Part 2

The African, in his native land, is little known by us; but a year among that people gave me opportunities for observation. They are far from being the stupid race we so often hear them called. Keen at a bargain, they are often a match for some of us in that boasted Yankee trait. Apt to learn, quick to understand and to appreciate advantages, they are a people easy to assume and appropriate the best results of civilization—brave in the defense of their rights and homes, yet not aggressive, except when forced by circumstances and their teachings. We forget the whole history of this people in looking only at some particular phase or trait. Their land, the field of the slave-stealer for centuries, has been the scene of cruelty, fraud, and all the worst forms of vice. A people educated by so long a course of schooling in its vicissitudes might well be cruel and vicious. The land has been hunted, from Egypt to the Cape of Good Hope, by foreign and native stealers. Tribes have been driven for self-protection, or by greed of gain, to make captures from other tribes or other parts of their own. To show the debasing power of slavery and slave-hunting, let me say that I have seen slaves brought to the coast from the central parts of Africa who were the most abject specimens of the human race I have ever known—brought by a strong, stalwart tribe, noble in bearing, and brave in war; and these, too, were the same tribe or people only a comparatively short time before. Why this great difference? A simple explanation is only required to show it all. Together and at peace, they had a generous and varied diet of animal and vegetable food, for they had extent of territory in which to hunt and gather; but divided and at war, fighting for self-protection, one party gained the supremacy. Then the other were a defeated people; circumscribed within small limits, unable to hunt, they were soon confined to a vegetable diet alone, and then to a single kind, and often to a few simple roots; courage gone, they were reduced to servitude and slavery, and brought to a market. This is no new theory, for the same effects have followed the same causes over and over again.

After references to the evils of slavery in this land, and the good to be accomplished by it under the Divine overruling, follows this

Thrilling Incident.

One of the most thrilling incidents of the late war was one in which I was an observer and part participant. I never more wished for the powers of a great painter than then, or even now, for I can see it to-day as vividly as when it occurred, fourteen years ago; for to me it seemed to contain a history of slavery, embodied in a single act. The army, in suddenly swinging round, had enclosed within its lines a large number of slaves who could not be taken further South before this was done. As we could not encumber ourselves with the women and children, the steamers bringing supplies for the army were prepared to take them to Washington. A very large steamer was brought as near the shore as possible, and a plank gangway, some fifteen feet in length, and at an angle of about 45°, was laid from the shore to the entryport of the steamer. Just back from the shore, the bluff, at about the same angle, rose some 100 feet, and this bluff and the plain above were occupied and covered by some three or four thousand slaves. All being made ready, the order was given for embarkation; the women and children were to go on board first. For some moments no one started, and then a single figure, that of a woman of some sixty years, was seen slowly advancing alone up the plank; no one else followed. A perfect hush seemed to hang over the scene, as if some great event was to take place, and if ever an emblematic scene was enacted it was here. Slowly the bent form went forward, bearing the weight of years of toil in the field—years of bodily and heart suffering such as you and I never knew, and pray God _never_ may. Her face, her whole frame, was a perfect picture of a doubt. All eyes seemed to watch her in silence; officers and men waited—they probably knew not for what; her own people—as though she was their “path-finder.” At last she reached the side of the steamer; the open port was right before her, and just then it seemed to her as the open portal to all her heart’s longings, and God’s open door. She and her race had poured, for long years, their tales of trial and suffering into His ear, “who never slumbers nor sleeps.” _Was this the answer to her prayers?_ That seemed to be the question of her heart all the way up. Suddenly the bent form straightened, the homely, wrinkled face glowed with a new light, her coarse, ragged garb was a royal robe, as she turned and looked towards her people, raising her hand and eyes to heaven, and exclaiming, in tones so loud and clear that they reached every ear, and made the very hills ring: “_I’s free! Thank God, I’s free! Come on!_” For a single instant there was perfect silence, and then cheer on cheer rent the air, and, with a shout, the rest followed up the gangway till the steamer was full. It was, indeed, their way to liberty and happiness even in this life, and by such efforts as this Association is making and aiding, shall it not be to the life to come?

The paper closes with a plea for the liberal support of our work among the freedmen, enforced by

Two Examples of Liberality.

About giving, let me relate two incidents and I close, for if they appeal to you as they did to me they will be more effective than any mere words of mine. As I sat in Mr. Woodworth’s office, the other day, an elderly lady came in and took a chair by his desk, saying, as she opened her bag, that she had come to bring her offering. Her dress was not of the latest fashion, her bonnet was not of the spring style; but her face was one of those beautiful motherly faces you and I used to look into years ago, and which, though years have come and gone since they were covered from our sight, are still as sweet to our memories as ever—such faces as we know will greet us lovingly in heaven, for they are watching and waiting for us, and our entrance there will be, in no small measure, in answer to their prayers. From her pocket-book she took a bill and handed it to Mr. W., saying, she wished it were more, and in such a tone that I knew it was a heart gift, and that the wish was almost a prayer, which might go with the gift and make it as effectual as if it were all she had desired it to be. Gifts made in such a spirit, in His hands, who multiplied the bread of old, grow to wonderful results. The bill, to my surprise, for I had imagined the circumstances of the donor to be very limited, was twenty dollars.

I have another: A poor woman, with an income of less than one hundred and fifty dollars a year, whose yearly offering had been a single dollar, came and laid down on the secretary’s desk (I had almost said at the Master’s feet, for the place seemed sacred ground) ten dollars, saying that she could not be here long, her journey was almost ended, and that she felt she must do all the could while she stayed, for she could not give after she had gone home, and so, after prayer, long and earnest, she had been enabled to make this, perhaps her last gift. What a gift from such scanty resources! It meant the giving up of many necessaries, as we should call them. Have _we_ so given? She had cast in of her want, and may well expect to hear the Master’s commendation. May she not have cast in more than we all?

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OBITUARY.

We are called to notice the death of REV. SILAS MCKEEN, D. D., of Bradford, Vt., whose name, for fourteen years, has stood upon our list of Vice-Presidents. Mr. McKeen was born in Corinth, Vt., March 16, 1791. His education was obtained amid many difficulties. So great was his desire for knowledge that, in his father’s grist-mill, he occupied his leisure moments in studying, without a teacher, Latin and the higher mathematics. During an illness which caused him to abandon all thoughts of a collegiate education, he was led to devote himself entirely to the service of Christ; and, in the following spring, he commenced the study of theology with Rev. Stephen Fuller, of Vershire. In 1814 he was licensed by the Orange Association to preach the gospel. His first sermon was delivered in Vershire, and his second in Bradford, where, shortly afterwards, he was installed as pastor. Twelve years later, he was dismissed from this church, but in less than three months was recalled, and remained its pastor five years longer, when he was again dismissed, this time that he might accept a call to Belfast, Me. After nine years of labor in Belfast, he was a second time invited to return to Bradford. His whole ministry in this place was about forty-three years, he finally resigning when he was seventy-five years old. During these years, there were added to the church three hundred and forty-two members. A man of great diligence and decision, with tender sympathies and warm affection, true and judicious, his ordinary work among his own people, as well as in protracted meetings and in revivals, was eminently successful. He took a lively interest in education, and was a true and eloquent friend of the colored people. Full of years, with his work well done, he was ready to leave it for the reward.

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ITEMS FROM CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS.

DUDLEY, N. C.—“A deep and increasing religious interest is reported. The work of conviction and conversion is going on. Backsliders have been restored. Brother Peebles was assisted for a time by Rev. Mr. Smith of Raleigh.”

GEORGIA.—Of the thirty-seven graduates from Atlanta University, thirty are teachers, two are pastors, one is a missionary in Africa, one a theological student at Andover. Only three are not teaching or preaching—two who are wives and one who has died.

ALABAMA.—The Trinity Church, Athens, Rev. Horace J. Taylor, pastor, received one on profession at the May communion. This church has a flourishing missionary society, which contributed in February $16 for the support of colored missionaries in Africa. It has sustained during the year just closing, thirteen mission schools, in which over 700 have been taught.

LOUISIANA.—The Minutes of the Southwestern Congregational Conference, which met at New Iberia, April 3-5, have been printed. The statistics give fourteen churches, with a total membership of 865.

—The following relates to a recent convert in one of our churches: “Mr. K. proves a very strong man in the church. He is evidently of the material which makes a first-class sinner or a first-class saint. He was lately invited to a dinner-party by his brother, who, when he entered the room, began in a mocking way to give an account of his (Mr. K’s) conversion. Mr. K. listened patiently, and when the account was finished, said it was true, but all had not been told. He then gave his own story in such a way that one of the company there determined to follow his example.”

MEMPHIS, TENN.—Miss Woodward writes: “For the past thirteen weeks the Murphy temperance movement has been very successful among the white people of Memphis. A few earnest workers, seeing the need of a like effort among the colored people here, inaugurated a series of meetings at the Second Congregational Church. From the first there has been a very decided interest manifested, and the meetings are productive of great good, both directly and as a means of awakening thought on this important subject. Some two hundred in all have signed the pledge, and new names are added at every meeting.”

TOUGALOO, MISS.—A teacher writes: “I think there is not one in the school who has not signed the pledge. They came in one by one, till last week one who has stood out all these months, came and put his name on the list of total abstainers. He said: ‘You all got away with me at the meeting last night, and I am going to sign the pledge, for I cannot teach others to do what I will not do myself.’”

—The following is a good illustration of perseverance among the colored people of the South. While the missionary was persuading a sick woman to put her trust in Jesus, the husband came in, when the following conversation took place: “Mr. Williams, are you a Christian?” “No, Miss, I’s left on de docket yet.” “Do you ever think about becoming one?” “Yes, Miss, I thinks a heap about it sometimes. I tries a while, then I stops.” “I fear you do not seek for it as you do for money; you should keep at it all the time, as you do when working for money.” “Yes, Miss, that is jes the way I works for money. I works a while for the ole man, then I stops. Jes the same way, Miss.”

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CHINESE ITEMS.

—Wong Sam has returned from China, and has resumed his place in the Barnes School. Lee Hame, who was there before, has been sent to Sacramento. There are now four Chinese helpers regularly employed.

—Mr. Dakin has retired from the Central School, having removed to Arizona. Mr. Henry C. Pond, a son of our efficient superintendent, takes his place. He is a graduate of the State University, and well qualified for the work.

—Mr. Gilbert is doing good work at Woodland, and approving himself to all.

—Six Chinamen were received to Bethany Church June 2d, making forty-four Chinese members in all. There are two Chinese Christian families in the church.

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GENERAL NOTES.

The Negro.

—Howard University, for colored students, Washington, D. C., shows a strength of two hundred and twenty-five in all departments. There are thirty-two theological students, fifty medical, six law, twenty-two academical, eighteen preparatory, and ninety-five in the Normal department.

—The Reformed Episcopal Church has organized fourteen colored congregations in and around Charleston, S. C. Some of them meet in log buildings. One church is staggering under a debt of ten dollars.

—The Baltimore Annual Conference of the A. M. E. Church passed resolutions denouncing the action of the School Commissioners of that city, in refusing to employ colored teachers for the separate schools for colored children. Two colored delegates, representing the African Methodist Church, were most cordially received.

—Prof. Bennett, of Nashville, makes an important contribution to the question of negro mortality, in the _Independent_. He sums up the causes of its large percentage: (1) The old and sick, broken by slavery, are dying as the effect of former hardships; (2) they lack vital force, are scrofulous, and readily succumb to disease; (3) ignorance of the laws of health; (4) late and excited religious meetings; (5) inadequate clothing and food; (6) crowded tenement house life. He also names the following grounds for expecting an improvement: (1) They are gradually improving their condition, as to homes, food and clothing; (2) they are progressing in intelligence and knowledge of the laws of health; (3) the younger ministers are leading them to earlier hours and quieter modes of worship; (4) boards of health are securing better sanitary conditions.

—The first negro who has sat on an important jury in New York, in many years, was accepted May 22d, in the Supreme Court circuit, in a case involving $6,500.

—Should the barque _Azor_ make four trips a year, it would take one hundred years to transport to Africa the 100,000 now ready to go, and able and willing to pay $20 each for passage and food. It is most important that the 99,000, at least, should neither give up home nor work.

—A French Roman Catholic mission is to be established at Lakes Victoria and Tanganyika, in Central Africa, with government aid to the amount of $20,000. Ten missionaries, who have seen service in Northern Africa, will soon set out for Zanzibar. They have already large and extending missionary enterprises in the north and in the south.

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The Indian.

—It is hard to tell, from the contradictory accounts, whether Sitting Bull will continue seated over the Canada lines, trading in the spoils of raids on Black Hills trains, or will issue from his camp of 1,500 lodges to take possession of his old home and fight out his claim to the end. Authorities differ.

—Meanwhile, the Bannock Indians, numbering about 200 warriors, under the command of Buffalo Horn, the noted scout, are encamped in the lava beds, between Big Campus Prairie and Snake River, and have ordered the whites to leave the prairie on penalty of death. The Indians on the Upper Columbia are equally hostile, and the Sioux still threatening.

—General Sherman says that, if the present indications of an Indian war are realized, and he fears they will be, the army, as it now stands, would be entirely insufficient to cope with the weight of Indian strategy and valor that would be thrown against it.

—The Commissioner of Indian Affairs is about to try a new experiment with the Indians. He has given orders forbidding further gratuitous issue of coffee and sugar to them at their agencies. In order to secure application to duty on their part, he says that only as they work, and in payment for their labor, will they receive coffee and sugar rations in future.

—The _Tribune_ says: “The Senate will certainly raise the army to 25,000 men, and concur in the transfer of the Indian Bureau to the War Department. The first will almost certainly be yielded by the House in Conference Committee, and the other has already received its approval.” The same paper contains this paragraph, also: “Before the Indian Bureau is transferred from the Interior to the War Department, however, Congress should strive to comprehend the fact that even the War Department can have very little success in managing Indian affairs unless we contrive to attain some settled Indian policy. We have been in the habit of putting the Indians by turns under the immediate care of missionaries and thieves, of Quakers and Catholics, of army officers and contractors. We have made solemn treaties, and broken them. We have moved them to reservations, and then crowded them off whenever they were found to be in the way. We have pauperized them by promising supplies, and starved them by breaking our promises. We have made a pretence of civilizing them, without furnishing them with any code of law, and of educating them, without furnishing them with any teachers. After supplying them with rifles to fight with, and worrying them into hostilities, we have made war upon them; and when they have proved so conspicuously cruel and treacherous as to deserve swift retribution, we have tried moral suasion. No one ever dreamed that the same tribe was to receive the same treatment for two successive years, and no two tribes ever received the same treatment at the same time. What is first needed is a definite and persistent policy of some kind, so that both Indians and white men will be able to form some clear idea of what will probably happen the day after to-morrow. A bad system is better than no system; any system is better than caprice.”

—A small Indian church was dedicated at Jamestown, Clallam County, Washington Territory, Sunday, May 12th, by Rev. M. Eells. The idea of erecting it originated entirely with the Indians, who bought the lumber, and have done all the work. The windows and casings, nails, paint, oil, and lime came as annuity goods. They have also had encouragement, pecuniarily, from white friends. It is the first church building in the county, although it has been settled for about twenty years, and the first white house in the Indian village.

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THE FREEDMEN.

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COMMENCEMENT AT HAMPTON INSTITUTE.

BY TELESCOPE.

This always interesting occasion came on the 23rd of May. The special feature of public interest this year was the attendance of the President of the United States, with his private secretary, Rogers, and General Devens and Mr. McCrary of the Cabinet. A large party went, also, from New York and Boston on this most enjoyable and instructive excursion.

The trustees were in session on Wednesday, the 22d, on which day also was held the first meeting of the graduates of Hampton Institute. There were assembled in the beautiful “Whittier Chapel,” on the upper floor of Virginia Hall, a large representation of the 277 who had gone out, most of them as teachers of their race. Of that whole number, not a complaint has been made. They have become good and useful citizens, maintaining the high moral tone of Hampton, and evidencing that growth in character which is the best witness to the existence of a true life within. Says the correspondent of the Springfield _Republican_:

“All this was abundantly manifest by their general bearing on this occasion, the prompt organization of their meeting, the dignity and good sense of their presiding officer, a negro black as night, the secretary likewise, but models of courtesy and tact, their self-possessed and orderly manner of conducting their business in a large presence of trustees, teachers, and visitors, in the accounts they gave of their work, their trials, their methods, and successes.”

After giving reports of their varied experiences, hindrances, and hopes, a discussion followed as to the desirableness of raising the educational standard of Hampton and making it a real college. There was a good deal of feeling in favor of such a move, and the alumni came, finally, to a standing vote requesting such a change of the trustees and faculty.

General Armstrong, the Principal, seconded by Secretary Strieby, the President of the Board of Trustees, with a good deal of frankness and tact, managed to bring the meeting to a feeling of the sensibleness of just such a course as that they had enjoyed, and to receive finally, in response, hearty expressions of approval of that which had been already done, and of the general sufficiency of the advantages provided.

Early on Thursday morning the Presidential party arrived, and were welcomed by a salute from the guns of Fortress Monroe. With other guests, they were escorted over the farm to the new barn, 100×150 feet in size, and covering the stables, the agricultural and other machinery, blacksmith shop, etc. The cash balance against the farm for the year is $326.03. The printing-office shows a credit balance of $400. The students have earned during the year $12,236.75 in the varied industries, which, though not profitable in the net pecuniary result, are among the most important educational agencies of the institution; for the knowledge of practical work, and the ability to perform intelligent labor, are among the most important attainments for the colored students, both as citizens and as teachers.

The catalogue shows 332 pupils on the roll, of which 202 are young men, and 130 young women. The graduating class numbered 57. In the examinations of Thursday morning, the teachers showed the tact and thoroughness for which they have been always noted, and the results in the intelligence and interest of their pupils were most gratifying.

The new class of fifteen Indians attracted much attention. Their history has been already given. Five of these Indians are going, in September, to Bishop Whipple’s school in Minnesota. Ten remain at Hampton as permanent students. Bear’s Heart, White Goose, Squint Eyes, High Forehead, Wild Horse, and Big Nose will probably change their names, although the Indian for each has a romantic sound. The negro students take very kindly to their new friends, and there is promise of entire harmony between the two races. Proposals are in discussion between General Armstrong and the Government at Washington that include the education of more Indians, and the co-education of an equal number of Indian girls, so that the experiment may not be one-sided in its future developments.