Part 2

At Talladega, Stone Hall, for boys, has been completed. It is three stories high, with a basement, and contains printing office, reading-room, bath-room and dormitories for 76 students. With a portion of Mrs. Stone’s gift, supplemented by $1,000 from Mr. Gregory, of Marblehead, $100 from Gen. Swayne and a few smaller sums from others, Swayne Hall has been remodeled and thoroughly repaired from pavement to bell-tower, including roofing, flooring, blackboarding, etc. A house for the accommodation of the President will soon be completed. With these improvements the college will be ready for a great work.

At Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn., Livingstone Missionary Hall is nearly inclosed. It is two hundred and four feet long, sixty-two feet wide in the centre, and has four stories and a basement. The foundation is of stone and the walls are of pressed brick. A mansard roof with brick gables and ornamented chimneys crowns the edifice. It will contain chapel, lecture-rooms, recitation-rooms, teachers’ apartments and dormitories for 120 boys. Although planned with a strict regard for economy, it will be a grand and stately companion for Jubilee Hall. Several months will be required for its completion.

At Atlanta, a new wing has been added to the girl’s dormitory, and plans for a school building between the two dormitories have been completed and some materials purchased. It is expected that the building will be finished and ready for occupancy in a year from this time. In planning these various buildings, it has been the aim to provide the best facilities possible, but the claims of architecture have not been wholly ignored. Some of the best architects in the country have been consulted, and all the plans have been examined carefully by your Executive Committee.

It will be seen by this review that each of our eight chartered institutions has received permanent and substantial aid either in funds or in buildings, and that never before were they so fully equipped for the great work thrown upon them. The prayer of the last half score of years for room has been wonderfully answered, and the blessing of Heaven is crowning the labors of workers with rich rewards.

Our other schools, 46 in all, normal and common, have met with favor on every hand, and have experienced uninterrupted progress throughout the year. At some of them the industrial work has been pushed forward with gratifying success. Attention has been given to household industries in two or three places. A class of girls at Memphis, Tenn., has been carefully instructed with actual practice in an experimental kitchen, on the nature, relative values, and healthful methods, of cooking food. Classes in needle work, knitting, and in the use of sewing machines, have had daily lessons and practice.

We have had in all 230 teachers in the field, a gain of 30 over last year. Of these, 14 have performed the duties of matrons and 15 have been engaged in the business departments.

The total number of students has been 9,108, a gain of 1,056 over the previous year. They were classed as follows: theological, 104; law, 20; collegiate, 91; collegiate preparatory, 131; normal, 2,342; grammar, 473; intermediate, 2,722; primary, 3,361; studying in two grades, 136.

Our normal and common schools, like our chartered institutions, are constantly sending up the call for more room. Permanent accommodations have been provided at some points and temporary ones at others. At Wilmington, N.C., by the gift of Hon. J. J. H. Gregory, the school building has been remodeled for the accommodation of a large number of students. A new mission home has also been built by the munificence of the same gentleman. At Athens, Ala., the colored people have done nobly toward furnishing material for the school-house now under process of construction. They have already made two hundred thousand bricks with their own hands, and are placing them in the walls to represent their interest in the property. It is hoped that the work will be completed by January 1st, and that Miss Wells, who has been Principal of the school for fifteen years, will be rewarded for her labor and patient waiting by ample accommodation for all the students who may seek the advantages of her excellent normal school.

During the year we have inaugurated work at Topeka, Kan., the chief rendezvous of the refugees, where a lot has been purchased and a building suitable for both church and school purposes erected. Divine services are held on the Sabbath. A Sabbath-school with an average attendance of 170 has been gathered, and a prosperous night-school sustained. Much good has been done by our missionary and others at this point in the distribution of supplies to the destitute, and by speeding them on their way to homes among the farmers and mechanics of the State. We have also resumed our church work at Lawrence, Kan., with good results.

Commencement days, or the closing exercises at our different institutions, are becoming more and more eventful as the years go on. One feature of especial interest at Hampton was the delivery of orations and the reading of papers by the alumni of the school. These displayed an amount of character and culture on the part of those who had been several years in the field since their graduation which was very gratifying.

Commencement day at Berea College is unlike any other in the South or elsewhere in the country. Hours before the exercises begin, the streets are thronged with hundreds of people, black and white, old and young, properly dressed or dressed in rags, some riding on the finest steeds produced in Kentucky, some on plough horses, mules and ponies, riding single, riding double, with a child or two between. The exercises are held in a large open tabernacle seating about three thousand persons. The building is usually decorated with mottoes and banners, with plants and flowers and miniature fountains. The college band furnishes the music. Not the least interesting is the basket dinner on the college campus. The fame of these days spreads far and wide for hundreds of miles, awakening an enthusiasm on the part of the young for an education, and winning words of praise and tokens of cheer from the very best people throughout the State.

At the Emerson Institute, Mobile, Ala., eight hundred people crowded into the Third Baptist Church to see and to hear of the work for themselves; while, at Montgomery, on the theory that what is good for a part is good for all, every scholar, from the least to the greatest, was given a speech. As there were more than three hundred to take part, the authorities decided that all the exercises should not be crowded into a single day. Consequently, in order that a good thing might last a good while, it was arranged to devote three evenings to the speaking.

The growing interest in these anniversary occasions all along the line of our work, the attendance of leading white citizens, and their readiness to occupy seats on the platform with our teachers and workers, the enthusiasm of the colored folks to throng in and catch every word that is uttered, all combine to lift up the work from the low place it has occupied among those at the South who have looked unfavorably upon it, and to magnify in the minds of the colored people, who have struggled so hard to send their children to school, the dignity and importance of Christian education. With a few more years of progress like the past, our educational work will outrun and leave behind the obstacles and the enemies which have stood in its way during the past years, and God is speeding the day.

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CHURCH WORK.

Our Church Work is attaining a steady and healthful growth. We do not seek to force the founding of churches where there is no urgent demand for them; while this might swell our rolls, it would only serve to weaken and discourage ultimately. Our purpose is to establish churches where there is sufficient intelligence and outlook to give reasonable hope that a Congregational church may do good service for the Master, not only by the benefit accruing to its own members, but also by its influence upon other and older churches that have not had the advantages of an educated ministry. Our whole number of churches is 78, being an addition of five over last year. These have been organized at Washington, D.C., Louisville, Ky., Little Rock, Ark., Thibadeaux, La., and Houma, La. The total number of church members is 5,472, a gain of 511 on last year. The number in Sabbath-school, 8,130, a gain of 1,806. New meeting houses have been constructed at Peteance, La., Little Rock, Ark., Lassiter’s Mills, N.C., and Wilmington, N.C. At the latter place a tasteful structure, with accommodations for 400, was provided by the gift of Hon. Mr. Gregory, at a cost to him of $3,600, and dedicated with fitting ceremonies, which were heartily participated in by the leading white clergymen of the city. Church buildings are under process of erection at Caledonia, Miss., Luling, Tex., Frausse Point, La. Parsonages have also been built at Florence, Ala., Flatonia, Tex., and houses for the Presidents at Tougaloo, Miss., and Talladega, Ala.

The material prosperity of our churches indicated by these statements is very encouraging, but the spiritual activity and growth is far more so. More than one-third of our churches have reported revivals, with conversions numbering from seven to forty-four, resulting in a large number of accessions to the churches.

Our church work is gradually creating a demand for the services of the students graduating at theological departments under our supervision at Howard University, Talladega College, Fisk and Straight Universities, and these are taking the places of white clergymen from the North in many localities.

The growing interest in theological seminaries for Freedmen is happily illustrated by the gift of $25,000 to us, for endowment of the theological department at Howard University.

We have seven State Conferences, embracing the most of the territory occupied by our schools and churches. These hold annual conventions, at which large numbers assemble.

The Alabama Conference has associated with it a woman’s missionary society, which reports the operation of its auxiliaries in different parts of the State. It is an active, hard-working and successful society, that does great credit to the missionary workers connected with it. This Conference also has a Sabbath-school convention representing many county organizations, and the Sabbath-school interests of the State. The meetings of this Conference, as well as those of the others, exert a beneficent and wide-spread influence, which serves not only to cement, but to make active and strong, the Congregational church work at the South.

The movement made a few years since on the part of a few leading ladies at the North to send forth female missionaries to labor in the homes of the poor and destitute colored people, and to assist otherwise for their temporal and spiritual improvement, has met with marked approval and encouraging success. We have commissioned eleven in all during the past year, and their reports have been full of interest. We believe the work they have been doing is a vital necessity, and that it should be extended as rapidly as may be consistent with the other interests we have in charge.

It is fitting before bringing to a conclusion the report of our operations among the Freedmen, that proper recognition be made of the improved sentiment among the whites at the South relative to our work. We entered the South with right principles. We did not inquire especially what was good policy, but what was required by justice, and what was consistent with righteousness. To promote these ends our missionaries were ready to sacrifice, if need be, their lives. They never advanced to retreat, but to conquer. Amidst hardship, ostracism and poverty, they toiled on; the Southern people watched them; little by little they came to recognize their worth; they saw massive structures rear themselves in choice locations in the great capital cities of the South. They were led to recognize the ability and integrity of the self-denying workers, who pursued their toilsome way in leading young Freedmen up to Christian manhood and womanhood; they saw church after church founded with a pure and educated ministry; some of the best of them ventured to visit the teachers and their schools. The work grew on. The children who had been under the care of leading white citizens in service or in household, exhibited the value of the work done so strikingly as to remove all doubt of the purpose and success of the teachers from the North. United States Senators, the Governors of States, Legislative bodies and companies of good men, out of interest, out of patriotism, out of curiosity sometimes, attended anniversary occasions, and lent their interest and gave their influence to promote the welfare of the institutions under our care. The result of it all has been to emphasize and establish the principles with which we started out, and to revolutionize the sentiment of many leading minds throughout the Southern country; and now halls of legislation and portions of the press of the South sparkle with sentiments that would do honor to Northern patriots, who battled early for the existence and success of this Association. Governor Brown of Georgia wins his election to the United States Senate after affirming before the Legislature, “We must educate the colored race. They are citizens, and we must do them justice.”

Governor Holliday, of Virginia, who lost an arm in the Confederate service, comes forward and makes good use of the other in expressive gestures while urging the claims of the colored people for education at the anniversary at Hampton.

General Humes, a Major-General in the Southern army, consents to give the oration at the anniversary of the Le Moyne Institute, and conveys assurances of the active sympathy of the best citizens of Memphis for the work carried on; while Dr. Atticus G. Haygood, the President of Emory College, bursts forth with the exclamation, “Suppose these Northern teachers had not come, that nobody had taught the negroes, set free and citizens, the South would have been uninhabitable by this time. Some may resent this; be it so, they resent the truth.”

The utterances of the press are not less significant. An editorial in the Memphis _Appeal_ affirms: “The Southern States have too long stood aloof and allowed the stranger to do for the negro what they should have done themselves.” “There is but one thing for the people of the South to do, and this is, to throw themselves into the work of educating the negro. We must go forward, and must take the negro by the hand and make him feel that he is a part of the great column of the people.” The Nashville _American_, the most influential paper in the State, through its leading editor, in giving a report of the anniversary of Fisk University, goes on to say: “In the labor of regeneration of a race, no agency will have so high a place as this conservative school.” The Vicksburg _Herald_ strikes another note on the gamut and illustrates a change of sentiment on this wise, in response to a narrow-minded, complaining correspondent: “We are heartily in favor of the South from the Potomac to the Rio Grande being thoroughly and permanently Yankeeized. Yankee energy, Yankee schools, Yankee cultivation, Yankee railroads and Yankee capital are badly needed in the South, and will be welcomed by every Southern progressive patriot.”

We believe there is nothing to hinder this tidal wave of better feeling from sweeping the entire South. For our part, we have only to hold on and press on.

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AFRICA.

The development of the work among the Freedmen, the interest taken in African civilization by the most thoughtful people in the country at large, and the enthusiasm awakened among the blacks for the land of their ancestors, constantly remind us of the call we have for mission work in Africa. We have paid much attention to the consideration of this call. In accordance with the suggestion of the last Annual Meeting, we have appointed a Superintendent of African Missions, not only to supervise the work we have carried on so long on the West Coast, but to lay the foundations of the Arthington Mission on the Upper Nile. Great care was taken in selecting a Superintendent, resulting in the choice of Rev. Henry M. Ladd, the son of a missionary, who spent the first sixteen years of his life in the East, after which he came to this country, pursued a course of study and entered the ministry at Walton, N.Y. Mr. Ladd left America for the Mendi Mission in February, reaching the West Coast the last of March. He made a careful examination of the methods of missionary work at Freetown, Sierra Leone, under the care of our British brethren, and afterward proceeded to Good Hope Station, where we have a church and school. Mr. Ladd was accompanied to Africa by Mr. Kelly M. Kemp and his wife, from Lincoln University. A council was called at Good Hope Station for the ordination of Mr. Kemp, and representatives of the Shengay and other missions were present. It was thought advisable that Mr. A. E. White, who had acted as teacher at this point, should return to America. He has since done so, and at present is pursuing his studies at Oberlin College, with a view of preparing himself for better service on the mission field. Mr. Nurse also retired from the mission, giving place to Bro. Kemp, whose experiences and education rendered himself a desirable person as pastor over the church at this point. After arranging details of affairs at Good Hope, Mr. Ladd visited the Avery Station, and was encouraged by the good work under the supervision of Mr. Jackson at this inland station.

Our saw-mill, being the only one on the coast, can be brought into service constantly. Logs are plentiful in the neighborhood, and the people are willing to work. The coffee farm at Avery shows signs of progress, and very soon we may hope for a yield that will test the value of the experiment. The church and school have been kept up, much attention being given in the church to rigorous discipline, where the members had inclined too strongly toward the barbarous customs of the heathen about them. We have long felt the need of a business superintendent to manage the affairs of the mill and farm at Avery, to take care of the property at Good Hope and Debia, and to keep the temporary home at Freetown in readiness for the missionaries on their way to and fro. Mr. I. J. St. John, a man of considerable experience in business affairs, has been appointed to fill this position. In common with other missionary societies, laboring for the redemption of Africa, we find that where there are no roads or domestic animals, but many rivers, a suitable steamer would be quite serviceable in promoting the interests of our civilizing operations, and in adding to the comfort of our missionaries. We believe we ought to provide such a steamer for the Mendi Mission as early as possible, and our appeals are already out for $10,000 as a special fund for this purpose.

We were saddened early in the summer by the unexpected death of Rev. Mr. Kemp, which was followed soon after by the death of his wife, just as they were settling down to the life work they had chosen. Both of these dear missionaries were unavoidably exposed in open boats to the bad influences of the climate. By their death they illustrate our need of more speed and better shelter in transporting missionaries from station to station.

We have appointed Rev. J. M. Williams, a native of South America and an experienced worker in Africa, to carry on the work at Kaw Mendi, the first station occupied on the return of the Amistad captives.

Rev. J. M. Hall, a graduate of Maryville College and of the Theological Department of Howard University, has consented to fill the place vacated by the death of Mr. Kemp, and he, with Mr. St. John, left America in October for the mission.

Three lads from the Mendi country are at school in America, one at Fisk University, and the others at Hampton Institute.

Early in December, Mr. Robt. Arthington, of Leeds, Eng., signified his readiness to pay over the £3,000 he had pledged as a nucleus, provided we would plant a mission on the Upper Nile. Already Dr. O. H. White, Secretary of the Freedmen’s Missions Aid Society of London, had made good progress in securing £3,000 additional to Mr. Arthington’s pledge for the same purpose. It was evident to us that the $30,000 asked for from Great Britain toward the $50,000 fund for this mission would be speedily made up. As we had pledged ourselves to furnish $20,000 on condition that we received in all from Great Britain $30,000, the question of the establishment of the mission directly was thrown upon us. We felt that the call to us was to go forward, and Mr. Ladd’s services were secured at the earliest day possible with a view to this necessity. As the plan of sending forward two men to look over the mission field, select a site for the station, and to determine what supplies and facilities would be needful for the mission, fully met Mr. Arthington’s view, we determined to send forward Mr. Ladd early in the autumn for the purpose mentioned. We were happy, also, in securing the services of a former parishioner of Mr. Ladd, Dr. E. E. Snow, a physician of much experience, to accompany him on his journey. These two brethren left New York in September. They had provided themselves with a valuable letter from Secretary Blaine, instructing the Consul General of the United States at Cairo to further their object as much as he might be able. On their way they purposed to procure letters of introduction from the English Government, hoping thereby to be assisted in making favorable arrangements with the Khedive of Egypt for transportation to the field of their destination, and also for the privilege of using a steamboat on the waters of the Upper Nile. Their plan of route will be to visit Cairo, and proceed from thence to Souakim, on the Red Sea; from this point they will pursue a camel route a distance of 240 miles to Berber, where they hope to find steamboat facilities for the remainder of their journey. The point which they seek to reach is about 1,500 miles in a direct line south of the Mediterranean and near the mouth of the Sobat, where the people are in the depth of barbarism. It is the hope of your Committee that Brothers Ladd and Snow will be able to return in early summer, at which time Dr. Snow will devote himself to procuring a suitable steamer for mission purposes on the Nile, and other supplies and facilities needful for the comfort and success of the enterprise. Supt. Ladd will devote himself to organizing a suitable corps of missionaries for the Arthington mission, two of whom are already under appointment, with a view of proceeding up the Nile next autumn to their field of labor. Our African work is not without its hazards, its embarrassments and inevitable discouragements. We believe, however, that the good tidings of great joy must be preached to the millions of newly-discovered peoples in Central Africa, and that the negro race with which we have so much to do has an urgent and imperative call in this direction. We accept, therefore, cheerfully and prayerfully, our part of the burden, trusting that the many friends of the long despised and forgotten Africans will sustain us by their prayers and by their contributions, while we go forward as the Lord opens the way, performing our tasks as best we are able until the day shall dawn.

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THE INDIANS.