaht, an’ mighty
proud, but it hain’t got no _feelin’_ to it.” There is a great deal
of truth in this. The more intellectual preaching of the younger
educated men is ill suited to the tropical and impulsive nature of
the colored people. Their life is far more a matter of instinct
than of thought, and to attempt to teach religion to them by means
of appealing to their reason is to disarm religion at once of all
its potency. The preachers and missionaries who are best adapted
to the peculiar conditions and needs of the colored people are
the young men who have received an industrial education, who have
been trained to manual labor, and have learned either farming or
some mechanical art at such schools as the Normal and Agricultural
Institute at Hampton, Virginia, or the other admirable institutions
of learning fostered by the American Missionary Association and the
churches of the South. Of course, this class is still very small,
but it comprises some excellent men, whose influence is already
widely felt in the South, and is a potent factor in the soundest
and most hopeful religious work now going on there.
EDUCATING THE NEGROES.
The foremost men in the Southern States—I mean those who are
foremost in business, and in the social and moral life and
activities of the local communities—are everywhere taking up the
subject of education for the negroes in a serious and business-like
spirit. I did not find anywhere, except in Southwestern Texas, any
manifestation of prejudice against negro education, or feeling
of jealousy regarding the advancement of the colored people in
intelligence or capability of self-elevation.
Many of the Southern people appear to me to be rather sanguine
and extravagant in their expectations regarding the results of
popular intellectual enlightenment. They talk very much as Horace
Mann and his fellow-laborers talked, when they were beginning the
intellectual revival which led to the establishment of the New
England public-school system. They will of course find, as has
been shown in the Northern States, that even after the public
schools have educated the mass of the people, other problems of a
serious nature remain.
[Illustration: NEGRO PRAYER MEETING.]
A CLASS WITH NO FRIENDS.
The negroes are being educated more rapidly, in large portions
of the South, than are the people known as “poor whites,” More
interest is felt and greater efforts are made in behalf of the
negroes than for this class of white people. The negro has the
advantage of being in the world’s eye and mind. He is somewhat
picturesque, and occupies a position of historic interest. He
has powerful friends. The poor whites have no friends: there is
no picturesqueness, no historic interest, connected with their
situation. The leading white men of the Southern States, democrats,
seem to me to feel a more kindly interest in the negroes than
in this class of poor people of their own race. They know much
more about them. Greater effort is likely to be made, for a long
time to come, for the education and improvement of the negroes
than for the advancement of the poor whites; and yet the class is
not at all so degraded or so worthless as is popularly believed.
These people are _primitive_ in character, and in the conditions
and methods of their life, but they are not degraded. There is,
however, great danger that many of them will be debased under the
changed conditions of the new order of things in the South. No
other class in that portion of our country is so little understood,
or would better repay careful study. It is highly important that
the attention of thoughtful, philanthropic and patriotic men, both
North and South, should be directed to their position and probable
tendencies in relation to the new life of the country in which they
live. In blood and inherited qualities they are not, generally,
vicious or low. But they have no friends, no sympathy, either North
or South.
MIXED SCHOOLS FOR THE TWO RACES.
There is one important feature or division of the subject of
education in the Southern States which I have not yet brought
forward in these studies; that is, the question of separate or
mixed schools for the two races. The sentiment, feeling and
judgment of the Southern people are at present strongly and almost
universally opposed to the idea of educating white and black
children, or young people, in the same schools. But a change in
this matter is already in progress. After attentively studying
the subject everywhere, I am convinced that there will soon be
mixed schools, for white and colored children, in many parts of
the South. There are already a few such schools, and the effect of
considerations of convenience, cheapness and practical efficiency
are likely, I think, to cause a rapid increase in their number.
I look for a decided revolution in Southern thought and feeling
within twenty years in regard to this subject. A few of the most
intelligent and far-seeing among Southern leaders—some of the
foremost “Bourbons”—say that mixed schools are “sure to come,” and
they are not disturbed by the prospect.
EDUCATIONAL WORK OF THE A. M. A.
The educational work already accomplished in the South by the
American Missionary Association is of a high character, and it
deserves all possible recognition and assistance. The best Southern
people everywhere spoke of it gratefully and enthusiastically. At
the Normal and Agricultural Institute, Hampton, Virginia; Talladega
College, in Alabama; Tougaloo University, Mississippi; Tillotson
Normal School, Austin, Texas; and at several other colleges and
normal schools which I saw, though the money endowments are scanty
compared with the amounts which are needed, the endowments in
personal qualities and character, as represented by the teachers,
are of a remarkably high order. This is necessary, for the work
of educating the colored people of the South requires the best
teachers that can be obtained.
In many of these institutions the boys learn something of various
trades or mechanical operations, and of farming, and the girls
are taught sewing, cooking, and the care of a house. I examined
a great number of the negro common and high schools, which are
taught by graduates and students of the colleges and normal schools
which I have named, and I think it wonderful that so many of these
negro teachers are successful. They have to struggle against many
disadvantages, but nearly all whom I saw had the confidence and
respect of the leading white citizens where they were at work.
There were a few fools among them, of course, but a great majority
appeared to be serious and sensible young men and women.
* * * * *
AFRICA.
* * * * *
DR. LADD’S JOURNAL.
The space in the MISSIONARY will only admit of a few extracts
from the remainder of this long journal. Much that is
interesting we are obliged to omit. The time from Jan. 7th till
Jan. 24th was busily spent in Khartoum. A small steamer was
finally obtained, and our missionary explorers in the face of
many discomforts and much danger pushed on up the Nile through
the territory occupied by El Mehdi till they reached their
objective point in Central Africa.—ED.
_Tuesday, Jan. 24th._—We fired up early. Crowds stood on the bank
to see our steamer off. We started at 10:30 A.M. The views of
Khartoum as we steamed down the Blue Nile were fine. The junction
of the Blue and White Niles is very marked. The difference in
color, and the line of demarcation are remarkable. The current as
we rounded the point was very strong, for here the whole broad Nile
is reduced to a very narrow channel, and our little steamer had
all she could do to make headway. As we got beyond this point the
river became very wide and the banks low. We were obliged to share
our “hole” with an officer, who was one of the few who escaped from
Mohammed Achmet at the time of the second slaughter. “He ran away
and lived to fight another day,” and now he acted as though he were
the hero of a hundred battles. We had a poor captain and not very
good men, but a fine, energetic pilot. At 9:15 we anchored near
the east bank in a position of comparative safety. We put up our
mosquito nets and spread insect powder with a free hand, hoping to
mitigate some of our troubles.
_Wednesday, Jan, 25th._—No sleep; too many discomforts. The “Hero”
kept up an incessant groaning. Our only hope was that he might die
before morning. Doctor threatened to shoot him, and I stood ready
to get him acquitted on the ground of justifiable homicide or of
“insanity.” Started about sunrise. The river was like a great
inland sea. There were thousands of ducks and geese. Mourgan and
the mate both managed to tumble into the hold to-day. It was a
wonder that they did not break their necks. The mate had to come
under the doctor’s care. About sundown we stopped for wood. We
went ashore in a boat as far as it could go, and were then carried
to dry land. While on shore the mate was taken very ill with the
fever, and lay on the ground in a most miserable condition. We got
him on board, and the doctor took him in charge. The cockroaches
are eating up everything, books and papers, etc. The water has come
in at the port-holes, although we have stuffed them as well as
possible, and has made the bedding damp. It is several inches deep
under the floor, and have to look out and not step through a loose
board into it. The mosquitoes may succeed in eating us up if they
keep on. It appears to be only a question of time. Therm., S. R.,
62°; M., 87°; S. S., 71°.
_Thursday, Jan. 26th._—No sleep! The groans of the “Hero” and the
bumping of the tiller, both “beyond control,” were too much for
us. We left at 11 A.M. There were crocodiles in vast numbers along
here and ducks by the thousands. From the steamer deck we shot
great numbers. Finally the men got tired going after them. But what
a feast they had. We also caught several large fish, but none of
them are fit to eat taken in this water. Anchored for the night at
Dooaim, a large town, evidently doing a good business, judging from
the number of ships and boats that are here.
_Friday, Jan. 27th._—Started at about 6 A.M. Had a good view of the
town as we steamed slowly out. Arrived at Kowa at 10:30 A.M. This
place was for some time the southern limit of the Soudan provinces.
It is a very large town, and is now the southern terminus of the
telegraph line. There is a low island opposite, but the town itself
stands up high and dry on the desert. Here again we were invited
to see a “fantasia,” but declined with thanks.
My face is still peeling from the effects of the Korosko Desert.
On the way to Fashoda the travelers passed the island of Abbas,
where Mohammed Achmet, the “False Prophet,” first distinguished
himself, saw his village and the spot where the first slaughter
occurred. They stopped at various other places of interest on
the way, and had a variety of experiences. They studied the
towns and the people in passing, and although generally well
received, they had some difficulty to get wood, on account of
the hostility of the Shillooks. They became acquainted with the
African fever among the swamps, and were only too glad to reach
Fashoda.