Part 7

On the day appointed for the sale I went fourteen miles on foot, and alone, to the place where I was to be sold. On my way I tried to lay some plan to run away. A white woman said she would help me, and told me to go into a certain swamp and she would feed me and help me away, but I was afraid of the dogs and the men that would catch me. No one can tell my feelings on my way to the sale, but I knew I had to go. At the place of sale were 500 people come together to see me sold, and to buy me. I was the only one to be sold. I was on the block three hours while the men were bidding for me. Five of these men were speculators, and the rest were mostly people that lived in that region. While they were selling me there was a good deal of brandy drunk, and they offered me some as I was very tired standing; and I said, “No, sir, I have sorrow enough on me now without drinking that.” I was finally knocked off to a very bad man for $1,780. This man lived about thirteen miles from my old home, and when I knew that he was my master I burst into tears, heart-broken. The overseer took me behind the store and tried to stop me from crying, but I could not stop. At last, my new master said if any one would give for me as much as he had, he might have me, and a man from Alabama, who was out to North Carolina on a visit, said he would, and so I sold again to this man from Alabama, and after three months I was taken away from all my friends away down to Alabama. My new master proved to be a good man, a member of the Baptist Church, and I lived with him twenty-seven years until emancipation. One thing I forgot to tell you, and it made a deep impression on my mind: at the time I was being sold in North Carolina, a man in the crowd cried out with a loud voice, “Hell will boil and overflow at such work as this.” I never can forget that expression.

I was set free by two wills; the first one was burned, and so I was kept in slavery. Once, after I had been absent from home some time, my mistress, on my return, came rushing out to the gate and crying with a loud voice, “Oh, Ambrose, Ambrose! I had rather live in the smokiest cabin on the place, and had your master’s will done, than to be in the king’s palace,” but the will was burned and so it could not be done. The other will that set me free was made ten years before emancipation; but emancipation came before my master died, and so his will did me no good.

During all my slave life I never lost sight of freedom. It was always on my heart; it came to me like a solemn thought, and often circumstances much stimulated the desire to be free and raised great expectation of it. We slaves all knew when an Abolitionist got into Congress. We knew it when there was just one there, and we watched it all the way until there was a majority there. I don’t know hardly how we got the knowledge, but we always knew. We always called “freedom” “possum,” so as to keep the white people from knowing what we were talking about. We all understood it.

Some years before emancipation, my master signed $900 to be paid in work towards building a Baptist College where we lived. He sent me to work out his subscription. I had four children of my own, and I thought that it was hard for me to work out this $900, when I could have no privilege of educating my own children. I little thought then that my children would ever graduate at this college, but God has turned things about so that three of my children have graduated, and the fourth will graduate next June; so that when I worked out this subscription of my master, I was building a college for myself and my family. While at work on this college, I fell into a conversation with the white carpenters at work there, and they said “niggers” would do nothing “if set free.” I told them if they would take me out into the woods and strip every rag from me, and set me free, that in ten years I would school my children.

Just after emancipation my master said: “Ambrose, I want you to let Nannie stay with her mistress; she can’t do without her.” I said: “Master, I always thought that if ever I was free I would educate my children; if ’twas not for that, sir, I would accommodate you.” “Ambrose,” said he, “I hardly thought you would deny me.” I said: “I can’t do any better, sir.” With this we separated, and now all my children are good scholars; one is a minister; one has charge of an academy; I have a good house of seven rooms, and eleven acres of land about it, besides a farm of 320 acres in the country.

Nothing can illustrate the great change that has come over us, unless it is the change in passing from earth to heaven. You could see the force of this illustration if you knew our history--if you only knew the dark Egypt we have come through. I believe emancipation will work out as great things for us as it did for Israel.

When the college and the Congregational Church were planted here I joined the church, and have never been sorry for it. I love the missionary cause, and would rather give all I have than to see it go down.

I love to think of my son down in Selma preaching. There was quite a scare there about the yellow fever, and my son wrote me to know what he should do; I wrote him back, “to look to the Lord, and stand to his post.”

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A GRATEFUL WARD.

A Letter from an Indian.

I thank you, gentlemen, you kind and good. By and by I see you and tell you. You give money to Mrs. Caruthers to help me learn. I try to learn fast. Indian no talk much English. May be very soon I understand. Long ago I an Indian, now I don’t think so. I think gust the same white man. Now I want be same as good white man. Here this country good Tarrytown I like. Your a

KIOWA FRENCH ZONE KE-UH.

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AFRICA.

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THE MENDI MISSION.

REV. A. F. JACKSON, AVERY.

When one enters upon this kind of work, he enters upon a tedious and arduous one--a work accompanied with many dark and gloomy days, as well as some bright ones. I suppose that you are aware that my work has been assigned me at Avery, or Mannah Bargroo Station, on the Little Sherbro river, about fifty-eight miles from Good Hope. At this station all of the agricultural work is carried on. We have here a mill, coffee-farm and ginger farm. I employ in the mill seven native men all the while; and on the farm two native men; besides a crew of boatmen, that row our boat from British Sherbro to the neighboring villages to sell the lumber that is sawed at our mill. We are enabled to keep one boat running all the while, and it is manned by natives entirely. They make first-rate crewmen, and have a decided advantage over a similar act of Englishmen or Americans, from the fact that they are always naked, and there is no impediment in case of an accident. All of them can swim in almost any kind of water. They do not stop to question whether there be alligators in the water or not, but go at the command. I can say that I have tried them sufficiently in all ways, and I have as yet found them all to be quite honest, with the exception of one man, who very politely went into my lot of goods on the way from Good Hope to my station, and took therefrom five or six yards of baft to trade for rice. This is the only dishonest act that I have known any one to commit since my arrival on the coast of Africa.

I have said a good deal about my boatmen, and will now give you a brief sketch of the habits and customs of this people. In the first place, the men go entirely naked, with the exception of a cloth they wear, something like that of an American baby’s diaper. The women wear about four yards of cloth thrown carelessly around them, covering the lower extremities, and tied by the ends about the waist.

When one dies, they have what they call “the cry,” in which all join. They go for miles to attend “the cry.” The body of the deceased is wrapped in matting, and conveyed to its long resting-place--a hole which is dug for that purpose. This has always been their mode of burying, and in many instances they prefer it to our way.

As to the general build of this people it is quite good. They possess very good features, as a general thing, having smooth skins and round faces. Their noses are not so flat as the American negro’s; neither are their eyes so red and blood-shot. Their mouths are not so disfigured. The most of them have quite a neat lip, not so thick as that of the American negro. Their hands and feet are generally small. Their bodies are very straight and well developed. It is astonishing to see how they carry burdens, either upon the head or back, with a loop so that it can be fastened around their foreheads.

A good stout man will carry as much on his head and back as you can pack on a young ass three years old, and they never murmur. They live in mud houses covered with thatch, but a thatch inferior to anything we know of in America. It is made of bamboo, and only lasts from nine to twelve months.

They subsist on rice, cassada, cocoa, fufu, crencray, palaver-sauce and fish. Any one of these vegetables mentioned will grow without any attention at all, except the cocoa, and that is a very tender plant, indeed, and the consequence is, that they have less of it than anything else. The cocoa and cassada are the only vegetables that I have learned to eat. The cocoa, after it is cooked, is much like an Irish potato, and makes a very palatable dish, indeed. The cassada, when cooked, resembles an American squash, and is a very nice dish for dinner or breakfast. Should a person presume to eat these vegetables mentioned, without having been a good while in the country, he at once had better have a mill-stone hanged about his neck, and his body committed to the briny deep. He would fare about as well. No foreigner, of whatever nationality he may be, can come into Africa and subsist at first upon the native productions.

We are all aware that Africa has long been called the burying-ground of missionaries. The reasons are, in my judgment, these: In the first place, missionaries in going to Africa generally exert themselves too much on entering the field. The climate is such as rapidly to reduce one’s physical strength. It is a custom among all persons, as soon as they have been informed of their malady, at once to retire to their beds, and demand that a physician be called. The calling of the physician is all right; but it is far better to keep out of bed, and to keep moving; for if you give up and go to bed, you are almost sure to die. Another reason, as I before said, is trying to live on native productions too early after arriving on the continent.

I must say, just here, that two-thirds of what you hear about Africa is fabulous. At least it is so in the region in which our missions are established. There is a great deal said about the native bread-tree. There is such a thing as a bread-tree in this country, but it is almost as scarce in the region in which the mission is established as the orange-tree is in the States, and you are aware how plentiful the orange-tree is there. The fabulous tree so called, might very appropriately have been named a squash-tree, because it bears no similarity to bread, and will not answer at all in the place of bread. When green, or before it is plucked, it bears a close similarity to what is known in the States as the hedge orange, and, when cooked, it tastes something between a potato-pumpkin and squash.

There are some oranges here, but they are scarce. They do not seem to be a native fruit, because they do not grow everywhere in the country, but only where the ground is cleared up, and the undergrowth cut down. They are not of a rich yellow color like an American orange, but greenish and small. They have quite a delicious taste, somewhat devoid of juice, when compared with our Florida orange, but equal to it in sweetness. We have another fruit here, known as the lime. It bears a close similarity to a lemon; in fact the only difference that I can detect is, that the lemon as a general thing is larger, and not so round. As to the pine-apple, it grows only where it is taken care of; it may grow in the wilds, but never bears fruit. The rice that is grown in Africa is not so good as that in the States. It is really the main thing grown upon the continent in the way of eatables. If you buy two bushels of rough rice, you will not get more than sixteen quarts that can be used, and you must pay from 2s. 9d. to 3s. per bushel. This, I am sorry to say, is about the way with all the country productions.

Knowing that you are always anxious concerning our health, I, perhaps, ought to have spoken of it sooner. I am in quite good health, and have been since my first attack of the African fever. My wife has had quite a severe attack of the fever; so severe that I thought I should lose her; but God in his goodness saw fit to spare her to me. She has never regained her strength, but I trust that God in some way or other will restore her to perfect health again.

The religious work at Avery is going on nicely. I found here a small chapel, but no church members. Dr. James had kept up a prayer-meeting, and there was some interest among the people, but there had been no ingathering of souls to Christ. After looking around and seeing the real condition of things, I came to the conclusion that whatever was done must be done quickly; so I made it my aim to get at the people at once with the truths of Jesus Christ, and they seemed to take right hold of them as fast as given to them. I adopted this plan: to take my Bible every evening and go out among the regular heathen; but I soon found out that I was unable to reach them in that way, from the fact that I could not speak their language. So I gave that plan up, and adopted the one of going among them twice a week, and taking with me my Bible and an interpretor. This I found to be the best plan; so then and there I got hold of the people. Now, having found this to work well, I began to preach to the people in their own villages and “fackies,” as they call them. After I found out that I could gather them together in their fackies, I then set to work to persuade them to come to my church; which I did with great success, and from time to time I gathered into the church the following persons and names. June 16th, I opened the doors of the church, and enrolled the following: H. C. Hallock L., Isaac Vincent L., James Cole L., John Davis R., Samuel Wise R., Richard Wilkerson R., Yamba R., One Pound R., Henry Peters R., Small Banna R., William Wilberforce L., Mrs. Lucker L., Mrs. Peters R., Mrs. Hannah Vincent L., and a Sherbro chief, A. P. Cardy R.

June 30th, I opened the doors of the church again, and enrolled the following: James Picket L., Sarah Tucker R., Mrs. Elizabeth Beal R., Elizabeth Wilberforce R., Mrs. Mary Cole L., Mrs. Nancy Davis R., Madam Damba R., Madam Dambee R. July 28th, I opened the doors and took the following names. The chief Karry Pherner L., chief, Lalula R., John Bull R., Cunda R., Kirby R., Matilda Leatum L., Mrs. Yamba R., Mrs. One Pound R., and Bye R. As I neglected to tell you in regard to the conversion of these persons I will give you some idea of it by the following letters. The letter “R” signifies recently converted, and the letter “L” long converted. I must say that the especial blessing of the Lord seemed very near all on the 4th of August. This was the first Lord’s Supper celebrated at Avery Station. On this day I preached to a very large number of native men and women. I baptized seven grown persons and four children, making a total of eleven persons baptized.

This people, as a general thing, have very many troubles among themselves that must be settled at once, in order to secure peace among them. If you have gained their confidence, they will at all times call upon you to settle any disturbance that may occur among them, it matters not how difficult the case may be. Great caution is required in rendering your decision, otherwise it may cause speedy bloodshed and panic throughout the region. I am sorry to say that the prospects are quite threatening just now for an outbreak at any time in the region adjacent to Avery and the Little Boom. But I hope that it will not be very serious. The Governor is expected to investigate the Boom trouble this week, and it is thought that it can be settled without any serious damage to either side. I have felt greatly the lack of reading matter at my Station. There are many dreary hours out here that might be whiled away with good reading matter. I rather think that some of the good friends in New York would be glad to send a paper or two now and then to a poor wayfarer on the distant shores of Africa.

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THE INDIANS.

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SISSETON AGENCY.

Farming Tools Bought.

E. H. C. HOOPER, AGENT

For several years past, till last year, the crops on this reserve have been nearly all destroyed by grasshoppers; but this season promises an abundant harvest. The farming has been attended with unusual success, and the Indians feel very much encouraged with the result of their farm labor.

At present there are 2,191 acres of land broken on this reservation, 450 acres of which are new land broken during this season. Seventeen hundred acres are under cultivation by the Indians. There was a much larger acreage plowed last fall than ever before at the same season of the year, and, under the supervision of our farmer, it was well prepared for seeding in the spring. Nearly all our Indians, who were without seed, were provided from the warehouse early in the season, and manifested a good degree of interest in planting and cultivating.

Early in July, many of the Indian farmers, feeling confident of a large yield of grain, were very earnest in their appeals for grain cradles and other appliances with which to secure their crops. And, under authority from the Department, a lot of grain cradles were bought and issued to them. But the number purchased was insufficient to supply the wants of all, and a considerable portion of the wheat in small fields was cut with scythes.

Several of our Indians who have large wheat fields, have bought harvesters for themselves, at a cost of from $165 to $200 each, and are to pay for them from the proceeds of their sales of wheat; this is a move in the right direction and cannot be too highly commended.

All our Indians are half-breeds (with but few exceptions, and these generally confined to very old people) wear citizens’ dress, and a large majority of them live in very comfortable houses, made of hewed logs, and are furnished with cook-stoves, tables, seats, and other housekeeping conveniences.

There are some forty frame buildings occupied by our Indians, several of which are two stories high and painted, all having more or less land under cultivation.

Schools.

During ten months of the year--(the Manual Labor School eleven months)--three schools have been in successful operation: the Manual Labor School, the Good-Will Boarding and Day-School, and the Ascension School. The Manual Labor School building, situated one and a half miles from the agency, was originally provided with seats for fifty-six scholars, but the sleeping accommodations for this number of children have never been sufficient, and during the past year our carpenter has made an addition of several new sleeping rooms, and improved the condition of the old ones, which has added very much to the comfort and convenience of the pupils.

There are only four or five boys of sufficient age to be serviceable about the farm or garden. When out of school they were kept at work preparing the ground for seeding and cultivating, besides attending to the stock and farm work generally, all being done under the immediate supervision of the principal, who is, fortunately, a good farmer.

After the regular school hours, the girls are taught sewing of all kinds; cutting, making and trimming dresses, repairing garments; darning, knitting and use of sewing machine; also all kinds of housework, cooking, and the work of the dairy. After service in the evening, instructions are given in music, instrumental and vocal, in which both boys and girls take an unusual interest and show a marked improvement during the year. Mr. Tuckey, the present principal, assumed the duties of his office May 1st, and has been untiring in his exertions to advance the pupils in their studies, and, for the short time which he has been with them, appears to have been very successful. The two female assistants having had two years’ experience here, and been deeply interested in their pupils, have proved very valuable and successful teachers, and have the confidence and respect of the parents.

The time of the matron is fully occupied from six A. M. to nine P. M., in looking after and providing for the numerous wants of the pupils, and in this difficult and laborious work has proved to be very efficient.

The Good Will Mission Boarding and Day-School is situated one and three quarter miles from the agency; the children are rationed and supplied in part with clothing from the warehouse, but the other expenses--salaries, etc--are borne by the A. B. C. F. M. This school has accommodated as many as thirty-two scholars, part of them boarding at houses in the vicinity.

The day-school, situated at Ascension, about six miles from the agency, had, some months, thirty scholars; they live in the vicinity of the school-house, and are quite regular in attendance.

In addition to these three schools, two others were opened, and reading, writing and arithmetic in Dakota were taught by Indian teachers, during two months in the spring, with an average daily attendance of eighteen scholars each. These schools were opened at the earnest request of several of the leading men in their vicinity, in the form of a petition to the agent. These parents seemed in earnest in their efforts to have the schools opened, and showed a continued interest in them by frequent visits during the time they were in operation.

The estimated number of children of school-going age on this reserve is three hundred, and we have two brick school-houses, built in 1873, at an estimated cost of $600 each--one situated about one and a half miles south of the agency, and the other at the Mayasan, twenty miles distant; both are provided with improved seats, tables, etc., and will accommodate forty scholars each; neither of them has been used, for school purposes to any extent since they were built, but allowed to remain unoccupied.

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RECEIPTS

FOR OCTOBER, 1878.

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MAINE, $169.24.

Alfred. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 16.00 Andover. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 8.60 Augusta. Collected by Francis Littlefield, _for Printing Press, Talladega, Ala._ 35.00 Augusta. Joel Spalding 10.00 Bangor. First Cong. Ch. 23.92 Bluehill. Mrs. S. E. D. P. 1.00 Eastport. Central Cong. Sab. Sch. $5; G. A. P. 50c 5.50 Fryeburg. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 9.40 Gardiner. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 15.73 Hallowell. Emma French, bbl. of C. Limerick. S. F. H. _for Raleigh, N. C._ 1.00 North Waterford. S. E. H. 1.00 Orland. A. L. D. 1.00 Portland. J. B. Libby, _for Raleigh, N. C._ 5.00 West Auburn. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 5.00 Yarmouth. First Cong. Ch. 21.00 Woolwich. D. C. Farnham 5.00

NEW HAMPSHIRE, $236.90.